In the decades leading up to and just after the turn of the century, Humboldt County residents and visitors took to the skies in an innovative but also scary way - hot air balloons. As Jim Garrison, Archivist for the Humboldt County Historical Society explains below, ballooning was both a beloved spectator sport and incredibly hazardous for those who participated.
The story, for us, begins in the 1880s. Balloon ascensions had been a fad with growing interest in the United States since the earliest domestic ascents in the 1780s. As time went by the "sport" attracted more and more "eccentrics" and thrill-seekers, willing to risk their lives ascending to the clouds in a hot-air or gas-filled balloon. As exhibitions of men flying in balloons became more commonplace, the audiences began to demand more and more. Soon it wasn't enough for an "aeronaut" to simply ascend to the heavens and back again; they needed to see something more daring, more thrilling, and more dangerous.
By the 1880s, performers needed to put on much more elaborate shows. Balloonists, who frequently granted themselves the title “Professor” to add a scientific air of intrigue to their shows, flirted with disaster, performing death-defying acrobatics while suspended on a trapeze, before cutting away from the balloon and parachuting to the ground, often while performing more acrobatics!
"Godfrey's Balloon Ascension, Fortuna 1911" Humboldt State University Special Collections
They used special balloons, set up quite differently from a modern Hot-Air or Gas Balloon. They typically had no basket like we are accustomed to seeing, and they had no safety straps, or harnesses; performers worked largely untethered, relying on the strength of their arms to keep them from plummeting to earth and an early grave. For more than a few this was not enough, and newspaper headlines and shocking stories of tragic accidents followed these spectacles wherever they went.
Humboldt County was no exception when it came to the ballooning craze, and audiences flocked to see the aeronauts perform in communities throughout Humboldt County - Eureka, Samoa, Arcata, Blue Lake, Ferndale, Fortuna, Rohnerville, Loleta, Garberville, and Hupa all advertised balloon ascensions between the 1880s and the 1910s.
It is not entirely clear when the earliest ascension took place in Humboldt County. The big event might have occured sometime in the Summer of 1889. "Professor" E.T. Owings was to launch his balloon from Eureka's Union Street ball park on the Fourth of July, but had to cancel when the balloon burst while being filled. The event was rescheduled for August 10th, but, just as the balloon was about to launch, someone "accidently" let out the gas. It is unclear at this date whether Professor Owings ever lived up to his promise to launch a balloon in Humboldt - but I’ll keep looking!
Con Artists, Stunts, and Pet Monkeys"
The Story of Miss Hazel Keyes and Jennie Yan Yan
The daredevils who put on these performances were typically working the crowds in some way to try to get more money for their show. Sometimes their time was paid for by the group that commissioned them for the event, but other times the aeronauts solicited contributions directly from the crowd to make it worth their time. Often they would have a gimmick.
| This was the case for the next aeronaut to make the news in our county: Miss Hazel Keyes. Miss Keyes had a long and successful ballooning career, making 150 ascents during the 1890s. Miss Keyes had a couple of partners over her years as an aeronaut, including her first and second husbands, who sometimes posed as a rival, partner, brother or other character in their attempts to put on a show for the audience. She was mostly known, however, for taking a pet monkey named Jennie Yan Yan, on her ascents. Jennie Yan Yan had her own parachute and jumped alongside Keyes. |  Hazel Keyes, Oregon Historical Society |
Keyes and Jennie Yan Yan posing with their balloon and parachuting equipment in a studio. Oregon Historical Society.
In 1891 Miss Keyes was to have launched from the South Park Race Track in Eureka on March 17th. According to the Ferndale Enterprise, the crowd had to celebrate St. Patricks Day without seeing Miss Keyes risk her life, as the ascension was called off, either from high wind or a burst balloon, depending on what paper you read. One witness claimed the balloon was set loose after the wind picked up, carrying away some of the staging it had been attached to, and “nearly killing” a small boy in the crowd. Keyes went on to perform for Humboldt crowds the following week when she ascended and made a parachute jump from 800 feet. Keyes may have jumped at only 800 feet to avoid being blown too far from where she wanted to land.
The performer was scheduled to make an ascension and parachute jump from the North Spit the next Sunday, however, before the launch the performer and her “brother” engaged in a very public, and expletive-laced, argument about who would make the ascent. During their theatrics the balloon was “accidently” let go, and the launch fizzled while the crowds shouted “fake!” Keyes and her “brother” left town on the next steamer. Hazel Keyes would continue on the balloon circuit for five more years, making her last recorded ascent in South Dakota in 1896.
