Ivy Baldwin was born William Ivy on July 31, 1866 in

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

He changed his name in later years to Ivy Baldwin so that he could be billed as one of "The Baldwin Brothers". Baldwin was an American

balloonist In aeronautics, a balloon is an unpowered aerostat, which remains aloft or floats due to its buoyancy. A balloon may be free, moving with the wind, or tethered to a fixed point. It is distinct from an airship, which is a powered aerostat that ...

, aeronaut and high-wire performer. He is credited with being the first aviator to be shot down during wartime in the U.S. during the

Spanish–American War The Spanish–American War (April 21 – August 13, 1898) was fought between Restoration (Spain), Spain and the United States in 1898. It began with the sinking of the USS Maine (1889), USS ''Maine'' in Havana Harbor in Cuba, and resulted in the ...

Biography

In 1877, he performed in Thayer Dollar Circus as a

tightrope walker Tightrope walking, also called funambulism, is the skill of walking along a thin wire or rope. It has a long tradition in various countries and is commonly associated with the circus. Other skills similar to tightrope walking include slack rope ...

. He later joined with Thomas and Sam Baldwin—billed as "The Baldwin Brothers"—performing high wire acts as well as balloon ascensions and parachuting. The Baldwin Brothers performed using handmade balloons filled with hot air which would ascend to 2500 feet as Ivy Baldwin performed acrobatics and would parachute to the ground. He became a solo performer in 1893. Baldwin joined the U.S. Army Signal Corps the following year as a sergeant, piloting and maintaining their demonstration balloon. In 1898, during the Spanish-American War, Baldwin was the pilot of the hot air balloon that gave U.S. troops location information of Spanish snipers before the

Battle of San Juan Hill The Battle of San Juan Hill (), also known as the Battle for the San Juan Heights, was a major battle of the Spanish–American War fought between an American force under the command of William Rufus Shafter and Joseph Wheeler against a Span ...

. The balloon was shot down on June 30, 1898, and landed in the Aguadores River. Baldwin was later honorably discharged. Returning to performance, he dubbed himself "the air hero of the late War" and sold fragments of the destroyed balloon. From 1890 to 1907, Baldwin spent many summers at Denver's Elitch Gardens amusement park, where he made balloon ascents on Saturdays and Sundays, sometimes performing stunts on a trapeze as he ascended. In 1902, for the first time, Ivy Baldwin parachuted to the earth from the balloon.

Mary Elitch Long Mary Elitch Long (born Mary Elizabeth Hauck; May 10, 1856 – July 16, 1936) was one of the original owners of Elitch Gardens in Denver, Colorado. She was the first woman to own and manage a zoo—the first zoo between Chicago and the west coast� ...

, the owner of the gardens, was quoted as saying: "Mr. Long and I were the first passengers to soar into the Colorado sky. I must confess there were some apprehensive gasps as the starting whistle blew, but our fears soon gave place to a feeling of power and security as we ascended... From the great height of fifteen hundred feet, all Denver and its environs of mountains and plains lay spread before our entranced vision." Ivy Baldwin lived many years in Eldorado Canyon, in Boulder County, Colorado. He celebrated his eighty-second birthday by tightrope walking 125 feet above South Boulder Creek, a crossing he'd made 80 times in 40 years. Baldwin died at home in his sleep on Oct. 8, 1953, at the age of 87.

Halls of fame

He was the first inductee to the

Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame The Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame was established by the Colorado Aviation Historical Society (CAHS) in Denver, Colorado, US, on November 11, 1969, for the State of Colorado. The original and first ten Colorado aviation pioneers were inducted ...

in 1969, along with 9 other early Colorado aviators. They stated that since his early years he had “a sincere urge to get into the air, one way or the other.” The ceremony noted that he was also "the first person to fly a powered 'air craft' in the State of Colorado" since he had made a brief flight "in a self-designed and self-built powered dirigible-type balloon". He was selected to be in the Nevada Aerospace Hall of Fame for being "the first person to successfully fly an airplane in the State of Nevada." which he accomplished on June 23, 1910.

References

External links

* *
Airport Journals: Ivy Baldwin Story

Historic Elitch Theater
;Further reading * Holmes, Charles W., Editor, ''Honoree Album of the Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame'', The Colorado Aviation Historical Society, 1999, