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The origins of Balto (1995) and a few thoughts about the real story

The sources for inspiration of the original 1995 movie are widely known. Simon Wells, the director of Balto, and Elana Lesser, the writer of Balto, mentioned that she was inspired by her father's and grandfather's tales since childhood about the heroic sled dog Balto, which saved sick kids of small town Nome.

That's where the segment with old Rosie and her granddaughter comes from,

although it is interesting that this segment wasn't in the original 1992 draft, written by Lesser, which started with Steele's race and ended with the aurora borealis in the form of a howling wolf. It was added only in 1994 draft. The idea to make Balto be a half-wolf was explained by the authors' wish to make the protagonist more interesting and to give him inner conflict and arc. How he denies his wolf part in the beginning of the movie, but to the end he realizes that exactly his wolf part is his strength, so he accepts it and succeeds in the end of the movie. And the White Wolf scene was this symbol of Balto's self-acceptance, how he becomes one with his wolf nature in the form of the metaphorical and magnificent White Wolf.

Although, before the 1995 movie there were various books (for example, Race Against Death 1975 book and Five True Dog Stories 1977 book), which portrayed Balto as a wolfdog with great sense of smell (well, the real Balto really used his nose to find the way to Nome during 1925 relay), so, it can also be the source of inspiration. From another side, in these books, even as a wolfdog, Balto was a working sled dog pretty long time already.

Among fictional literature of 1970s about Balto the closest one to the movie is this 1972 book. But it is just a funny coincidence, because they still are different, the movie's crew couldn't know about it, because the book never had English release or translation. The only similar aspects are Balto being a wolfdog and taking the inspiration from the real 1925 events. The book is closer to Jack London's White Fang, I'd say. Boris the goose, Balto's friend and father figure, could be inspired by Gunnar Kaassen, who supported the real Balto and decided to make him the leader against the will of others, against Seppala's order.

Also Rosie could be some kind of hommage to Kaassen, since she was Balto's only human friend and believed in him. She was the main reason, why Balto risked to travel in cold and dangerous wilderness for finding the sled team, he wanted to save the life of the only human that was kind to him in this entire town (notice, how in the darkest moment of despair, Balto cries and whispers "Rosie..." in the beginning of the White Wolf scene, thinking that all is lost, and he won't save her), and I recommend you to remember her line "I'd be lost without you".

As I mentioned previously, gloryhound Steele and especially his ignorant and arrogant musher, the famous champions of sled races for many years, were inspired by Leonhard Seppala (well, his dark and negative side, if to tell correctly), and in some senses Steele's path from Nome to Nenana can be a hommage to Seppala's and Togo's world record with title King of Trail. And also Steele was clearly based on Togo and Fox, the sled dogs from Seppala's team of champion race dogs (although, in contrast to Steele, Togo and Fox were good dogs, the problem was in their owner).

Later I'll explain, why I think so. Plus, the creators of Balto 1995 movie understood and brilliantly showed and handled the core of the real story — how the unexperienced newcomer dog became the leader of the sled team for the first time and, leading them through extremely dangerous places, saved the day, the children of Nome and showed own talents, becoming the famous hero without desire for any glory.

And how certain people didn't believe in this dog, trusting to the legendary champion and his champion dogs, which ironically later were overshadowed by Balto and his team and started to complain that Balto and his musher are gloryhound thieves. So, now about the elephant in the room. Let's talk about the real story of the 1925 relay? I have read the historical books on this topic, so I have something to say. All photos are either from the books on this topic or from free internet. "If it wasn't for Balto, I wouldn't be alive today" (c) Gunnar Kaassen Yes, that's what he told even after many decades to his niece about the small, stocky and heroic black dog, the mix of various sled dogs breeds (real Balto's ancestry contains Siberian Huskies, Samoyed dogs, Greenland dogs, Alaskan Malamutes and Sakhalin Huskies — and no wolves), which became the leader of the sled team for the first time, led the team in one of the deadliest Alaska areas in blinding and severe blizzard and successfully delivered the medicine to sick kids of Nome.

