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Okay friends. Here, for your enjoyment, is a running display of every photo of Togo currently in my possession...with what information I do have on some of them. Pretty much most of these were taken just AFTER the Serum Run, when Leonhard Seppala doubtless wanted to gain Togo whatever notice he could in the face of all the fame Balto was getting (which upset him terribly...even though Balto was also one of his dogs).

You'll note where the photographer, utilizing information no doubt provided to him by Seppala himself, wrote notes on the photo for posterity, and later identification (perhaps for the newspapers).


This is perhaps THE most famous picture of Togo...standing a short distance from his team just after the Serum Run. That's Seppala on the sled in the background, and almost certainly Fritz (Togo's half-brother) on the other end, in the co-lead position (a common practice on large teams...one is THE lead dog, the other is like a "second in command").


Here, sadly, is probably the WORST photo of Togo, with Seppala. Just a bad pose I guess.


Another pose, and a more tender one, with his best buddy and owner, Leonhard Seppala. Seppala LOVED Togo, and kept him close. Togo, as you can see here, was small for his breed...probably only topping out at barely 50 pounds. And yet, Seppala saw in him the potential of a great leader...which he more than justified.


Another example of Togo's relatively small size. My own Australian Shepherd dog, Milo, is only 8 months old, and already he's as big as Togo in this picture (remembering, too, that Seppala was five-foot-nothing in height...and I am like 6'3"...lol). And Togo was 12 years old that year. That coat, incidentally, which Seppala is wearing in the photo is his signature coat...which he wore on the serum run.


Togo (above) and some of the team (with Fritz at left). Here you can see how you may identify Togo from other dogs owned by Seppala (which looked almost like him). You look for Togo's nicked, or bent, right ear. Perhaps it's an old injury...or an abnormality from birth. Or the remnant of an old argument with another dog.


This photo demonstrates the general look of Seppala's dogs. He used dogs of the Chukchi tribe's stock. They were a Siberian Inuit tribe known for using small, fast dogs to pull sleds. Thus the term "Siberian Husky". This wasn't the official breed name at the time. There WAS none. "husky" was a generic term used, at the time, to refer to ANY dog which pulled on a sled team...and could include the mixed-breed Alaskan Husky and other dogs from various parts of the world. The "Siberian Husky" was not officially recognized as an independent breed until the thirties...after Togo's death. Though it was Togo and Fritz who were both key players in the development of the breed...and that is still recognized today by most Siberian Husky breeders and mushers.


Togo posing.


Another shot of Togo "sitting pretty" in pose.


Here's a shot of Togo and some of his team members posing for a photo during the U.S. tour. Togo's the dog sitting with his forelegs crossed (note the ear again), and it's possible that Fritz is the dog lounging back behind him.


Here's my favorite shot of Togo. A beautiful pose, and a beautiful (er, "handsome") dog! Very regal!


Perhaps the most amazing shot...this shows Togo back in Nome (I corrected this from what I said earlier. The stamp on the photo, just barely visible at bottom right, is of "Lomen Brothers" photographers...which were a Nome-based business). He is seen with the many awards won by he, Seppala and his teams during the Alaska Sweepstakes races of the years before the Serum Run (including three first-place wins), and also the medal presented to Togo by explorer Roald Amundsen at Madison Square Garden, New York City, to honor his part in the Great Serum Run. Amazing!

Nice pics of Togo!

Those are wonderful pics BaltoSeppala, Togo is a very nice looking dog and so cute, I love this new section.

Hey! I just found another great shot of Togo with Leonhard Seppala in my computer files...around the Serum Run era...this is another of my favorites...

Very nice pictures BaltoSeppala.

Incidentally, did anyone pick up on the fact that Togo does indeed appear in the photo below (which I also posted above)? Can you tell which one he is? Again, this demonstrates the similiarity in the Chukchi dogs' markings and colors (Togo was a brown/gray/black dog with ice blue eyes...even if some photos don't show his eye color very well...others do).



If you remember how I told you all the method for picking Togo out of a line up of Seppala's other dogs, then you'll know which one here is him! Good hunting! LOL!

I think Togo's the one all the way on the left. Great pictures, by the way!

I believe Togo is the first one. See the ear? =)
< -- That way, the first.

