October 9, 2023 • 27 mins
Gunfights from Hydrogen-filled ballons? Well, not quite, but it was a near miss. (Well, nine or ten near misses.) In this episode, Johnny and Drew blow some hot air and puff up New Mexico's ballooning history, from coal-gas flights to shots fired to the first pass over the mountains, and all the way to today's 51st anniversary of the International Balloon Fiesta.
We'll hear about Roy Stamm and Joseph Blondin as they attempt a daring flight over the Manzano Mountains, battling turbulent winds and narrowly escaping getting shot at and ultimately a crash in cactus patch. We'll also celebrate the triumphs of Ed Yost, the father of modern-day hot air ballooning, and Sid Cutter -- the father of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.
Whether you're a history aficionado or a ballooning enthusiast, buckle up for this journey through Albuquerque's vibrant ballooning history!
For Further Reading:
https://eastmountainhistory.org/balloonfight/
https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/gondola-double-eagle-2/nasm_A19790532000
https://www.sos.nm.gov/about-new-mexico/state-aircraft/
https://infogram.com/koat-balloon-fiesta-history-timeline-1h7z2l8qqo7gx6o
And an update: Apparently balloonists aren't safe from potshots even today. Two gas balloon pilots were fired on and crashed in Texas after launching from the 2023 Balloon Fiesta. https://www.krqe.com/news/albuquerque-metro/gordon-bennett-ballon-race-pilot-says-he-was-avoiding-gunfire-before-crash/
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Twitter/X: @NewMexPodcast
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Drew (00:11):
Welcome to the Enchantment Chronicles featuring Johnny,
the Man of Enchantment, himself,and me and Drew.
Yeah, drew.
Johnny (00:22):
And Drew.
Drew (00:23):
Yeah, Johnny.
What are you excited to tell usabout today?
Johnny (00:30):
Well, today we're going to be talking about the state
aircraft.
Drew, you have any guesses?
Drew (00:37):
I was thinking UFO.
I was going to go with RoswellUFO as the state aircraft.
Johnny (00:46):
Did guess, but no, no, no, shockingly, no we're
recording this in early October.
What's going on in earlyOctober in Albuquerque Drew?
Drew (00:58):
It's the International Balloon Fiesta.
It's the 51st anniversary ofthe International Balloon Fiesta
here in 2023.
Johnny (01:08):
That's right.
There's your answer, Drew.
There's five states in theUnited States that has an
official state aircraft and oursis the only non-plane.
Drew (01:22):
How about that?
Wow, that's pretty impressive,drew.
Is it the balloon?
Then it's a hot air balloon.
Johnny (01:30):
It's a hot air balloon, March 1st 2005, the legislature
passed a bill approving the hotair balloon as the official
state aircraft.
Governor Bill Richardson signedthe bill into law and we've
then we've got the stateaircraft 105 in the United
States.
How about?
Drew (01:52):
that?
How about that?
How about that Stop?
There's a pretty solid reason.
Albuquerque, new Mexico, has apretty clear claim to being the
balloon capital of the world.
It's kind of related to our airconditions.
(02:13):
Here We've got something calleda box where if you take a
balloon up in the air, the airswirls off the mountains in
certain ways, so that by goingto different altitudes the
balloonists could kind of fly ina circle roughly.
They're not obligated to go ina straight line for 60, 90 miles
(02:37):
and get picked up and broughtback.
In fact, every year there's anoble tradition Dogs start
barking at the sound of roaringballoons in yards everywhere,
but also balloons willfrequently land at elementary
schools or middle schools intheir fields throughout
(02:57):
Albuquerque this week, becauseso many of them are launching
right.
Johnny (03:02):
Yeah, some 500 something are launching this year.
Wow.
Drew (03:06):
Wow.
Johnny (03:07):
Largest ever, and I think we've already got one that
has landed on a telephone wireor an electric wire.
Drew (03:17):
Happens every year.
Maybe not every year, but yeah,this year we were fortunate.
We'll hear a little bit aboutthat proud tradition of almost
running in the power lines too.
But apparently the first wellballooning goes back to 1793 in
France.
But the first recorded balloonflight in Albuquerque was in
(03:39):
1882, when a guy named ProfessorParc Van Tassel by professor we
mean Carney, professor, theCarnival Professor managed to
launch a balloon.
Well, that was a part of the4th of July and Territorial New
(04:01):
Mexico, territorial Affairs.
New Mexico, of course, doesn'tbecome a state until 30 years
later, in 1812.
So in the 1880s and 1890sthere's a few launches.
Oh, my goodness, you've got agreat image coming up, johnny,
it's.
Johnny (04:18):
May 26, 1889.
It was one of the First flights.
I guess the first flight was inthe 1882.
Drew (04:30):
In Abacur yeah.
Johnny (04:33):
Yeah, but it looks like there's this guy hanging from a
parachute.
There's not a gondola on thisballoon.
Drew (04:46):
Yeah, it says balloon ascensions and parachute jumps
of over one mile by the greatVan Tassel, who has been engaged
at great expense.
