“Balto” Hero OR VILLAIN?
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Please return this copy to the Bistro so others may share ~ “Balto” Hero or villain? Read along with us as we search for the truth about Balto. Was he the hero of this crazy race against nature and time? Or, was he just one of the 150 sled dogs in the journey to bring the lifesaving diphtheria serum to the children of Nome, Alaska? The quest to accomplish the mission was plagued with white-out conditions, gale-force winds, cracking ice, and temperatures of 60° to 70° below zero. Balto, the dog sled team leader certainly didn’t ask for the task. But at the urging of his musher, Gunnar Kaasen, Balto and his teammates were anxious to begin their journey. Gunnar knew that Leonhard Seppala and his dog Togo were also waiting for their chance to earn Hero status for their involvement in delivering the serum to Nome. The stage is ready and set to accommodate the true hero. Written and compiled by, Emmett (Don) Mason, Kentucky Colonel Mason’s Missives, 8/20/2020, Volume 29, Balto, Hero or Villain? 1 Forward It was years ago that I visited New York and fell in love with Manhattan and its Central Park, arguably one of the most famous parks in the world. The park sits on 840 acres of high-dollar land in Manhattan between 5th and 8th Avenue and 59th and 106th Street. Manhattan is the smallest of the five boroughs (a smaller city within the massive New York metropolitan area) but still manages to draw over 40 million visitors each year. If my memory serves me correctly it was on a warm summer day in 1927. I remember it well because I was so impressed by the Park Carousel, the beautiful Hallett nature sanctuary and the zoo with all of its exotic animals. Cleopatra’s Needle, an obelisk described as the oldest man-made object in the park, was originally erected in Egypt and moved to the Central Park in the late 1800s; not a small feat considering it was 69 feet tall and weighed over 220 tons. The park features twenty-one playgrounds, thirty-six ornamental bridges (no two alike) and twenty-nine statues. There is something to pique everyone’s interest. I was so intrigued by one of those statues, a shiny, bronze figure of Balto, an Alaskan Husky/Malamute sled dog that I decided to write this story. The exhibit was large enough that children were climbing onto the statue and pretending to ride the dog. I found the story behind the exhibit to be irresistible. I kept asking myself why this tribute to an Alaskan sled dog was placed so prominently in New York’s Central Park. Surely such a treasure belonged in Alaska near its place of triumph or accomplishment, and what exactly did this animal achieve that was worthy of such prominence? The question nagged at me to the point I began a research project to discover the connection, and reason that Central Park had a tribute to Balto. My study yielded very little information about Balto and his musher but returned an abundance of material making a strong case for Togo, the other contender for hero. I would be remiss if I revealed my discoveries at this early point. However, I can provide an answer to the question posed and lead you along the trail that I traveled. Please feel free to form your own conclusions and opinions. 2 Why was this statue placed in New York’s Central Park? The answer is because the residents of New York loved the story of the race against time and nature, and its canine participants. Consequently the dog lovers of New York raised money to commission a tribute to Balto, the Alaskan Malamute. The exhibit, pictured here, is located north of the Central Park Zoo near the intersection of East Drive and 67th Street. The sculpture was dedicated on December 17, 1925 and remains a popular attraction. The plaque at the base of the 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 Those descriptive words represent the personalities and traits of the Siberian husky breed. The following pages help support these words and give fact and veracity to the deeds accomplished by the husky sled dogs. Sled Dog Genealogy The presence of grey wolves in Asia nearly 15,000 years ago lend creditability to the theory that modern dogs evolved from the grey wolf. This is further supported by analyzing the DNA of the grey wolf and the domesticated Siberian Husky. Both species shared over 99% in their DNA comparisons. The descendants of the Husky are bigger and heavier than that of the wolves. The male Husky usually weighed 44 to 60 pounds with an average lifespan of 12 to 15 years. The male Malamute weighs ten to twenty pounds more than the average Husky. The females typically weighed in around 40 to 50 pounds, while standing 22 to 24 inches in height. The Huskies with their mild disposition blended well with the intelligence, alertness, outgoing and friendly personality of those in and around the northern Alaskan territories. The Huskies double coat also made them well suited for the frigid arctic environment. In general it can be said dogs are a distinct sub-species of the gray wolf that is different in both appearance and behavior from its wolf-cousins. Another large difference between the species is that wolves are wild and rely on their own skills for food, shelter and security, while the dogs, being domesticated must rely on their owner, trainer or handler for food and other necessities 3 Nome, Alaska in the Real Early Days Nome, Alaska’s history includes a 2000 year period when it was used and cultivated by the various Eskimo communities. That era basically ended in 1865 when Nome was beginning to be developed as a small fourteen acre plot of land situated along the Bering Sea located on the south coast of the Seward Peninsula. The northerly-facing land was later to be developed into an Eskimo community. This new young community was settled in the Cape Nome Recording District and was populated by the Maemilult, Kauweramiut and Unalikmiut Eskimo Tribes. When founded, Nome was isolated nearly 540 miles Northwest of Anchorage and only accessible by foot or dog sled. Later, the water port was developed enough to receive some passengers and cargo by ship during the summer months and (much later) by air with the completion of a make shift runway following the development of air travel. The harsh winter weather usually forces the closure of the local shipping lanes and nearby aircraft runways for a period of seven to eight months. Nome’s winter is about seven months long. When the Bering Sea freezes at the end of October, Nome is cut off from Seattle, the nearest port. During the 1920s, there was no air service; experimental mail flights were restricted to the summer months. The only usable route in winter is a dogsled trail through Alaska’s interior to the ice-free ports in the southeast. When the last boat before the freeze unloaded its cargo and steamed away it left the people of Nome to care for each other through the winter. The hours of daylight vary with the season; such as October 11 hours and May about 18 hours. The Eskimo people and their primitive culture continued to thrive for over a thousand years. However, around 1870 the number of Caribou (their main source of food) on the Nome Peninsula was in a rapid decline. The decrease of their readily available food source led to a mass relocation of Eskimos moving back toward the Alaska mainland. The economic conditions changed considerably in 1898 with the discovery of Gold in the small Anvil Creek area of Nome. The discovery was attributed to Jalet Lindeberg, Erik Lindblom and John Brynteson. From that date the three young men were referred to as the “Three Lucky Swedes”. The following spring when word of their Gold discovery reached Dawson city, the jumping off point for travelers heading north to Nome, it brought with it a surge of over 10,000 would-be prospectors, gamblers, and claim jumpers. Of course, the saloon keepers, prostitutes and ne'er-do-wells were at the front of the line. Each of them had a personal plan to strike it rich in their own way. Greed and gold spurred them onward to depart Dawson on the terrible trip to Nome and its unknown environment. Each individual was urged on by the prize they hoped to achieve in their search for riches and fame. The trip, almost one thousand miles of unbearable travel and 50° below zero weather conditions lay in front of each unsuspecting traveler. 4 The new arrivals were completely unprepared for the harsh weather and living conditions. Almost overnight an isolated stretch of tundra fronting the beach was transformed into a tent-and- log cabin city of prospectors. Most of them had set up tents on the flat beach area, (seen here) only to have them blown away by the fierce storms. Consequently they migrated inland hoping to find some relief and stability in their lives. By the end of the next year the number of prospectors on the Nome coastline had exceeded twenty thousand. Nome now contained fully one-third of the white population in Alaska, making it the territory’s largest city; with thousands of individuals hunting for the elusive prize, Gold.