Balloons floating above the Androscoggin River have been a part of Twin Cities tradition for well over 100 years. With the conclusion of the 25th Great Falls Balloon Festival this past weekend, I decided to dig once more into my research on local hot air balloon ascensions.

Long before 1903, when the Wright brothers’ made their first flight in powered aircraft, balloons had captured the public’s imagination. They had been used for military observation in the Civil War, and in later years enterprising aeronauts made well-publicized appearances throughout the nation.

In Lewiston, the city park, which is now Kennedy Park, was the site of many ascensions. They drew spectators numbering in the tens of thousands, and the descriptions of daring balloon exploits were astounding.

In July 1870 a balloon named City of Lewiston made a flight from the city park with a crowd estimated at 15,000 to 20,000 cheering the ascent. The pilots were called “Professor” and their aerial feats were celebrated far and wide.

The balloon’s owners were from Lynn, Massachusetts. John Hall, called “one of the most sensible and plucky high-flyers one can meet,” was to be the pilot at that Fourth of July event. The newspaper story said the balloon was about 50 feet tall when inflated, and natural gas from Lewiston Gas Co. was used. The story praised its “excellent buoyancy.”

Today’s hot air balloons are lifted by the air heated from bursts of propane flame. One or two burners are triggered as needed by the pilot. In the early days of ballooning, the balloon was inflated on the ground, and when launched, there was little or no further control throughout the flight. Some lift could be attained by dumping a bit of weight from a few bags of sand carried for ballast.

A different method of inflation was described in an account of a flight in 1901. Again, the location was the city park, but on that day the crowd was “a dense and solid mass of humanity.” Some said the spectators numbered 30,000; some said 40,000.

“Professor Ferdinand E. Stevens, the aeronaut, is a native of these cities,” the news story said. He was an employee of the Dingley & Foss shoe shop in Auburn, now known as the Roak Block.

“It was the wish of my boyhood to become an aeronaut,” Stevens told a reporter. “Six years ago I purchased a balloon that was 65 feet high by 42 segments wide, and started on my own hook.” He took a few lessons from a Boston balloonist, and in his first year of ballooning, he made an ascension from the Lewiston fairgrounds.

The inflation method utilized by Stevens was hot air from “ovens” dug along a trench. Piles of barrel staves were stacked along the trench and several gallons of kerosene were on hand to douse the wood before it was ignited. The heated air traveled to the end of the covered trench where a barrel redirected the flow of hot air upward. The mouth of the balloon was placed at the barrel opening. The news story said the inflation took from 15 to 20 minutes.

“I have been making ascensions this year (1901) since the middle of May, and have never been injured till two weeks ago, when my balloon caught on a building and I was dragged over 50 feet, injuring my foot, but that was nothing serious.” Stevens said.

“In Brockton, last year, I went up three miles and was out of sight from the earth for 18 minutes,” he said. “It was the grandest sight and sensation I ever experienced.”

The old-time aeronauts were true daredevils. Some of them used a kind of parachute as part of their acts. Others did acrobatic stunts on a trapeze bar hung below the balloon.

For today’s balloonists, it’s safety first. Thanks to opportunities for passengers to purchase rides, more and more people of all ages get to experience the thrill of hot air balloon flight.

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