After the serum run, Gunnar Kaasen, the musher, took Balto on a nationwide tour. Afterward, the real Balto and his team were sold to a movie producer named Sol Lesser, who made a movie called Balto's Race to Nome (1925), valorizing Balto. After that, the team was sold again and put on exhibit as a curiosity. The dogs were abused, neglected, and forgotten until a Cleveland businessman named George Kimbal, with the help of Cleveland school children, bought the six remaining dogs for the then-astounding sum of $2,000, which they raised in two weeks. The dogs were brought to the Cleveland Zoo and lived out their lives in peace. When Balto died in 1933, he was stuffed and displayed in the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
There are many differences between the movie and real life. The sled run to Nome was a relay, and Balto led the last team to carry the medicine to Nome. The team led by Togo covered the longest, most hazardous distance. Balto was a purebred Siberian Husky, not a wolf hybrid. Balto was born in a kennel owned by the famous musher Leonhard Seppala, where he grew up until he was deemed fit for pulling a sled. Seppala also owned Togo, whom he used during the relay; Balto was used by one of his workers Gunnar Kaasen. Balto was neutered when he was a few months old, meaning the puppies in the sequels never existed.
The real hero of the 1925 serum run was Togo. The 12-year-old husky led his sled dog team through 260 miles of blowing Alaskan blizzard to deliver emergency diphtheria serum to Nome. Balto received fame mostly because he led the final 55 miles. Togo now has his film, Togo (2019) and starring Willem Dafoe.
Partially deaf and blind and suffering from arthritis in his rear legs, Balto was being cared for by the team's keeper (in the Cleveland Brookside Zoo), "Captain" Curley Wilson. There were concerns about his failing health in 1933 until a kindly veterinarian, Dr. R.R. Powell (a member and trustee of the Cleveland, Ohio Balto Committee), offered to ease Balto's suffering. Wilson accepted for the zoo and carefully moved Balto over to Dr. Powell's animal hospital. Powell insisted on caring for Balto free of charge, stating it was an honor to care for him in his last hours. On Tuesday, March 14, 1933, he injected Balto with a drug to "put him to sleep." Balto died at 2:15 PM under the loving care of Dr. Powell and Curley Wilson. He had died of natural causes... old age. His body was stuffed and mounted by a staff taxidermist at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, where it stands (with Balto's original lead) to this day.
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