While browsing through the historical archival images of global vaccination, I was struck by an image of a dog. A bronze dog sculpture stands in Central Park in Manhattan, New York City, which is currently one of the worst affected cities in the world by COVID-19.
Balto is the name of the dog whom the Central Park describes as “a bronzed hero, near the Tisch Children’s Zoo, who stands ready to accept hugs and offer rides to his admiring fans”.
To understand Balto (1919–33), we must first go back to 1925. A diphtheria outbreak in Alaska. And the Great Mercy Race.
On January 20, 1925, a diphtheria outbreak occurred in remote Nome, Alaska. Dr. Curtis Welch, a Nome physician, witnessed several children die from what he initially thought was tonsillitis. He noticed the white pseudomembrane of diphtheria as more children complained of sore throats.
Welch only had expired antitoxin because his 1924 shipment had not arrived. He sent a telegram requesting that antitoxin be mailed to him. Trains transported 300,000 antitoxin units from Anchorage to Nenana, which is 674 miles from Nome.To reach the children of Nome, the shipment would have to travel by dog sled.
During the winter, only dog teams could reach Nome via the Iditarod Trail, which was usually used to transport mail from Anchorage. The journey of twenty teams of mushers and sled dogs from Nenana to Nome captivated the country. The mushers had to stop several times along the way to warm the serum due to near-record low temperatures. Several dogs died during the journey. Several of the mushers became frostbitten. During the 1925 Serum Run, the 674-mile journey took only six days, whereas it usually took about a month to deliver the mail. When the serum was successfully delivered to the grateful citizens of Nome, Balto was the dog leading the team.
The antitoxin arrived in Nome on February 2, 1925, and Welch used it immediately to treat the many sick children in his hospital. He reported that five children had died, but he believed the death toll could have been higher because many native Alaskans may not have reported their deaths.
Balto and his team starred in the short film “Balto’s Race to Nome” just weeks after delivering the life-saving serum. In June 1925, the two-reel film was released. Except for a few studio stills, there is no known print of the film today. In the interim, a dispute between owners over unpaid wages resulted in a dog spending two years touring the country’s vaudeville circuit. The dogs were then relocated to a “dime” museum in Los Angeles, where they piqued the interest of Cleveland businessman George Kimble. His mission was to save Balto and his team of six.
Kimble reached an agreement with the dog’s owner to purchase them for $2,000. Kimble, on the other hand, had only two weeks to raise the funds. Radio broadcasts across the United States solicited donations. Cleveland’s reaction was ferocious. Schoolchildren gathered coins in buckets, factory workers passed their hats, and hotels, stores, and visitors contributed whatever they could. In just ten days, the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s headlines read, “Balto’s Fund Pushes the City to the Top! Huskies will be shipped from the coast all at once!”
Balto and his six companions were brought to Cleveland on March 19, 1927, and received a hero’s welcome in a triumphant parade through Public Square. The dogs were then transported to the Brookside Zoo (now known as the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo) to live out their lives with dignity. According to reports, 15,000 people came to see the dogs on their first day at the zoo.
Balto died at the age of 14 on March 14, 1933. The husky’s body was mounted and is now part of the permanent collection at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
Balto, meanwhile, is waiting for the young visitors to hug him in Central Park. Balto, sculpted by Frederick G. R. Roth, is a popular climbing statue among Central Park’s younger visitors, which is fitting given his backstory. The inscription on Balto’s statue reads:
“Dedicated to the indomitable spirit of the sled dogs that relayed antitoxin six hundred miles over rough ice, across treacherous waters, through arctic blizzards, from Nenana to the relief of stricken Nome in the winter of 1925. Endurance… Fidelity… Intelligence.”
Source: History of vaccines | Cleveland Museum of Natural History | Central Park Conservancy