This is from Garfield Beach, sopresumably not from New Mexico.
They say 1889 ad.
Johnny (05:04):
The first one was in May of 1882 in Albuquerque and they
spent a full day of inflationwith coal gas from Albuquerque
gas works.
He made his first flight.
First human flight in NewMexico was 615 pm July 4, 1882.
He launched near 2nd Streetbetween Railroad and Gold Avenue
(05:28):
and he rose slowly in his cityof Albuquerque balloon to an
apex of 11,000 feet.
Drew (05:37):
Whoa.
Johnny (05:38):
And he landed in the Central Avenue, rio Grande
Boulevard, fairgrounds which isnow the Galt Country Club area,
and it was a complete success,meaning he did not die.
Drew (05:58):
That is how we define success.
Johnny (06:01):
Yeah, so that was the first balloon flight in
Albuquerque.
Drew (06:07):
Wow, Okay, by 1907,.
We're having territorialaffairs.
We're really trying to hypeourselves up.
We're having territorialaffairs, we're really pushing
for statehood.
And an Albuquerque merchantnamed Roy Stam partners up with
(06:29):
an experienced Aeronaut, JosephBlondin, who and by experience
we mean he's flown 13 timeswithout dying in a balloon.
That's pretty impressive.
He's a veteran.
And they decided to launch andfly up the Rio Grande Valley,
presumably from those samefairgrounds with a country club
(06:51):
is.
Now they head up and we owe alot to our friends over at East
Mountain Historical Society,particularly Dick Brown, who
wrote an article and had somethoughts and had some
photographs provided courtesy ofthe Stam family.
(07:12):
We'll have that link posted foryou all.
But Dick Brown himself is aballoonist who has flown over
the Sandia Mountains prettyimpressively.
But these guys, they head upthe Rio Grande and they said it
was a successful flight, despitethe fact that he was that they
were shot at eight times up inthe village of Alameda and they
(07:39):
wind up landing on the CorralisMesa, which probably is about
where Rio Rancho is today, rightwhere Intel is, because that's
the Mesa right above the villageof Corralis, and they
successfully headed right up theRio Grande Valley and there was
(07:59):
a lot of people pleased withthem?
Johnny (08:03):
Did they shoot back?
Drew (08:06):
They didn't.
But a couple of years laterthey did, kind of reluctantly,
have to let go of their sixshooter.
They had a pistol.
They took a year off in 1908.
By 1909, the coal gas is athing of the past, I guess.
(08:27):
And for the territorial fare of1909, they have a leaky wooden
vat and they're using ironfilings and sulfuric acid to
make hydrogen and they'resending people up for $10 a
piece, 500 feet on a tetheredrope in their balloon 500 feet.
Johnny (08:52):
It's like 50 stories, right.
That's pretty.
That's pretty high up there For$10 in 1909.
Drew (09:00):
Yeah, that's not cheap.
That's not cheap, and by thenthe territorial fare is a big
deal, right?
President Taft shows up.
Johnny (09:12):
President.
Taft shows up, yeah, and hewishes them a congratulations on
, I guess, not dying.
Yeah $10 in 1909 is worth $337today.
Drew (09:25):
Wow, okay, so this is like Las Vegas style entertainment,
and Taft must have beenimpressed because 27 months
later he signed the bill thatwill eventually make us the 47th
state in January of 1912.
So then you know, their leakyvat of sulfuric acid has worked
(09:54):
great, but it's kind of runningout.
So what a blog didn't Standecide to do?
Stan decided that, with like75% of the hydrogen, now would
be a great time to fly over some10,000 foot tall mountains.
They have 75% of their capacityin the balloon, so they can
(10:14):
only carry the two of them inabout 100 pounds of ballast.
And these balloons they work byshedding weight.
They shed weight to go up andthen they vent off their gas to
go down, and whether you wantthem to or not, they're going to
(10:34):
vent off their gas slowly.
They realized they could carrythe two of them along with 100
pounds of ballast, but they hadto abandon their overcoats,
their camera and theirsix-shooter, as well as some
food and half their water, andthe two of them agreed to.
And the flight nearly naked.
If that was what it took to seta record by getting out of sight
(10:56):
of Albuquerque, do you want todescribe the mountains?
What east of Albuquerque.
Johnny, how would you describethe face that faces Albuquerque?
Pretty rocky I guess, yeah,pretty vertical it's.
(11:18):
They get pretty sheer and sothe winds are going to take them
straight towards those cliffsand it starts out pretty
inauspiciously.
They almost run into sometrolley wires but they toss over
just enough ballast to clearthem and they pass kind of
luckily south of the sandias,which are the taller of the two
(11:40):
sets of mountains, but theManzano Mountains are south of
us.
They have four peaks within 30miles and they range from 9,400
to 10,000 feet, and again,pretty sheer.
It's not like you're going torun into a gentle slope if you
run into those.
So they pass south ofAlbuquerque, south of where I-40
(12:05):
passes through to Harris Canyon.
Now they get shot at again overEscobar and you know, poor guys
, they don't even have theirsix-shooter to shoot back,
although I don't think gettinginto a gunfight from a balloon
is super advisable.
