The great 1932 balloon race

The 1932 National Balloon Race started on Memorial Day from Omaha, Nebraska.

We can assume the wind was from the south because three of the six competitors in the race crashed in North Dakota.

One of the balloons, an entry sponsored by the Chevrolet Motor Co., crashed on the J.A. Michel farm about 4 miles south of Jamestown.

Winds weren’t the only problem the two-man crews, referring to themselves as “balloonitics,” faced during the flight. Heavy rain and thunderstorms made flying treacherous.

Technology really wasn’t on their side, either. The balloons had a 250-foot rope hanging below the basket. If the rope was dragging, your altitude was less than 250 feet.

The crew “dragged rope” about 50 miles and managed to avoid the James River Valley near Ypsilanti before venting the helium and attempting a controlled landing.

Even deflated, the balloon was a huge sail in the wind above the gondola. As the assembly settled to what was evidently a plowed farm field, the wind pushed everything along, dragging the basket and “nearly filling it full of your North Dakota gumbo,” according to the pilot.

No one was injured in the crash near Jamestown or the crash near Sherwood.

A similar crash near Bismarck left the balloonitics cut and bruised after the basket caught on a barbed wire fence as it was dragged across the ground.

The winning balloon crossed North Dakota and landed in Saskatchewan. The pilot reportedly reduced altitude to a point where he could yell at people on the ground to find out where he was.

Author Keith Norman can be reached at

www.KeithNormanBooks.com