Despite the fact that several sled teams participated in the relay, where some dogs either died or were seriously injured, as well as their mushers, all dogs and drivers of this relay are heroes, Balto deserved the statue, glory, credit and the status of the hero. Not only because he did very well, running two parts of the relay and using his nose for finding the right path in the area he never was before, but also because if something happened with the sled team and the medicine box on this last part of the relay, all what previous teams did, risking their lifes, would be pointless. Balto saved the effort of the previous teams. Unfortunately, certain people denied to believe in Balto's accomplishments and maliciously tried to deprive him from either being a sole leader of the team or the leader in fact. And they even tried to demonize Balto and Kaassen, marking them as some "gloryhound villains", who stole glory from "the true heroes" and later were punished by "fair, good, rightful, divine Seppala and Togo". And this crap became stronger after the Disney released 2019 movie about Togo. And I hated this movie (despite awesome Willem Dafoe and beautiful sled dogs and the touching sequences with puppy Togo). And after reading the historical books about these events (The Race to Nome 1963 and The Cruellest Miles 2003, for example), including Seppala's memoirs (The Alaskan Dog Driver 1930), and after watching this documentary, I can confidently tell that I am not on the side of people, who mark Togo and Seppala as some forgotten true heroes, whose rightful glory was stolen. And, honestly, I am tired from all those, who push Togo and Fox into every hole. So, using the information from the books, I will kinda debunk some claims that are pretty common and strong among people especially after the 2019 movie. The problem is in public perception, because people enjoy stories about some forgotten true heroes, whose glory was stolen, and after some time they reclaim it. But the real story is way more complex and nuanced. And in some senses it is my hardest post, because I usually avoid making some historical-themed posts due to tons of nuances, layers and details. 1. How many dogs were in Balto's sled team? Both The Race To Nome and The Cruellest Miles confidently state that in Balto's team there were 13 dogs. However, for some reason certain books (Adventures of Balto 2006, for example) mentioned 12 dogs, and I can not for the life of me understand, why and where they got this information, if they used as the source the 1963 book. Plus, in his memoirs Seppala mentions... suddenly 14 dogs, so for other books it would make more sense to mention 14 dogs, right? Well, actually, no. Since the memoirs were made and published 5 years after the relay, Seppala could have bad memory about this (well, at this moment he cared about travelling with his sled dog team and reaching for the medicine and delivering it to Nome), not to mention that thirteen and fourteen sound pretty similar, so it could also be some mistake from editors or whatever. Another moment — Kaassen's arrival to Nome with the medicine. The video of their arriving was actually made a little bit after their arriving, but at the same day, i.e. in the morning of 2nd February. I re-watched the sequence of their arrival for like 300+ times, my eyes were a bit hurted due to low quality of the video, but they survived, and after this I can confidently say that exactly 13 dogs were in Gunnar's team. Neither 14 nor 12, but exactly 13. In Balto's team there were 13 dogs.

Really, exactly 13 dogs, not 14 or 12 or whatever. 2. Who was the true leader of Kaassen's team? Many people (especially after 2019 movie) started to insist that Balto is a fake, that Balto ran in pair with Fox, and exactly Fox was the leader of Kaassen's team and the true hero, but he had regular and confusing name, so reporters decided to call Balto as the leader and the hero due to his unusual name, and Balto got the fame due to the stupid and undeserved luck. Well... that's not true.

First of all, before how we dive into this rabbit hole, can someone tell me, how the hell Fox looked like? The Cruellest Miles described Fox as a brown-and-black husky, but that's it, no photos. Is that Fox? And I doubt they are in pair, here it's pretty hard to tell. And this video was made way after the relay.

Or this dog is Fox? In the first photo the black-and-white husky is right behind Balto and in pair with another dog. Second photo was made waaay later, in USA, and presumably there are only 8-10 dogs.

Or maybe this dog is Fox? But this dog is not in pair with Balto, this dog is in pair with another black-and-white dog behind the man, and you can notice its paws.

And most likely exactly this same dog is on this photo, just looks at the dogs behind.