They pass north of Chalili andMacintosh, some smaller
communities in the EastMountains, and then at the end
(12:29):
they start descending rapidlyand toss over some ballast and
toss over kind of an anchor hookand nearly crash into a cactus
patch.
But luckily two cowboys,charlie Cawkins and Louis
Bachman show up and give them abump for the night at the
(12:57):
McGillivray Ranch, mcgillivrayRanch, and then they take them,
and their balloons still intact,by a wagon to the train station
the next day.
So pretty wildly successfulflight.
They traveled what?
Up to 50 miles an hour, ridingthose winds and wind up,
(13:19):
traveling about 90 miles.
Johnny (13:22):
In the end they wind up about 10 miles south.
Did they go through the canyonto Harris Canyon?
Drew (13:32):
No, they went south of the canyon.
The note from the editor at theEast Mountain Historical
Society mentions that Dick Brown, the author of the article, has
a unique perspective because hehad to go 13,000 feet on his
(13:53):
first flight over the 10,000feet foot tall Sandia Mountains
Because he was concerned aboutthe turbulence.
As you hit those cliffs youalso have to worry about how
high the winds are pushing youon swirling around them.
So they wound up traveling 90miles on about two hours and 25
(14:16):
minutes, apparently by DickBrown's estimate, or maybe by
their records, because hementions that they took pretty
thorough records that theyprobably got up around 13,000
feet Right before their almostcrash landing.
They dropped 8,000 feet in fourminutes as their gas is running
(14:39):
out.
Pretty scary ride also, andthat, possibly because it was so
terrifying, was it for aboutthe next 50 or so years.
In Albuquerque they were noteager to repeat their success.
(15:02):
What's next?
In our history, we have apioneer that eventually winds up
in New Mexico, right, johnny?
Johnny (15:10):
Yeah, a guy by the name of Ed Yoast.
He is the father of modern-dayhot air ballooning.
He eventually makes it out toNew Mexico and sets up shop, but
early in 1960, he makes thefirst ever free flight of a
(15:31):
modern hot air balloon inNebraska.
Drew (15:34):
He's originally from Iowa, I think, and lived in South
Dakota for a minute.
It's kind of interesting.
Johnny (15:40):
He was a World War II pilot right.
The World War II pilot.
He worked for General Mills, Ibelieve.
Drew (15:49):
I think a stereo, but he worked for a subdivision right.
Johnny (15:54):
A subdivision in their scientific balloon program.
Who knew in Sioux Falls, southDakota, and he did secret
research for General Mills intheir scientific balloon program
, after which he becomes thefather of the modern-day balloon
hot air balloon industry, Iguess.
Drew (16:19):
And it was secret.
He was defense contractor stuff.
Am I right about that?
He just kept saying we don'ttalk about that whatever.
Anybody would ask him what hewas doing working for General
Mills and scientific ballooningright.
Johnny (16:32):
Yeah, I think it must have been.
It was they ended up.
There's a subsidiary called theRaven Industries.
Drew (16:42):
Okay.
Johnny (16:42):
Yeah, but yeah, I think it was contracted by the US
Navy's Office of Naval Researchto create reusable lightweight
balloons that would carry peopleand I'm assuming there was some
military use for it.
But after he left he foundedthe company and he started
(17:04):
manufacturing balloons himself.
He built the balloon named theChannel Champ that in 1963 in
April.
It was the first hot airballoon that to cross the
English Channel, piloted by aguy named Don Picard.
But he moved to Vadito, NewMexico, and made balloons for
(17:31):
the rest of his life.
Drew (17:35):
Wow, and it kind of becomes a cottage industry here.
So nine years later one of ourlocal broadcast stations, kob,
was celebrating their 50thanniversary, and an employee of
KOB, tom Rutherford, partnerswith a local balloonist, I guess
(18:01):
an accidental balloonist, sidCutter.
And Sid Cutter's first flightin a balloon came when it took
off, as he was trying to hangonto it.
He was trying to hang it ontothe ground and instead of
reacting, as I might, with sheerterror, he loved the experience
and they organized the 1972balloon fiesta at the Coronado
(18:26):
Center, which is a mall, youknow, not far from where I live.
It was not a resounding success.
I guess there was 13 balloonsthe first year because there was
bad weather out in east of usthat kept most of the
balloonists from even being ableto drive into Albuquerque, so
(18:49):
only 13 took off in the parkinglot.
Johnny (18:52):
This was in February.
Yeah, were the first ones inFebruary.
Yeah, I believe February of1972?
Mm-hmm.
Drew (19:04):
Yeah, you're foreshadowing a later shift.
But the next year TomMotherford starts working with
Sid Cutter.
He leaves KLB and Albuquerquehosts the first World Hot Air
Balloon Championship at the NewMexico State Fairgrounds and
(19:26):
then continues for a few years.
Right, they move in 75 to asomeplace called Sims Field.
Do you know where Sims Field is, johnny?
Johnny (19:36):
You know, I do not.
Drew (19:39):
Well, they won't have to stay there forever.
