ANCHORAGE (AP) - He was a nothing dog. Maybe less than nothing, stuffed and mounted without a name and a history. A handsome white Siberian husky reduced to a curio in a roadside theme park in upstate New York.
When auctioned off last fall with other amusement-park items, he was called "Alaskan Husky Dog Mount in Glass Case."
But one person knew his name and his story, a heroic tale from across the decades.
The stuffed dog languishing in New York was Fritz, a key member of Leonhard Seppala's team that relayed serum for a diphtheria-ravaged Nome in 1925, the "great race for mercy" that inspired creation of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
Fritz also was an important early sire for the Siberian husky line registered by the American Kennel Club.
Natalie Norris of Willow, member of a pioneer mushing family that helped launch the Fur Rendezvous sled dog races, brought Fritz back last month after years of persistence, some sly negotiating and thousands of dollars of her own money.
Fritz, who left Alaska a champion racer in 1926, is back in Nome.
"No one knew about Fritz," said Laura Samuelson, director of Nome's Carrie M. McLain Memorial Museum, where the mount now stands. "Nobody in Nome, nobody in the whole Siberian husky world knew that he even existed. Nobody but Natalie knew."
In the years since the serum relay by 20 dog teams, Fritz all but vanished. Those who follow Siberian husky blood lines knew of him, that he was born in Nome in 1915 to two dogs imported from Asia and bred by Seppala, a Norwegian immigrant and skilled musher.
Bob Thomas, a Wisconsin racer of Siberians and historian of the breed, gave Fritz a listing as a member of a key pedigree in articles he wrote in 2001 for the International Siberian Husky Club.
Fritz was a vitally important sled dog, a co-leader of Seppala's team, according to Thomas. But he had a publicity problem.
The rush to get the serum across more than 650 miles of weather-beaten wilderness to critically ill children in Nome captured audiences worldwide for nearly two weeks.
The serum arrived Feb. 2, 1925, brought by the last-leg team, driven by Gunnar Kaasen and led by Balto. Balto became the household name. The statue erected in New York City's Central Park to commemorate the run is of Balto.
Seppala had mushed about twice the overall distance for the serum as Kaasen, but that apparently counted for little.
Also, Seppala's favorite dog at the time - Fritz's co-leader on scores of cross-country treks and races - was Togo, Fritz's older half-brother. Togo, Thomas said, was the only dog Seppala really talked about. Seppala's autobiography lauds Togo and ignores Fritz.
So how did Fritz become mounted and wind up in Frontier Town on Route 9 in North Hudson, N.Y., and how did Natalie Norris get him back to Alaska?
Seppala liked to race, and Fritz was one of his top competitors. As a 2-year-old, the dog helped to bring a team driven by Seppala's boss into second place - behind Seppala - in the All-Alaska Sweepstakes, the long-distance race of the time.
In 1926, with fame clinging to the huskies from the serum run, Seppala took 40 Siberians to the Lower 48 to tour the big cities, show off the dogs and race in New England and Canada.
Fritz did very well - Seppala won key races - but the dog was getting old. Seppala and Peg Ricker, who together formed a breeding kennel for Siberians in Maine, sold Fritz to a doctor, Beverly Sproul.
Sproul retired Fritz in 1929 and began touring him at sportsmen's shows in New England. After all, he was a "serum dog" and All-Alaska Sweepstakes competitor.
In December 1932, Sproul carted Fritz and other dogs to Gimbel's in New York City, Macy's arch-rival, for a Christmas show. And there, at 17, Fritz died. The New York Times, Thomas said, published a small obituary.
Sproul had the dog mounted and continued to display him, now in the glass case.
Natalie Norris, raised in Lake Placid in New York's Adirondack Mountains and a lover of sled dogs, was a youngster in the 1930s when she found herself more than once standing before the mounted Fritz.
"All through my teens, Fritz was on display every once in a while," she said.
Sproul died sometime before 1941, according to Thomas, and his neighbor, an eccentric named Jacques Suzanne, acquired the mount through an auction. He evidently told people the dog had accompanied the famed polar explorer Adm. Robert E. Peary.
In 1946, Norris moved to Alaska, where she met and married Earl Norris. The Norrises became known as the first family of Alaska mushing, breeding Siberians and racing.
Earl, who died three years ago, was a founder of the Fur Rondy World Championship race in 1946. He competed in it for decades and won twice. Natalie, who's now 83, won the second Women's World Championship in 1955 and continued to race into her 70s.
After Suzanne died, his possessions were auctioned off, sometime in the 1950s or early 1960s. The mounted dog went to Frontier Town, founded in 1952 as one of the country's first theme parks, located about 50 miles southeast of Lake Placid.
Years later, in the 1980s, Norris was back in Lake Placid on a visit to her family.
"Somebody mentioned this dog was on display at Frontier Town, and I went to look," she said.
It was Fritz, of course, but the man she spoke to "didn't have the right facts," Norris said. "He had Suzanne's story, that this was a dog from Peary's team."
She never told the man the truth about the dog. Still, the price was too high and she couldn't buy him. She continued to visit, however. Norris last saw Fritz, at Frontier Town, about 10 years ago, she said.
In 1998, the amusement park closed. Its possessions, including Fritz, were auctioned last October. Norris' brother, Art Jubin, lives in the area and learned afterward about the auction. He also learned that an antiques dealer in Gloversville, N.Y., had purchased the mount.
On Norris' bidding, Jubin negotiated to buy Fritz. Again, the dog's true history remained untold. The dealer agreed to a price of "more than several thousand dollars," she said.
In November, Norris phoned and told Samuelson she wanted the museum to have the mount.
"I didn't tell anybody. I just couldn't believe it," Samuelson said.
The Nome Kennel Club picked up the cost of transportation, which was provided largely by Lynden Air Cargo at reduced rates.
"What's cool is that he beat Balto and Togo back to Nome," Samuelson said.
All three dogs had been Nome animals, owned by a mining company and trained and managed by Seppala. All had similar fates. Balto is a stuffed mount owned by a Cleveland museum for about 70 years, and Togo, also a mount, stands at Iditarod headquarters in Wasilla.
"This dog saved the lives of children in Nome," Samuelson said. "We got him 80 years to the week the (crisis) began."
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Information from: Anchorage Daily News, http://www.adn.com
