The Balto statue in Central Park has the distinction of being unveiled in the presence of its subject. In December 1925, the Siberian Husky himself stood in New York while the crowd cheered.

It was just months after he led the final leg of a dogsled relay that carried diphtheria antitoxin across 674 miles of Alaskan wilderness to the isolated town of Nome. Temperatures had hit -30 degrees Celsius. Planes couldn't fly. 20 mushers and around 150 dogs passed the serum hand-to-paw through blizzard conditions.

Balto got the statue. But veteran mushers have long argued the real hero was Togo, who ran the longer, harder stretch under the command of Leonidas Seppala. After his fame faded, Balto ended up in a sideshow before Cleveland's schoolchildren raised funds to rescue him.

VoiceMap's Central Park tours trace this full arc, from the statue's bronze surface to the uncomfortable question of which dog actually deserved it.