A legend out of the common

For several decades, the visitors of Central Park, one of the largest parks in New York , can admire a bronze statue, the only one in the city to the effigy of a dog. It represents Balto, this husky which made the pride of the American nation in the middle of the Twenties...

Born in 1923 in the small town of Nome, in Alaska, Balto spends the first two years of its existence to carry food for the minors. He was considered as a dog rather slow and very little suited for this work.

At the beginning of 1925, the diphteria, a fatal disease which attacks the children, develops in the village. Serum is required in urgency of all the hospitals in the neighbourhood. By telegram, the authorities learned that there is some remaining in the town of Anchorage, at more than 1000 miles from there. But how to convey the cargo until Nome?


The blizzard which blows in violent gusts prevents from using the plane. It is decided that a train will be used to transport the serum to Nenana... but not further, due to the lack of railroad. However, Nenana is more than thousand kilometers from Nome. Only one solution is offered to the inhabitants: to make the way in sledge thanks to an attachment drawn by dogs.

Thus a score of crews takes the departure and faces the cold, the wind and snow. Many gived up in way: not easy indeed to find its road in the middle of white landscapes! The first which arrived at Nenana is Gunnar Kassen, whose team of huskys is directed by... Balto. But on the way back, the man, paralysed by the low temperatures, is unable to continue to guide its crew.

Whereas Gunnar Kassen lost any hope to save the children of Nome, Balto, which remembers the way, starts to lead the sledge, and brings back at full speed its team, as well as the invaluable loading, to come safe into port. At their return in the village, the dogs are too much exhausted to be able to bark, but at least, the serum can be used to cure the patients.

Dazzled by such a miracle, the press seizes the story and makes Balto the new hero of the nation. This one appears on the covers of newspapers all around the world, and at the end of the year, a statue, carved by F.G. Roth, is set up in Central Park, with these words: "Endurance - Fidelity - Intelligence"

The way crossed by the husky gives place to an annual race of sledge which continued until 1973. And today the name of Balto, and its incredible history, remain still quite present, in the memory of young and old...