In 2001, a New York author called me in search of information about Balto, the famous sled dog. It wasn’t exactly Balto that Laney Salisbury was asking about, but the dog’s musher.

Gunnar Kaasen and his dog Balto, the heroic dog-sled team leader, sit for a portrait in the early 1920s. They were part of a group of mushers and sled dogs that braved frigid conditions to bring ...

Now, 100 years later, Nome is remembering its saviors, the sled dogs and mushers who raced hundreds of miles to deliver its cure. ... Balto was another of Seppala’s dogs, ...

But their musher, Gunnar Kaasen, eventually tired of being shackled to Balto, and the dogs were sold to a dime-a-peek circus/freak show. The world's most heroic dog ended up chained to a sled in a ...

“These mushers got their teams ready and went, even though it was really cold and challenging conditions on the trail.” FILE – Gunnar Kaasen poses with his original dog team, including his lead dog ...

FILE – The statue erected to honor “Balto” and other heroic sled dogs who carried serum to Nome, Alaska, through an Arctic blizzard is covered in snow in New York’s Central Park, Dec. 11 ...