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Melody_Smith
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This is a true story about a very brave dog. His name was Balto. The year was 1925. Balto lived in Nove, Alaska. Nome was a frontier town. Most of the year it was buried under ice and snow.
In winter there was no way to travel through all that ice and snow. Not on planes or trains or boats or cars. The only way to travel in Alaska was by dog sled.
Balto was a sled dog. He worked for a gold mining company not far from Nome. He helped carry food and tools to the miners It was a good life for a sled dog.
Balto's driver was named Gunnar. Gunnar made Balto his lead dog. The lead dog runs in front of the team. He follows the trail. All the other dogs do whatever the lead dog does. So the lead dog has to be the smartest and strongest dog of all.
One cold winter day a terrible thing happened in Nome. Two children got very sick.
Their parents called the doctor. He was the only doctor in the whole town. When the doctor saw the children he was very worried. The children had a terrible sickness. It was called diphtheria The doctor did not have the medicine he needed. Without the medicine the children would die. Without the medicine many other people in Nome would get diptheria and die too. The doctor knew he had to get some medicine fast.
The hospital in Anchorage, Alaska, had the the medicine. But Anchorage was 800 miles away. The doctors in Anchorage put the medicine on a train. But soon the train got stuck in the deep snow. The train was still 700 miles from Nome!
The people of Nome held a meeting. Everything was very scared. What are we going to do asked the doctor. We have to get that medicine. At last someone said, what about that a dog sled relay? When one team of dogs gets tired, a new team will be ready to take over. The room buzzed with excitement. That did seem like the quickest way to get the medicine. But the doctor frowned. It will still take about fifteen days. That's a long time. Too long.
Maybe the doctor was right. But there was no other choice. So the mayor spoke over the radio. Please help! he said. We need the best drivers and dogs to help save our town!
Gunnar heard the mayor on the radio. Gunnar knew he had the best dog team and the best lead dog. Balto would come to the rescue.
On January 27, 1925 the race to Nome began. Twenty one dog teams were in the relay. Each team waited at a different stop. The first driver took the medicine from the train. He wrapped it in fur to keep it from freezing. Then he drove his dogs as fast as he could to the second stop. He made his run in good time.
But soon the wind began to blow hard. The air grew colder. A blizzard was coming! It was one of the worst storms ever. Still the race went on. Somehow each dog team made it to the next stop. In one team, two dogs froze to death. So the driver hitched himself to the sled. He helped the rest of his dogs pull through the storm.