Statue of Balto

Statue of Balto
Statue of Balto
	The statue in 2010
Artist	Frederick Roth
Year	1925
Subject	Balto
Location	New York City, New York, U.S.
	40°46′11.9″N 73°58′15.7″W / 40.769972°N 73.971028°WCoordinates: 40°46′11.9″N 73°58′15.7″W / 40.769972°N 73.971028°W

A bronze statue of Balto by Frederick Roth is installed in Central Park, Manhattan, New York. Balto (1919 – March 14, 1933) was a Siberian Husky and sled dog belonging to musher and breeder Leonhard Seppala.^[1]^[2] He achieved fame when he reportedly led a team of sled dogs on the final leg of the 1925 serum run to Nome, in which diphtheria antitoxin was transported from Anchorage, Alaska, to Nenana, Alaska, by train and then to Nome by dog sled to combat an outbreak of the disease.^[3]^[4]

Description and history[]

Located north of the Central Park Zoo near the intersection of East Drive and 67th Street, the sculpture was dedicated on December 17, 1925.^[5]^[6] Roth modeled the sculpture of Balto on a New Hampshire malamute named Chinook. A bas-relief rendering of the pivotal journey is carved into the pedestal. Balto himself was reportedly present at the ceremony.^[7] The statue is a popular attraction: children frequently climb the statue to pretend to ride on the dog.^[8] There is a plaque at the base of the statue, which 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".^[5]

References[]

^ Thomas, Bob. (2015). Leonhard Seppala : the Siberian dog and the golden age of sleddog racing 1908-1941. Thomas, Pat. Missoula, Montana: Pictorial Histories Publishing Company. ISBN 978-1-57510-170-5. OCLC 931927411.
^ Seppala, Leonhard. (2010). Seppala : Alaskan dog driver. Ricker, Elizabeth M. [Whitefish, Mont.]: [Kessinger Publishing]. p. 295. ISBN 978-1-4374-9088-6. OCLC 876188456.
^ Salisbury, Gay; Laney Salisbury (2003). The Cruelest Miles: The Heroic Story of Dogs and Men in a Race against an Epidemic. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. pp. 187. ISBN 0-393-01962-4.
^ Ingram, Simon (19 May 2020). "When a deadly disease gripped an Alaskan town, a dog saved the day – but history hailed another". National Geographic. Retrieved 14 March 2021.
^ ^a ^b "Central Park – Balto". New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. Retrieved 2020-02-23.
^ "Balto". www.centralpark.com. 2017-08-07. Retrieved 2020-02-23.
^ Dupré, Judith (2007). Monuments: America's History in Art and Memory (1st ed.). New York: Random House. p. 97. ISBN 978-1-4000-6582-0. OCLC 70046094.
^ "Balto". Attractions. Central Park.Com. Retrieved March 4, 2013.