Balto was the lead sled dog on Gunnar Kaasen’s 1925 Serum Run team, delivering diphtheria antitoxin serum to doctors at Nome, Alaska on the last leg of the relay. Balto and Kaasen arrived in Seattle on the Alaska Steamship Company’s steamship Alameda, and they were honored at a ceremony on Pier 2 in Seattle by a committee representing the Alaska-Yukon Pioneer Society and the Boy Scouts on behalf of the city. This photo shows Balto being presented with a bone shaped key to the city by Ben Ferguson, Northern Chief of the Alaska-Yukon Pioneers. The curly-haired children in the photograph are Balto’s “escort,” twin sisters Betty Ann and Shirley Gene Quackenbush, daughters of Mrs. Grace Quackenbush of the Olympic Hotel.

Handwritten on photo: A.Y.P. Committee at Pier 2, Seattle giving key to city to Kasson’s Lead Dog “Balto” Left to right: Dr. [Benton] Woods-[William] Brown-[Adolph] Behren[s]-[Henry W.] Powell-Goddard-[Ben] Ferguson-R.[Ringwald] Blix-in background Boy Scouts Caption information source: Seattle Daily Times, March 23, 1925.

• Subjects (LCTGM): Alaska-Yukon Pioneers (Seattle, Wash.); Sled dogs—Washington (State)—Seattle; Twins—Washington (State)—Seattle; Piers—Washington (State)--Seattle
• People: Balto (Dog); Blix, Ringwald, 1872-1948