For those wondering "Why Cleveland?":

After the serum run, Gunnar Kaasen, the musher, took Balto on a nationwide tour. Afterward, the real Balto and his team were sold to a movie producer named Sol Lesser, who made a movie called Balto's Race to Nome (1925), valorizing Balto. After that, the team was sold again and put on exhibit as a curiosity. The dogs were abused, neglected, and forgotten, until a Cleveland businessman named George Kimbal, with the help of Cleveland school children, bought the six remaining dogs for the then-astounding sum of $2,000, which they raised in two weeks. The dogs were brought to the Cleveland Zoo, and lived out their lives in peace. When Balto died in 1933, he was stuffed, and put on display in the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.- source: IMDB.com (of all places)

His statue is in Central Park in NYC (just like in the movie).