But they incorporated theAlbuquerque International
Balloon Fiest as a non-profit.
And then in 1978, ed Yoast kindof rises again.
He designs the Double Legal 2,which is a huge balloon that has
(20:01):
a three-person gondola calledthe Spirit of Albuquerque, and
three Berkenos, ben Abruso, maxiAnderson and Larry Newman ride
in that Spirit of Albuquerqueall the way across the Atlantic
Ocean and it's a pretty big deal.
(20:22):
They make it to Ireland and thenthey continue on to France.
They get congratulated as soonas they hit Ireland.
You've made it officially toEurope and France had offered to
had actually shut down theairport where Charles Lindbergh
flew in near Paris or maybe evenin Paris.
They closed all the air trafficso they could hopefully land
(20:42):
there.
But in the proud Albuquerquetradition of our earlier pilots,
they started losing altituderapidly.
Instead they land inMise-les-francs in a wheat field
.
But today that gondola, thespirit of Albuquerque, is in the
Smithsonian Air and SpaceMuseum and the Abruzzo Anderson
(21:05):
Museum, which is theInternational Bloom Fiesta's
Museum over at the fairgroundstoday is called the Abruzzo
Anderson Museum and it's rightup the hill from where Roy Stam
and Joseph Blondin were firstshot at eight times in the
village of Alameda in 1907.
So the blooming has gottenconsiderably safer here, even if
(21:29):
there are power lines.
And it just continues to grow,right, johnny?
Johnny (21:36):
It does.
And then we've been to quite afew different one, two, three,
four, five, six differentlocations the Coronado Center,
sims Field, which is I-25 inJefferson, then moved to Cutter
Field, osuna and Edith and I-25.
(21:58):
Then Old Bidloon Fiesta Park,which is Alameda and Edith,
probably near where the firstshooting was, and now in 1996,
it moved to Balloon Fiesta,where it is now Balloon Fiesta
Park.
Drew (22:14):
Yeah, 1990, along the way they start hosting these gas
balloon races and I guess thoseare referred to because they
don't just use propane.
They're long distance races,but these gas balloon
championships.
We've hosted a few of the worldgas balloon championships as
(22:38):
well over the years.
Johnny (22:40):
And now Balloon Fiesta has a bunch of different.
They've introduced manydifferent nights there's Balloon
Fiesta is usually about 10 daysfirst week in October sometime.
Now we have 1987, the firstballoon glow which.
What does that mean, drew?
Drew (23:00):
That's when they just light them up at night, because
the best conditions, even inOctober, are when the air is
still really cold here to launch.
It's easier to get up, and thenthe air warms up and so it gets
easier to descend withoutmaking radical changes to your
ballast or anything.
So they tend to launch right atdawn in October.
(23:24):
So not everybody is suited toget a couple hours before dawn
to navigate the traffic to theBalloon Fiesta Park.
So they started having eveningevents where they just inflate
the balloons and they'rebeautiful as they're inflated.
The furnaces that heat the airsuccessfully just cause the
(23:50):
balloons to naturally close.
So you have these balloon glowsat night where they generally
they're not launching, they'rejust lighting them up and you
walk up and down and it kind oflooks like a wonderland of all
these different patterns andshapes, and people love that too
.
And then in news that wouldkind of horrify our friend Ed
(24:11):
Yoast, we got a special shape toOdeo a couple of years later.
Johnny (24:15):
You got all sorts of stuff Smokey Bear.
Drew (24:18):
Yeah, not designed for setting records, right?
Not designed for long distancetravel or espionage.
There, they're just cute To beat Darth Vader and Smokey Bear
and Yoda flies.
(24:38):
And then, I think in 96, theyofficially set a record at the
25th Balloon Fiesta for a numberof balloons launching 2020,
it's postponed and now we'recelebrating, and in 2022 we
celebrated our 50th.
Johnny (24:56):
However, since we didn't celebrate it in 2020 and we
started in 1972, is it reallydrew this the 50th or the 51st?
Drew (25:08):
It's the 51st anniversary.
It might be the 49th festival,but it continues to change over
time.
We have several other balloonrallies in New Mexico that you
could attend.
Johnny (25:29):
Yeah, there's quite a few Balloons over Angel Fire in
June.
Elephant Butte balloon regattain.
Drew (25:36):
August.
Johnny (25:36):
Yeah, adding reference to it.
I've never been to any of theseWhite Sands balloon
invitational in September.
Tows Mountain balloon rally inOctober.
After this year it's going tobe October 27th through the 29th
.
Okay 2023, I suspect, out thereon the Mesa.
(25:57):
And then December 1st throughthe 3rd is going to be the Red
Rock balloon rally in Gallup,new Mexico.
That's the 42nd annual.
Drew (26:07):
Wow.
Johnny (26:08):
So that must have started eight years after the
Albuquerque Internationalballoon fiesta.
Drew (26:15):
Congratulations, that's.
That's hanging in there, andTows Mountain has gotten what
the 40th anniversary.
So the White Sands ballooninvitational Looks like it,
because you have to get invited,because it's so near the Air
Force base, you know.