A poster advertising Keye's performance in Washington State in 1893. Washington State Historical Society
A Near Miss for "Professor" Hagal
 Balloon being filled with hot air. Humboldt State Special Collections. | In 1892 an aeronaut named Frank P. Hagal (also Hagle) made a series of balloon ascensions around the county. Beginning with a June ascension and parachute descent in Samoa, Hagal followed with two launches in Ferndale. The “professor” filled his balloon on the school house grounds and rose to a height of only four-hundred feet before parachuting to the ground, amazing and delighting the Cream-City spectators. |
Hagal next visited Rohnerville on July 30th, 1892, where things did not go quite as smoothly. Hagal filled his hot-air balloon and was just beginning his ascent when members of the crowd saw that the balloon was on fire and shouted, alerting the aeronaut of his peril. Hoping he could climb high enough to safely parachute before the balloon collapsed, Hagal stuck with the balloon hanging on until the last second. Too soon the fire burned through and Hagal was dashed violently to the ground from a height of a hundred feet! The “professor’s” insensible form was collected and taken to his hotel, where it was discovered that he would live to risk his life another day.
Hagal made several more ascensions in Humboldt including launches in Fortuna, Eureka, and Samoa in September of 1892. For a time Hagal worked with his daring wife Nellie, a working-class girl who quit her waitressing job to tour the balloon circuit with Hagal before marrying him. The marriage was short-lived and ended in tragedy when Nellie was killed when her parachute failed during a show in Monrovia, California in 1895.
Humboldt County's Worst Balloon Accident
In 1897, Humboldt County had its worst Balloon accident, resulting in the tragic death of George Weston Daggett and an assistant T.P. Tapscott. The services of “Professor Weston” had been secured by the Eureka Fourth of July Committee to perform a balloon ascension, parachute jump, and a slack-line exhibition for the holiday.
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It had been decided that, on account of the wind, the launch would be made from a sheltered point on 12th Street, between the alder trees. On the appointed hour the “Professor” and a crew of helpers arrived at the chosen destination, along with a crowd of hundreds of onlookers. The balloon was inflated and at the order to let it go it shot into the air, carrying not just Weston, but also, T.P. Tapscott, an unfortunate assistant who had been caught up in the ropes.
The balloon soared into the air, forcefully jerking Tapscott off of his feet and into the air. Weston had not anticipated having the weight of two men on this flight, and the balloon failed to achieve sufficient altitude in time to avoid a collision with the alder trees. Tapscott fell from the ropes entangling him, dropping to the ground from a height of some twenty-five feet. Landing on his head, Tapscott sustained brain injuries and a compound fracture of his leg. Weston was dragged by the balloon through the alder trees before falling from his trapeze, and sustained major injuries himself, including fractured ribs and head injuries. Both men died in the hospital later that night.
Summertime Entertainment: A Schedule of Performances Held in 1899
Humboldt had multiple aeronauts to choose from when “professor” Tom E. Godfrey and “professor” Richard Earlston (sometimes Earlson) both brought their acts to communities around the county in the summer of 1899. Earlston started it off with an ascent in Garberville on June 10th, followed by another on July 5th. It is likely that the “prof” did more jumps somewhere between these two events, but either the local news sources didn’t cover it, or I just haven’t found it yet!
Earlston made an ascension and parachute landing again in Rio Dell on the 16th of July, followed by a show in Ferndale on the 23rd. The balloon rose to a height of about fifteen-hundred feet, the “professor” doing stunts on his trapeze perch during the ascent, before parachuting to a landing in Francis Field behind the Catholic Church.
On the 30th of July Earlston ascended to a height of 2,500 feet, in a launch from Blue Lake. To his dismay, Earlston found his knife to be too dull to cut his parachute away and was forced to ride the balloon to the ground. Although this is the accepted practice for balloonists today, the daredevils of the late Victorian Era were much safer landing with a parachute, which they could control to some degree. More than one balloonist was dragged by their out-of-control balloon, and some were killed or maimed in a bad landing.
On August 12th of 1899 Earlston made another ascent from Ferndale, followed by one in Fortuna the following afternoon. These jumps apparently went off without a hitch, however, the Ferndale Enterprise speculated after each on how many times the “professor” could go on to press his luck before being killed.
Earlston next appears in the local papers on August 23rd of the following year (1900), when it is reported by the Ferndale Enterprise that he had been convicted of vagrancy in Ukiah and sentenced to serve 60 days in jail. This was not the “professor’s” first run-in with the law; in 1897 he had run afoul of the police after running away and eloping with 14-year-old Bulla Minot in Los Angeles.
| | Tom E. Godfrey performed for Humboldt County audiences in 1899 as well, making balloon ascensions and parachute jumps at Campton’s Park near Rohnerville, and other locations around the county and state. Godfrey’s career seems to have lasted for quite a while; his name appearing in papers around the state with some frequency between 1898 and 1912, particularly in the Colusa area. |
Stay safe out there, everyone, and don't forget to share this with your friends! Special thanks to Jim Garrison at the Humboldt County Historical Society for this riveting and fascinating glimpse into Humboldt County's past! You can learn more about the Historical Society through their website here
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