I think, what confused people, this exact documentary video, which, due to low quality, can give impression that Balto allegedly runs in pair with this big dog. But if you look closer, you'll notice that Balto runs as a sole leader. You can notice long harness behind him on the snow, he just runs here pretty slow and calmly, as well as other dogs, i.e. they run not in full speed. They just run very close to each other, while the light-fur dog (presumably Fox) runs right behind Balto with another black (or dark-grey) dog, and both Fox and the dark-furred dog and others are on the short harnesses. "Fox" and another dark dog in this case are swing dogs, they run behind the leader (in this case Balto), keeping the discipline in the sled team and helping during the run especially with turns. I.e. after Balto, the leader and the main dog, Fox and his partner in pair are the most important and responsible dogs in the team.

Plus, maybe it will be surprise for someone, but Seppala NEVER claimed that Balto ran in pair with Fox. At some time he insisted on Fox being the real leader, but later he changed his mind. In his memoirs 1930 he himself said, acknowledging Balto as the leader: "As to the leader, it was up to the driver who happened to be selected to choose any dog he liked, and he chose Balto". So, how the idea of either Fox being a sole leader or Balto co-leading the team with Fox came to be? The idea with "running in pair" was a speculation from reporters, born due to misinterpretation of Seppala's words and later from his memoirs. Hence now let's dive deeper. The confusion comes from Seppala's words he told to reporters in USA in early-1927. He insisted that Fox was the true leader of the team, not Balto, and he wanted more credit for Fox. The thing is that Fox was one of Seppala's best and fastest race dogs from Togo's team, and he left Fox as a temporary leader for the team of the working slow dogs for Kaassen, if there will be any need to use them especially for transporting the medicine box (Seppala mentioned that in his memoirs). Seppala adviced to Kaassen to use Fox as the leader for this team, Fox initially was planned to be the leader of this team, but Kaassen ignored Seppala's order and chose Balto as the leader of this team, because he liked Balto and trusted to Balto, he wanted to give Balto chance in contrast to Seppala. That is it. That's the answer and the explanation. Plus, Kaassen always praised exactly Balto both after the arriving with the antitoxin in 1925 and after many decades he praised exactly Balto, pointing out that this dog saved his life. While Seppala simply thought that Fox still ran as the leader, but reporters chose Balto due to unusual name, 'cause in his eyes Balto was just a slow stocky scrub dog without any talents. And having experience with Togo, which was born small, weak and sick and rejected puppy, but grew up into one of the best, the fastest and the most loyal to the one specific owner dogs, becoming Seppala's favourite and the embodiment of the perfect sled race dog and Siberian husky, Seppala should know that a dog can open its abilities to a certain human. So, in this case, Balto wasn't as fast as Seppala's champion race dogs, but he still was fast and tough enough and opened own abilities to Gunnar Kaassen in the relay. Kaassen gave the chance to Balto and believed in him. Kaassen was timid and calm man, tender to his family, and he didn't like to be on public or on stage, he just did his work without desire to be famous, even after becoming hero he praised Balto and also other dog drivers.

And yes, you get it right. Seppala wasn't in Nome during Kaassen's arrival with the medicine box, hence he couldn't see and know, he mentions nobody who could tell him about this. He was pretty okay with Kaassen travelling in USA with Balto and the team. But after Balto got the statue, Seppala was pissed off and then sold Balto and his team (yes, he himself confirms that in his memoirs, he sold the team, not Kaassen — and I have no idea, why The Cruellest Miles failed to mention that), while Kaassen was ordered to leave the dogs here and to return to Nome, i.e. Kaassen had no idea, what horrible things the dogs will experience, and he couldn't take away at least only Balto. The thing is that Seppala was embittered and jealous, because Balto got the statue instead of Seppala's favourite champion Togo, and only after this and getting rid of Balto he started to insist on Fox and pretty much after this he arrived with Togo for getting medals and tourne in 50+ cities etc, where he boasted to other people, portraying Togo's bad health as some kind of sacrifice for the sake of children. Keep in mind, Seppala was also a dog breeder, he also used Togo for breeding, and Fox was from Seppala's champion team, hence Fox most likely wasn't neutered in contrast to Balto and his working sled dog team, and hence Fox was used for breeding too. I don't want to speculate, but... it seems Seppala was outrageous also because of unability to get more money from "the pups of the heroic champion dog he raised and trained".