Just let anybody fly a balloonthere.
Johnny (26:35):
So there's a lot of history here in New Mexico about
balloons.
I guess the state aircraft wasa good decision.
I certainly.
Drew (26:45):
yeah, I think I think they .
I think they knew what theywere talking about when they
when they declared the hot airballoon in the state aircraft of
New Mexico.
All right, well, thank you tothe East Mountain History and to
East Mountain HistoricalSociety and to KOB and KOAT that
(27:07):
provided us with a lot ofbackground information and, of
course, our local newspapers,the Albuquerque Journal and the
Santa Fe New Mexican, providedus with a lot of resources that
we'll be happy to put up on theon the website for you all.
Thanks for listening.
Johnny (27:28):
Adios, adios.
Welcome to the Enchantment Chronicles featuring Johnny,
the Man of Enchantment, himself,and me and Drew.
Yeah, drew.
Johnny (00:22):
And Drew.
Drew (00:23):
Yeah, Johnny.
What are you excited to tell usabout today?
Johnny (00:30):
Well, today we're going to be talking about the state
aircraft.
Drew, you have any guesses?
Drew (00:37):
I was thinking UFO.
I was going to go with RoswellUFO as the state aircraft.
Johnny (00:46):
Did guess, but no, no, no, shockingly, no we're
recording this in early October.
What's going on in earlyOctober in Albuquerque Drew?
Drew (00:58):
It's the International Balloon Fiesta.
It's the 51st anniversary ofthe International Balloon Fiesta
here in 2023.
Johnny (01:08):
That's right.
There's your answer, Drew.
There's five states in theUnited States that has an
official state aircraft and oursis the only non-plane.
Drew (01:22):
How about that?
Wow, that's pretty impressive,drew.
Is it the balloon?
Then it's a hot air balloon.
Johnny (01:30):
It's a hot air balloon, March 1st 2005, the legislature
passed a bill approving the hotair balloon as the official
state aircraft.
Governor Bill Richardson signedthe bill into law and we've
then we've got the stateaircraft 105 in the United
States.
How about?
Drew (01:52):
that?
How about that?
How about that Stop?
There's a pretty solid reason.
Albuquerque, new Mexico, has apretty clear claim to being the
balloon capital of the world.
It's kind of related to our airconditions.
(02:13):
Here We've got something calleda box where if you take a
balloon up in the air, the airswirls off the mountains in
certain ways, so that by goingto different altitudes the
balloonists could kind of fly ina circle roughly.
They're not obligated to go ina straight line for 60, 90 miles
(02:37):
and get picked up and broughtback.
In fact, every year there's anoble tradition Dogs start
barking at the sound of roaringballoons in yards everywhere,
but also balloons willfrequently land at elementary
schools or middle schools intheir fields throughout
(02:57):
Albuquerque this week, becauseso many of them are launching
right.
Johnny (03:02):
Yeah, some 500 something are launching this year.
Wow.
Drew (03:06):
Wow.
Johnny (03:07):
Largest ever, and I think we've already got one that
has landed on a telephone wireor an electric wire.
Drew (03:17):
Happens every year.
Maybe not every year, but yeah,this year we were fortunate.
We'll hear a little bit aboutthat proud tradition of almost
running in the power lines too.
But apparently the first wellballooning goes back to 1793 in
France.
But the first recorded balloonflight in Albuquerque was in
(03:39):
1882, when a guy named ProfessorParc Van Tassel by professor we
mean Carney, professor, theCarnival Professor managed to
launch a balloon.
Well, that was a part of the4th of July and Territorial New
(04:01):
Mexico, territorial Affairs.
New Mexico, of course, doesn'tbecome a state until 30 years
later, in 1812.
So in the 1880s and 1890sthere's a few launches.
Oh, my goodness, you've got agreat image coming up, johnny,
it's.
Johnny (04:18):
May 26, 1889.
It was one of the First flights.
I guess the first flight was inthe 1882.
Drew (04:30):
In Abacur yeah.
Johnny (04:33):
Yeah, but it looks like there's this guy hanging from a
parachute.
There's not a gondola on thisballoon.
Drew (04:46):
Yeah, it says balloon ascensions and parachute jumps
of over one mile by the greatVan Tassel, who has been engaged
at great expense.
This is from Garfield Beach, sopresumably not from New Mexico.
They say 1889 ad.
Johnny (05:04):
The first one was in May of 1882 in Albuquerque and they
spent a full day of inflationwith coal gas from Albuquerque
gas works.
He made his first flight.
First human flight in NewMexico was 615 pm July 4, 1882.
He launched near 2nd Streetbetween Railroad and Gold Avenue
(05:28):
and he rose slowly in his cityof Albuquerque balloon to an
apex of 11,000 feet.
Drew (05:37):
Whoa.
Johnny (05:38):
And he landed in the Central Avenue, rio Grande
Boulevard, fairgrounds which isnow the Galt Country Club area,
and it was a complete success,meaning he did not die.
Drew (05:58):
That is how we define success.
