Central Park canine statue The Central Park canine statue of Balto is located northwest of the Children?s Zoo, near the Willowdell Arch in the southeastern part of the park. The quickest route is to enter from Fifth Avenue at East 67th Street near the East Drive. Central Park is New York City?s 843-acre breath of fresh air and the statue is one of 51 statues, fountains, monuments and sculptures within its borders. The story behind the sculpture is one of heroism. True heroism is where deeds are not calculated, they just happen in the course of a day's work. The place was Nome, Alaska. The setting, that of a terrible diphtheria epidemic that had already taken several children and a lack of serum. Called the Serum Run of 1925, the Central Park canine statue commemorates the efforts of a team of Siberian huskies led by a half-breed wolf-husky named Balto. The team's musher, Gunnar Kaasen, was snow blind by the end of their 53-mile run through the 60 degree below zero and 70 mph blizzard. Balto saved his musher and brought the team and the serum safely from Nenana into Nome, where the serum was used to stop the epidemic. The Central Park canine statue is a life-sized bronze figure of Balto, shown panting, braced against the wind with the dogsled harness hanging from his back. Frederick George Richard Roth (1872-1944), a noted animal sculptor, mounted the finished bronze on native rock. Beneath Balto is a plaque that reads: Dedicated to the indomitable spirit of the sled dogs that relayed antitoxins 660 miles over rough ice, across treacherous waters, through Arctic blizzards from Nenana to the relief of stricken Nome in the Winter of 1925." After the successful serum transport, the newspapers across the U.S. sensationalized the story and Balto and his handler were famous. They toured the entire country, retelling the story of the hardship run. Their fame soon faded and the animals were sold to a vaudeville act. In 1927, a Cleveland businessman found the animals in poor health in Los Angeles. Word spread, Cleveland schoolchildren brought their pennies, raised donations and bought the team, bringing them back to Cleveland. Balto died in 1933 and was permanently mounted in the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. So, Ohio has Balto and New York has the Central Park canine statue of Balto. Now, the controversy is over whether Balto's remains shouldn't be at the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race museum in Wasilla, Alaska. After all, it was the Serum Run that led to the formation of the Iditarod! Cleveland isn't so sure, since Balto spent over half his life with them. Meanwhile, the Central Park canine statue of Balto continues to survey the terrain, looking off into the distance. |
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