^^ Great pics! These photos made me ... Well, I think it would of been better if Togo was Balto on the Balto movie, and Balto on the cartoon movie looks ALOT like Togo. =/

You each have learned well, young grasshoppers. Mmm. LOL. Yes, the dog on the left is indeed the one and only Togo!

Actually, that thought has been pondered by many fans of the Balto movies, who also know the real history. There ARE many more similarities between Togo and the cartoon Balto. A friend of mine and fellow Balto character role-player, on MySpace, made a post about it in a blog, which I think is worth reading:

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=52907246&blogID=108499348&MyToken=1b6d79e4-3d84-45a1-a2c4-0eb59f441660

From what I understand, the incident Dingo is referring to was when Togo was still a puppy (the book he references is a children's book, but it does rely upon original source material, including accounts by Leonhard Seppala and some of his friends). Togo was known for his ability to work his way free from the kennels, and had the uncanny ability to track down his owner's team even at a great distance. I believe I heard that, out of frustration, Seppala had the floor of his kennel done over in concrete, to prevent Togo digging out underneath the fence! LOL! (Well, huskies are known as expert diggers and escape artists!)

Seppala saw something in this scrappy, if undisciplined, young puppy. He initially decided it would be less trouble to simply bring Togo along, and let him ride in the sled. That led to allowing Togo to run alongside the team, and eventually being phased in, and moving quickly to lead dog (because of his speed and natural talent). In that time, Togo was trained for the job as well, and by Seppala. It was during that time that the bond developed between musher and dog...a strong, trusting bond.

great pics of Togo! how do you get all of these?!

Research, research, research, Highland Wolf. Heh heh...

yea! i should probly stop asking you that same stupid question! hmm, you really now how to do a good research! hey, do you find your research on the net? Or in books or what? I would love to know Balto Seppala!

You know, I never really did answer your question. LOL. I'm sorry about that.

The answer to that is "both". The internet is a great place to go (and that is where I found most of it). Sadly, most of the books about the Serum Run, Togo and Balto are geared towards children. At least, those you can find easily on the internet, or book stores outside of any place except maybe Anchorage, Wasilla, Nenana, Nulato, Fairbanks, or Nome. I gather there ARE many other books written about the Great Serum Run, but they are not easy to find, or are out of print.

Got a new photo to share! (Well, I have several more...but this one belongs here, I think!) I found this shot of one of the pens of Leonhard Seppala's kennels (there HAD to be more than one pen...Sepp had lots of dogs!)! This shot was taken before the Great Serum Run, possibly between 1915 and 1920 (I can find no specific date for it). It shows someone (possibly either Leonhard Seppala himself, or his younger protege, and fellow Norwegian, Gunnar Kaasen, feeding some of the dogs). Here you get a pretty good idea of how the dogs were "housed" at the time. From the appearance of the tundra in this photo, and the sparsity of clothes on our human figure, I'd say this was probably taken during the late spring or the summer (and that estimate is reinforced by the information placed on the photo by the photographer), when the temperatures are relatively mild, and there is a definite thaw of the snow and ice off of the tundra. I guess Seppala liked this area enough to place a summer home and kennel there.

I once saw a reference to this photo, a MODERN reference, which suggested that the light-colored dog on the far right is Fritz, and the one with his back to the camera is Togo. However, there is no way to prove that. Besides, every other photo of Togo shows a black-tipped tail, and the dog with his back to the camera doesn't have that. And the light-colored dog has a coat which appears to be darker than Fritz's. So they MIGHT be the dogs mentioned, and they might NOT be. (With old black & white, or sepia-toned, photos, it is often hard to tell for certain when this kind of distance is involved)



Leonhard Seppala's kennels, and his home, were in Cape Horn, Alaska, which sits more or less at the juncture of the Seward Peninsula where it meets mainland Alaska. On this map below, the BLUE dot indicates the approximate location of Cape Horn (which is not noted on many modern maps...I added this dot myself after researching it). The red dot shows the location of Nome. If my estimates are accurate, then Cape Horn sits almost or around 100 miles from Nome (distances between remote towns and villages in bush Alaska, especially of places that may no longer exist officially, are very tough to estimate)!

wow, that's really cool. I would love to have all those dogs! So, did Seppala actully live in Nome? Where any of these dogs other than Togo and Fritz on the Serum Run?