Johnny (06:01):
Yeah, so that was the first balloon flight in
Albuquerque.
Drew (06:07):
Wow, Okay, by 1907,.
We're having territorialaffairs.
We're really trying to hypeourselves up.
We're having territorialaffairs, we're really pushing
for statehood.
And an Albuquerque merchantnamed Roy Stam partners up with
(06:29):
an experienced Aeronaut, JosephBlondin, who and by experience
we mean he's flown 13 timeswithout dying in a balloon.
That's pretty impressive.
He's a veteran.
And they decided to launch andfly up the Rio Grande Valley,
presumably from those samefairgrounds with a country club
(06:51):
is.
Now they head up and we owe alot to our friends over at East
Mountain Historical Society,particularly Dick Brown, who
wrote an article and had somethoughts and had some
photographs provided courtesy ofthe Stam family.
(07:12):
We'll have that link posted foryou all.
But Dick Brown himself is aballoonist who has flown over
the Sandia Mountains prettyimpressively.
But these guys, they head upthe Rio Grande and they said it
was a successful flight, despitethe fact that he was that they
were shot at eight times up inthe village of Alameda and they
(07:39):
wind up landing on the CorralisMesa, which probably is about
where Rio Rancho is today, rightwhere Intel is, because that's
the Mesa right above the villageof Corralis, and they
successfully headed right up theRio Grande Valley and there was
(07:59):
a lot of people pleased withthem?
Johnny (08:03):
Did they shoot back?
Drew (08:06):
They didn't.
But a couple of years laterthey did, kind of reluctantly,
have to let go of their sixshooter.
They had a pistol.
They took a year off in 1908.
By 1909, the coal gas is athing of the past, I guess.
(08:27):
And for the territorial fare of1909, they have a leaky wooden
vat and they're using ironfilings and sulfuric acid to
make hydrogen and they'resending people up for $10 a
piece, 500 feet on a tetheredrope in their balloon 500 feet.
Johnny (08:52):
It's like 50 stories, right.
That's pretty.
That's pretty high up there For$10 in 1909.
Drew (09:00):
Yeah, that's not cheap.
That's not cheap, and by thenthe territorial fare is a big
deal, right?
President Taft shows up.
Johnny (09:12):
President.
Taft shows up, yeah, and hewishes them a congratulations on
, I guess, not dying.
Yeah $10 in 1909 is worth $337today.
Drew (09:25):
Wow, okay, so this is like Las Vegas style entertainment,
and Taft must have beenimpressed because 27 months
later he signed the bill thatwill eventually make us the 47th
state in January of 1912.
So then you know, their leakyvat of sulfuric acid has worked
(09:54):
great, but it's kind of runningout.
So what a blog didn't Standecide to do?
Stan decided that, with like75% of the hydrogen, now would
be a great time to fly over some10,000 foot tall mountains.
They have 75% of their capacityin the balloon, so they can
(10:14):
only carry the two of them inabout 100 pounds of ballast.
And these balloons they work byshedding weight.
They shed weight to go up andthen they vent off their gas to
go down, and whether you wantthem to or not, they're going to
(10:34):
vent off their gas slowly.
They realized they could carrythe two of them along with 100
pounds of ballast, but they hadto abandon their overcoats,
their camera and theirsix-shooter, as well as some
food and half their water, andthe two of them agreed to.
And the flight nearly naked.
If that was what it took to seta record by getting out of sight
(10:56):
of Albuquerque, do you want todescribe the mountains?
What east of Albuquerque.
Johnny, how would you describethe face that faces Albuquerque?
Pretty rocky I guess, yeah,pretty vertical it's.
(11:18):
They get pretty sheer and sothe winds are going to take them
straight towards those cliffsand it starts out pretty
inauspiciously.
They almost run into sometrolley wires but they toss over
just enough ballast to clearthem and they pass kind of
luckily south of the sandias,which are the taller of the two
(11:40):
sets of mountains, but theManzano Mountains are south of
us.
They have four peaks within 30miles and they range from 9,400
to 10,000 feet, and again,pretty sheer.
It's not like you're going torun into a gentle slope if you
run into those.
So they pass south ofAlbuquerque, south of where I-40
(12:05):
passes through to Harris Canyon.
Now they get shot at again overEscobar and you know, poor guys
, they don't even have theirsix-shooter to shoot back,
although I don't think gettinginto a gunfight from a balloon
is super advisable.
They pass north of Chalili andMacintosh, some smaller
communities in the EastMountains, and then at the end
(12:29):
they start descending rapidlyand toss over some ballast and
toss over kind of an anchor hookand nearly crash into a cactus
patch.
But luckily two cowboys,charlie Cawkins and Louis
Bachman show up and give them abump for the night at the
(12:57):
McGillivray Ranch, mcgillivrayRanch, and then they take them,
and their balloons still intact,by a wagon to the train station
the next day.
So pretty wildly successfulflight.
They traveled what?
Up to 50 miles an hour, ridingthose winds and wind up,
(13:19):
traveling about 90 miles.
Johnny (13:22):
In the end they wind up about 10 miles south.
