Alaska Kids Calling Heroic Sled Dog Home

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Balto, come home.

Alaska schoolchildren are petitioning a Cleveland museum to return the stuffed remains of Balto, the sled dog that led the last leg of a heroic 1925 relay to bring lifesaving diphtheria serum to Nome.

But officials at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History are adamant.

“The dog is not going to be returned,” director James King said.

Nome was in the throes of a deadly epidemic at the time of the dog-sled relay, and Balto was hailed as a hero. The run later became the inspiration for the Anchorage-to-Nome Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

The stuffed dog has resided at the museum since the 1930s. But youngsters at Butte Elementary School north of Anchorage have launched a drive to bring him home.

“People in Cleveland have done real well by this dog. But it’d be nice to have him back home,” said Dwight Homstad, a second-grade teacher.

The second- and third-graders have written letters to Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles and local legislators and are drafting a plea to the museum.

Persuading the museum to part with a piece of its collection could prove as difficult as winning the Iditarod.

Every other year, Balto is displayed in the lobby along with an old-style sled and information about the serum run as part of Cleveland’s winter festival.

Although Balto’s roots are in Alaska, the dog has strong connections to Ohio.

It was schoolchildren in Cleveland who helped raise money to rescue a live Balto and his six teammates from a California man who was exhibiting them in a “dime-a-look” museum. The dogs were described as sick and mistreated before being taken to their new home at Cleveland’s Brookside Zoo.

Six years later, Balto died. He was stuffed and mounted, and taken to the museum.

“The kids will be disappointed if it doesn’t come home,” Homstad said.