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Samuel Balto
Born	Samuel Johannesen Balto (1861-05-05)May 5, 1861 Karasjok, Norway
Died	1921 (aged 59–60) Karasjok, Norway
Occupation(s)	Explorer, adventurer

Samuel Johannesen Balto (May 5, 1861 – 1921) was a Northern Saami explorer and adventurer. Balto skied with Fridtjof Nansen across Greenland in 1888–89.

Biography

Samuel Johannesen Balto was born in Karasjok Municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. He had worked as a lumberjack, as well as in reindeer herding and fishing. In 1888, Balto was recruited by Fridtjof Nansen for Nansen's Trans-Greenland Expedition. Balto participated in the first recorded crossing of the interior of Greenland, together with Nansen and four other expedition members. Balto wrote his own book after the expedition: Med Nansen over Grønlandsisen i 1888 – Min reise fra Sameland til Grønland.

In 1898, Balto moved to Alaska and signed a two-year contract as a reindeer herder. In 1900, he led a large group of Sámi hired as reindeer herdsmen during the Lapland-Yukon Relief Expedition later known as the Manitoba Expedition. Samuel Balto, together with 113 other people from Finnmark were hired by Sheldon Jackson to be involved in the introduction of reindeer in Alaska. Jackson promoted a plan to import reindeer from Russia to introduce reindeer husbandry to the Inupiaq as a solution to their loss of subsistence resources. The group was responsible for transporting goods and mail from Nome, Alaska, to gold mining workers up the Yukon River valley in the central parts of Alaska. Eventually Samuel Balto became a gold miner at Nome, Alaska, during the Klondike Gold Rush. Balto staked three claims at a site which became known as Balto Creek.

Samuel Johannesen Balto died in 1921 in Karasjok. Balto, the Alaskan sled dog made famous during the 1925 serum run to Nome, which transported diphtheria medication across the U.S. territory of Alaska to combat an epidemic, was named in his honor.

See also

• Balto (dog), namesake
• Jason (Ship)

References

1. Anti, Kila (May 21, 2021). "– Eai ožžon dan fuomášumi maid ánssášedje" ["Didn't Get the Attention They Deserved"]. Ávvir (in Northern Sami).
2. "Samuel Balto (Norsk polarhistorie)". Archived from the original on 2022-09-25. Retrieved 2010-09-04.
3. The First Crossing of Greenland 1888-1889 (Fram Museum)
4. Samuel J. Balto (official Karasjok site)
5. Sheldon Jackson (Sheldon Jackson Museum)
6. The Reindeer Project (Báiki: The International Sami Journal)
7. Balto Creek (USGS Nome C-1 Quad, Alaska, Topographic Map)
8. Balto Creek (us.geoview.info)
9. Lapland-Yukon Relief Expedition (BÁIKI: The International Sami Journal)
10. Balto (Balto's True Story)

Other sources

• Jackson, Sheldon Alaska and Missions on the north Pacific Coast (New York: Dodd, Mead & Company. 1880)
• Nansen, Fridtjof (tr. H.M. Gepp) The First Crossing of Greenland (London: Longmans, Green and Co. 1890)
• Salisbury, Gay; Laney Salisbury The Cruelest Miles: The Heroic Story of Dogs and Men in a Race against an Epidemic (New York: W.W. Norton & Company. 2003) ISBN 0-393-01962-4.

External links

• Samuel Johannesen Balto (Fram Museum)
• Image of Samuel Balto

v t e History of Alaska
	Timeline of Alaska	Prehistory Russian America (1733–1867) Department of Alaska (1867–1884) District of Alaska (1884–1912) Territory of Alaska (1912–1959) Recent history (1959–present)
	Topics and events	Russian-American Company Alaska Purchase Gold Rush era Klondike Nome Fairbanks Alaska boundary dispute 1925 serum run to Nome World War II Aleutian Islands campaign Project Hula Alaska Statehood Act 1964 earthquake Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act Exxon Valdez oil spill History of Anchorage timeline History of Fairbanks Other topics

• Norwegian polar explorers
• Norwegian Sámi people
• 1861 births
• 1921 deaths
• People from Karasjok
• People of the Klondike Gold Rush
• Sámi-American history
• Norwegian Sámi-language writers
• People from Nome, Alaska
• Fridtjof Nansen
• Balto
• Sámi in Norway
• History of Greenland