Did they go through the canyonto Harris Canyon?
Drew (13:32):
No, they went south of the canyon.
The note from the editor at theEast Mountain Historical
Society mentions that Dick Brown, the author of the article, has
a unique perspective because hehad to go 13,000 feet on his
(13:53):
first flight over the 10,000feet foot tall Sandia Mountains
Because he was concerned aboutthe turbulence.
As you hit those cliffs youalso have to worry about how
high the winds are pushing youon swirling around them.
So they wound up traveling 90miles on about two hours and 25
(14:16):
minutes, apparently by DickBrown's estimate, or maybe by
their records, because hementions that they took pretty
thorough records that theyprobably got up around 13,000
feet Right before their almostcrash landing.
They dropped 8,000 feet in fourminutes as their gas is running
(14:39):
out.
Pretty scary ride also, andthat, possibly because it was so
terrifying, was it for aboutthe next 50 or so years.
In Albuquerque they were noteager to repeat their success.
(15:02):
What's next?
In our history, we have apioneer that eventually winds up
in New Mexico, right, johnny?
Johnny (15:10):
Yeah, a guy by the name of Ed Yoast.
He is the father of modern-dayhot air ballooning.
He eventually makes it out toNew Mexico and sets up shop, but
early in 1960, he makes thefirst ever free flight of a
(15:31):
modern hot air balloon inNebraska.
Drew (15:34):
He's originally from Iowa, I think, and lived in South
Dakota for a minute.
It's kind of interesting.
Johnny (15:40):
He was a World War II pilot right.
The World War II pilot.
He worked for General Mills, Ibelieve.
Drew (15:49):
I think a stereo, but he worked for a subdivision right.
Johnny (15:54):
A subdivision in their scientific balloon program.
Who knew in Sioux Falls, southDakota, and he did secret
research for General Mills intheir scientific balloon program
, after which he becomes thefather of the modern-day balloon
hot air balloon industry, Iguess.
Drew (16:19):
And it was secret.
He was defense contractor stuff.
Am I right about that?
He just kept saying we don'ttalk about that whatever.
Anybody would ask him what hewas doing working for General
Mills and scientific ballooningright.
Johnny (16:32):
Yeah, I think it must have been.
It was they ended up.
There's a subsidiary called theRaven Industries.
Drew (16:42):
Okay.
Johnny (16:42):
Yeah, but yeah, I think it was contracted by the US
Navy's Office of Naval Researchto create reusable lightweight
balloons that would carry peopleand I'm assuming there was some
military use for it.
But after he left he foundedthe company and he started
(17:04):
manufacturing balloons himself.
He built the balloon named theChannel Champ that in 1963 in
April.
It was the first hot airballoon that to cross the
English Channel, piloted by aguy named Don Picard.
But he moved to Vadito, NewMexico, and made balloons for
(17:31):
the rest of his life.
Drew (17:35):
Wow, and it kind of becomes a cottage industry here.
So nine years later one of ourlocal broadcast stations, kob,
was celebrating their 50thanniversary, and an employee of
KOB, tom Rutherford, partnerswith a local balloonist, I guess
(18:01):
an accidental balloonist, sidCutter.
And Sid Cutter's first flightin a balloon came when it took
off, as he was trying to hangonto it.
He was trying to hang it ontothe ground and instead of
reacting, as I might, with sheerterror, he loved the experience
and they organized the 1972balloon fiesta at the Coronado
(18:26):
Center, which is a mall, youknow, not far from where I live.
It was not a resounding success.
I guess there was 13 balloonsthe first year because there was
bad weather out in east of usthat kept most of the
balloonists from even being ableto drive into Albuquerque, so
(18:49):
only 13 took off in the parkinglot.
Johnny (18:52):
This was in February.
Yeah, were the first ones inFebruary.
Yeah, I believe February of1972?
Mm-hmm.
Drew (19:04):
Yeah, you're foreshadowing a later shift.
But the next year TomMotherford starts working with
Sid Cutter.
He leaves KLB and Albuquerquehosts the first World Hot Air
Balloon Championship at the NewMexico State Fairgrounds and
(19:26):
then continues for a few years.
Right, they move in 75 to asomeplace called Sims Field.
Do you know where Sims Field is, johnny?
Johnny (19:36):
You know, I do not.
Drew (19:39):
Well, they won't have to stay there forever.
But they incorporated theAlbuquerque International
Balloon Fiest as a non-profit.
And then in 1978, ed Yoast kindof rises again.
He designs the Double Legal 2,which is a huge balloon that has
(20:01):
a three-person gondola calledthe Spirit of Albuquerque, and
three Berkenos, ben Abruso, maxiAnderson and Larry Newman ride
in that Spirit of Albuquerqueall the way across the Atlantic
Ocean and it's a pretty big deal.
(20:22):
They make it to Ireland and thenthey continue on to France.
They get congratulated as soonas they hit Ireland.
You've made it officially toEurope and France had offered to
had actually shut down theairport where Charles Lindbergh
flew in near Paris or maybe evenin Paris.
They closed all the air trafficso they could hopefully land
(20:42):
there.
