I’d never seen this statue before. It’s inscribed, Dedicated to the Indomitable Spirit of the Sled Dogs that relayed antitoxin 600 miles over rough ice over treacherous waters through Arctic blizzards from Nenana to the relief of stricken Nome in the winter of 1925. Endurance. Fidelty. Intelligence.”
According to the website, In 1925 Nome, Alaska was stricken with a horrific diphtheria outbreak. Not enough antitoxin was available to treat all the sick until teams of mushers and sled dogs battled a blinding blizzard and traveled 674 miles to deliver the medicine.
Balto, a husky, was one of the heroic lead dogs.
In recognition of such bravery, famed Brooklyn-born sculptor Frederick George Richard Roth was commissioned to create a lasting tribute. Roth, whose other work at the park includes Tales of Mother Goose and Dancing Goat and Dancing Bear, unveiled the statue on December 15, 1925. The most important among the honored guests was the real Balto himself.
Hmm, I hope Balto led a long and happy life.
Have I really never seen some of this stuff, or am I just forgetting? Because here’s a small cemetery! The Park website says this: The 307th Infantry Regiment Memorial Grove honors the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I. At the northeastern end of the Mall, 14 plaques, one for each company in the 307th Regiment, dot the landscape that was originally designed as a memorial grove.
And here’s more about it: Between 1920 and 1922, veterans of the 307th Regiment ceremoniously planted 16 oak trees in a small landscape at the end of the Mall, just south of the Naumburg Bandshell. Each tree represented one of the regiment’s companies and was marked by a plaque with the names of the soldiers from that company who were lost in the war. Over time, some of the trees died or were removed, but the plaques remain. A large boulder provides an additional memorial, listing all the companies and the names of the members who died.
Not far from the Grove is the Bethesda fountain, something I’ve seen/been to plenty of times.
It started to sprinkle so I started to make my way out of the park, but I did have to stop and sit on the mall.
I saw a band of Norwegian football fans marching through the park, one of them with the flag draped over his shoulders like a cape.
And this is the cutest thing I saw – an Italian Greyhound encountering a turtle! So darling.
I got back to the hotel by 11:30 and had to take a phone photo.
Next, our walk through the park to the Frick Museum, with disastrous results…
Ok then, you know how it ends…
Mrs. H.