Balto: The Last Mile to Nome

October 1, 2026

The true story of the sled dog who carried medicine into a dying town through a blizzard, became the most famous dog in America, and was almost forgotten.

A dog nobody picked first

Balto was a Siberian Husky, born in 1919 in the kennels of Leonhard Seppala, the most famous musher in Alaska. Seppala's best dogs, Togo among them, were bred to lead. Balto was not one of them. He was a sturdy, dark-coated working dog, used mostly for hauling freight. Seppala thought of him as a "scrub", a dog for the back of the team.

Nobody expected his name to end up in history.

The winter Nome nearly died

In January 1925, diphtheria broke out in Nome, Alaska. The disease attacks the throat, and it kills children first. Nome's doctor had only a small supply of old antitoxin serum, and it was not enough.

The nearest fresh serum was in Anchorage, almost a thousand miles away. A train could bring it as far as Nenana. After that, there were still about 674 miles of frozen wilderness between the medicine and Nome. Planes could not fly in that cold. The sea was frozen. There was only one way left.

Dogs.

The Great Race of Mercy

Twenty mushers and about 150 dogs were organised into a relay across Alaska. Each team would carry the serum, wrapped in fur and canvas, through its own stretch of trail, and hand it to the next.

The longest and most dangerous run went to Seppala and his twelve-year-old lead dog, Togo: more than 260 miles, much of it across the frozen sea of Norton Sound.

The final stretch, from Bluff to Nome, went to a Norwegian musher named Gunnar Kaasen. For lead dog, he chose Balto.

Into the blizzard

Kaasen and his team set out from Bluff on the night of February 1st into one of the worst storms of the winter. Temperatures fell far below zero. The wind was so strong it flipped the sled. The snow was so thick that Kaasen later said he often could not see the dogs right in front of him.

Balto could not see much either. But he could feel the trail under his paws. Again and again, he kept the team on it.

At one point, the sled overturned and the serum was thrown into the snow. Kaasen had to dig for it with his bare hands, in the dark, until he found it.

When they reached Point Safety, the next team was not ready, so Kaasen kept going.

Dawn in Nome

At about 5:30 in the morning on February 2nd, 1925, Kaasen's team came down Front Street in Nome. Balto was in front.

The serum had crossed about 674 miles in five and a half days. It was frozen solid, but once it thawed it worked. The epidemic was brought under control.

The most famous dog in America

Newspapers across the country told the story, and because Balto ran the final mile, the story became his. He was filmed, photographed and celebrated. In December 1925, just ten months after the run, a bronze statue of him was unveiled in Central Park, New York. Balto was there to see it.

Many in Alaska felt Togo had done the hardest work, and they were right. But Balto never asked to be the hero. He simply ran the miles he was given, through a storm nobody could see through.

Forgotten, and found

Fame did not last. Balto and his teammates were sold into a touring sideshow, and by 1927 they were living in poor conditions at a dime museum in Los Angeles.

There, a Cleveland businessman named George Kimble recognised him. He was shocked, and he went home and asked his city for help. In about ten days, the people of Cleveland, including schoolchildren with their pennies, raised the money to buy the dogs.

Balto and his teammates arrived in Cleveland to a parade, and spent the rest of their lives at the Brookside Zoo, cared for and visited by thousands.

The end of the trail

Balto died on March 14th, 1933, at about fourteen years old. His preserved body is still kept at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. His statue still stands in Central Park, where children climb on it every day, and its bronze back has been worn smooth by their hands.

Its plaque is dedicated to all the sled dogs who carried the serum to Nome, with three words for what they showed: endurance, fidelity, intelligence.

Why we still tell his story

Balto was not the strongest dog on the trail, or the most famous one in Seppala's kennel. He was the dog who happened to be in front when it was darkest, and who kept going when nobody could see.

Togo deserves to be remembered. So does Balto. Every story of the Serum Run is really a story about a team.

Balto at a glance

Born: 1919, in Leonhard Seppala's kennel, Alaska
Breed: Siberian Husky
Musher: Gunnar Kaasen
Famous for: leading the final leg of the 1925 Serum Run to Nome
Arrived in Nome: about 5:30 a.m., February 2nd, 1925
Died: March 14th, 1933, in Cleveland, Ohio
Remembered by: his statue in Central Park, New York (1925), and his preserved body at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History