Clark County History: 1905 Lewis and Clark Exposition

The first lighter-than-air flight across the Clark County sky wasn’t one of 18-year-old Lincoln Beachey’s two flights from Portland’s 1905 Lewis and Clark Exposition. At least three balloonists beat him into the sky — although with much less control and finesse.

Vancouver’s balloons flew more than 100 years after the first Parisian free flight of a hot air balloon made of paper and silk in 1783. Two Frenchmen lifted 500 feet above the ground and landed over five miles away. Legend has it they swilled champagne after setting down.

Ten years later, George Washington observed the first balloon flight in America. A Frenchman, who had crossed the English Channel in a balloon, lifted off from a Philadelphia prison yard in a hydrogen-filled craft. After ascending nearly 5,800 feet, he landed in Gloucester County, N.J.

During the Civil War, the Union and Confederate armies used balloons to see behind enemy lines and direct cannon fire at the enemy. The balloons reached 1,000 feet and offered a bird’s-eye view of all beneath them.

April 1890, Vancouver’s first balloon ascent took Professor William Lang skyward. He floated up from 13th Street, reaching 500 or 600 feet as a crowd of locals craned their necks to keep him in view. Local papers dubbed this modest ascension a success. They made no mention of the professorial descent, so we may assume it was without problems.

The following year, Professor Vilas (whose first named isn’t noted in the National Park Service’s historical account) lofted a balloon from the corner of 12th and Main streets. The professor’s hot air balloon lifted beyond Lang’s height and reached 800 feet as about 1,500 Vancouverites watched. When his balloon reached 800 feet, he bailed out. The onlookers must have gasped as Vilas plunged earthward, seemingly to his death. Instead, he had just made the first parachute jump in the county. His parachute silks unfurled, and he drifted to the ground beneath an enormous white parasol. However, on landing his parachute, Vilas narrowly skirted a white picket fence, preventing the county’s first jump from ending in disaster. Nothing is said about how or where the balloon came down.

A 1911 issue of The Vancouver Columbian recalled “some years back” a Dick Miller launched his balloon on July 4. Miller evidently lacked both the professorial skills of Lang or the pedagogical foresight of Vilas. who dropped to Earth under silk. Instead, Miller and his balloon descended not to dry land but into the wet Columbia River and had to be rescued.

At the mercy of the wind, balloons could only control their altitude. However, airships filled with hydrogen appeared around 1900 and were propelled, like the ones Beachey piloted in 1905.

These new dirigibles had an engine spinning a propeller, which allowed a pilot to control the direction and speed of the craft. Often several hundred feet long, they traveled hundreds of miles. Such airships became the first passenger airliners — and the first weaponized military aircraft.

Martin Middlewood is editor of the Clark County Historical Society Annual. Reach him at ClarkCoHist@gmail.com.