But in the proud Albuquerquetradition of our earlier pilots,
they started losing altituderapidly.
Instead they land inMise-les-francs in a wheat field
.
But today that gondola, thespirit of Albuquerque, is in the
Smithsonian Air and SpaceMuseum and the Abruzzo Anderson
(21:05):
Museum, which is theInternational Bloom Fiesta's
Museum over at the fairgroundstoday is called the Abruzzo
Anderson Museum and it's rightup the hill from where Roy Stam
and Joseph Blondin were firstshot at eight times in the
village of Alameda in 1907.
So the blooming has gottenconsiderably safer here, even if
(21:29):
there are power lines.
And it just continues to grow,right, johnny?
Johnny (21:36):
It does.
And then we've been to quite afew different one, two, three,
four, five, six differentlocations the Coronado Center,
sims Field, which is I-25 inJefferson, then moved to Cutter
Field, osuna and Edith and I-25.
(21:58):
Then Old Bidloon Fiesta Park,which is Alameda and Edith,
probably near where the firstshooting was, and now in 1996,
it moved to Balloon Fiesta,where it is now Balloon Fiesta
Park.
Drew (22:14):
Yeah, 1990, along the way they start hosting these gas
balloon races and I guess thoseare referred to because they
don't just use propane.
They're long distance races,but these gas balloon
championships.
We've hosted a few of the worldgas balloon championships as
(22:38):
well over the years.
Johnny (22:40):
And now Balloon Fiesta has a bunch of different.
They've introduced manydifferent nights there's Balloon
Fiesta is usually about 10 daysfirst week in October sometime.
Now we have 1987, the firstballoon glow which.
What does that mean, drew?
Drew (23:00):
That's when they just light them up at night, because
the best conditions, even inOctober, are when the air is
still really cold here to launch.
It's easier to get up, and thenthe air warms up and so it gets
easier to descend withoutmaking radical changes to your
ballast or anything.
So they tend to launch right atdawn in October.
(23:24):
So not everybody is suited toget a couple hours before dawn
to navigate the traffic to theBalloon Fiesta Park.
So they started having eveningevents where they just inflate
the balloons and they'rebeautiful as they're inflated.
The furnaces that heat the airsuccessfully just cause the
(23:50):
balloons to naturally close.
So you have these balloon glowsat night where they generally
they're not launching, they'rejust lighting them up and you
walk up and down and it kind oflooks like a wonderland of all
these different patterns andshapes, and people love that too
.
And then in news that wouldkind of horrify our friend Ed
(24:11):
Yoast, we got a special shape toOdeo a couple of years later.
Johnny (24:15):
You got all sorts of stuff Smokey Bear.
Drew (24:18):
Yeah, not designed for setting records, right?
Not designed for long distancetravel or espionage.
There, they're just cute To beat Darth Vader and Smokey Bear
and Yoda flies.
(24:38):
And then, I think in 96, theyofficially set a record at the
25th Balloon Fiesta for a numberof balloons launching 2020,
it's postponed and now we'recelebrating, and in 2022 we
celebrated our 50th.
Johnny (24:56):
However, since we didn't celebrate it in 2020 and we
started in 1972, is it reallydrew this the 50th or the 51st?
Drew (25:08):
It's the 51st anniversary.
It might be the 49th festival,but it continues to change over
time.
We have several other balloonrallies in New Mexico that you
could attend.
Johnny (25:29):
Yeah, there's quite a few Balloons over Angel Fire in
June.
Elephant Butte balloon regattain.
Drew (25:36):
August.
Johnny (25:36):
Yeah, adding reference to it.
I've never been to any of theseWhite Sands balloon
invitational in September.
Tows Mountain balloon rally inOctober.
After this year it's going tobe October 27th through the 29th
.
Okay 2023, I suspect, out thereon the Mesa.
(25:57):
And then December 1st throughthe 3rd is going to be the Red
Rock balloon rally in Gallup,new Mexico.
That's the 42nd annual.
Drew (26:07):
Wow.
Johnny (26:08):
So that must have started eight years after the
Albuquerque Internationalballoon fiesta.
Drew (26:15):
Congratulations, that's.
That's hanging in there, andTows Mountain has gotten what
the 40th anniversary.
So the White Sands ballooninvitational Looks like it,
because you have to get invited,because it's so near the Air
Force base, you know.
Just let anybody fly a balloonthere.
Johnny (26:35):
So there's a lot of history here in New Mexico about
balloons.
I guess the state aircraft wasa good decision.
I certainly.
Drew (26:45):
yeah, I think I think they .
I think they knew what theywere talking about when they
when they declared the hot airballoon in the state aircraft of
New Mexico.
All right, well, thank you tothe East Mountain History and to
East Mountain HistoricalSociety and to KOB and KOAT that
(27:07):
provided us with a lot ofbackground information and, of
course, our local newspapers,the Albuquerque Journal and the
Santa Fe New Mexican, providedus with a lot of resources that
we'll be happy to put up on theon the website for you all.
Thanks for listening.
Johnny (27:28):
Adios, adios.
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