Simply saying, Balto was the leader of his team, Balto was the sole leader of his team. Fox was the swing dog that ran behind Balto. The confusion and stupid controversy started due to Seppala and his resentment that his favourite champion didn't get the statue, so he made everything to ruin Balto and his reputation. Yes, years after he acknowledged Balto as the leader and distanced himself from these stupid accusations, telling that he doesn't want to devalue the huge effort of all mushers and dogs in this 1925 relay, but it will never excuse the controversy he created and his decision to sell Balto and his team. Seppala could get the glory as the owner of both Balto and Togo and other dogs, as the legendary dog driver, The King of Trail, who made sled dog races popular, and as a dog breeder, who raised such heroes and who made Siberian Huskies the breed, with tons of awesome accomplishments he did before this relay. But he was too petty and gloryhound to think about it. That's very sad. 3. Balto's accomplishments. Like, some people unironically think and tell that Balto's path was very easy and without any problems or hard areas. In reality, Balto used his nose for finding the path to Nome in blinding blizzard and at night. He led the team in a large plateau with deep snow, where strong winds shifted, blew away and even overturned sleds, and where the medicine box was almost lost forever, crossed slippery lagoons etc. At night, Balto saved Kaassen and the team from drowning in Topkok river and, using his nose, led them in Topkok mountain, which is the one of the deadliest places during the night and snowstorm — in 1914 Seppala himself was near death in Topkok mountain during his sled race from Nulato to Nome. 4. The case with Ed Rohn. Some people unironically think that Gunnar Kaassen wanted to get the all glory and intentionally bypassed Ed Rohn, who should run the final part of the relay to Nome. And it is again pure nonsense. The nonsense from jealous people for most part, I guess. Kaasen ran the two last of the relay, he didn't know that the relay was stopped for a day due to the severe snowstorm that became worse and worse, he didn't get the message about it, he already accidentally outran Solomon, where he should wait the last musher (plus, due to deteriorating weather the telephone connections were worsened, so people worried, whether he got the message or not — Kaassen didn't get the message as I explained earlier), nobody waited him, another (the last) musher Ed Rohn slept, 'cause he got a message and thought that Gunnar will wait him in Solomon. Kaassen ran the last part of the relay, 'cause he knew that there will be lot of time for harnessing dogs etc. Kaassen risked and moved to Nome, bringing the medicine successfully. So, now about Togo and Seppala. The entire premise "Togo is the true hero and deserves credit and statue, because he ran the longest and the deadliest part" is the pure manipulation and stretch. For many reasons. Seppala and Togo were very experienced, they many times ran in Norton Sound before, they many times travelled and crossed Norton Sound before, they explored all Alaska and had lots of awesome accomplishments (various records, tons of winnings in sled races, making sled races popular, dog breeding, help to police in catching a criminal, outrunning a train). As well as they many times ran from Nome to Nulato and back to Nome, and they many times ran from Nome to Nenana and back, their record in Nome-to-Nenana was 13 days, so Seppala became The King of Trail. So, their run in the relay of 1925 wasn't something extraordinary or unique in contrast to what they did before.

From one side, Seppala and Togo's team initially should run solely from Nome to Nulato, get the medicine from the musher, who initially should run from Nenana to Nulato, and return to Nome solely with the medicine. It made sense, because Seppala was the fastest and the most experienced dog driver, who made long distances for short time, but since the weather became worse and worse, the several mushers were added as well — honestly, the organizers should do this from the beginning instead of choosing the two mushers (and since they decided to do it, they should pay to them more money compensation). Yep, you get it right — if not for the weather, it would end this way, and Seppala and Togo would become famous heroes with tons medals, statue, movies etc. From another side, the Norton Sound aka Norton Bay, for which Seppala will boast as "a true hero, who made the most hazardous part of the relay and has to get the credit for" later. Yes, Seppala just crossed the Norton Sound twice without any problems. First time at the morning without the medicine box and the second time at the afternoon with the medicine box. The thing is that it wasn't planned to be, it wasn't something Seppala was ordered to do, forced to do or discussed to do. It was HIS and ONLY HIS decision. Seppala didn't notify about this anybody. Seppala himself decided to cross the Norton Sound, nobody knew about it, nobody asked him to do this, he himself risked, it was solely his decision. And okay, he crossed it one time in the relay, he's lucky that he's alive, but no, he decided WITH THE MEDICINE BOX to cross this place AGAIN. And after this stupid and deadly risk that could kill him, Togo and his team and also ruin the relay with loss of the box he will boast that he is the hero and that his exhausted Togo is the hero, who sacrificed own health for the sake of sick kids, and deserves the statue.

I just applause to this guy. With tons of awesome archievements and accomplishments, records and respect he is a biased and gloryhound guy, who was jealous and embittered that he wasn't that hero, whose dog got the statue and large fame. And now about certain moments, portrayed in the 2019 movie as the ones, which happened to Togo's team in the relay of 1925. First of all, the movie shows how Togo saved Seppala and the team from falling at the edge of Topkok mountain, the movie portrays that as the event, happened exactly in 1925 during the relay. That's not true.

This event happened with Seppala in 1914 during his race from Nulato to Nome, he was near death in Topkok mountain, but the husky-malamute mix named Suggen, who was the leader of this team and also Togo's father, saved Seppala. And Seppala confirms Suggen's heroic deed in his memoirs, later The Cruellest Miles book states that as well. Second, the swimming on the ice floe, and how Togo saves the team, pulling the rope with the ice floe to the beach. The movie portrays this event, as if it happened during the relay of 1925, when they delivered the medicine box.

That's not true. The dangerous adventure on the ice floe, and how Togo saves Seppala and the team, happened way BEFORE 1925 serum relay. Seppala himself mentioned in his memoirs that this event happened a few years before the 1925 serum run, same thing with The Cruellest Miles (The Race to Nome never mentions this event at all, it describes only how Seppala and Togo's team crossed Norton Sound twice without problems).

So, yes, 2019 movie tried really hard to make Seppala and Togo some divine perfect awesome heroes, who were forgotten, and whose credit and glory were maliciously stolen. In reality we have the example, how the popular and legendary champion guy, respected by others for years due to certain cool (and really awesome) archievements and hence initially seen as the hero, in fact was gloryhound and embittered person, while some calm worker (both the man and the dog) acted like the hero and became the hero, not wanting the fame and just doing his job for saving the children. Despite 1995 movie is fully fictional story about the underdog-outcast "From zero to hero" with talking animals, inspired by the real events and told as a fable from the perspective of the grandmother to her child about her own childhood, there's tons of parallels with the real story, so in own way the 1995 movie is very close and faithful to it, it understood and showed the core and the theme of the real events. It understands the material and shows the important.

The real story is way more complex and nuanced, there's tons of details, it was interesting and immersive journey and diving into this, as well as discussing it with friends. And than more I dived into this, than more I became furious at 2019 movie's creators and current public perception of these events. As I said once, all dogs and mushers of this deadly relay are heroes and should be remembered, because, surprise, the main and the most important thing is that they saved the families and especially the children of Nome from death. While Balto and Kaassen saved their effort, these two had the huge responsibility and, crossing the deadliest lands of storming Alaska, they succeeded, so after arriving Kaassen even said "All credit is Balto's. Damn fine dog.". As well as he mentioned other mushers of this relay.

IMHO, the statue should depict either the whole sled dog team, hence every sled team is immortalized here, or only Balto, and how the names of all dogs and mushers, who participated in the relay, were engraved on his harness, i.e. Balto is both a hero and the symbol of all the heroes of this relay. P.S. It's funny to imagine, how Steele tries to claim that he's the true hero just because he is way older than Balto and ran the longest part of Nenana-Nome path...

As well as funny to imagine, how his injured musher is in total "WTF?" after getting medical help, since he probably didn't realize that he said "Good boy" to Balto.

But who knows. I hope, Steele's musher learned the lesson and was grateful to Balto.

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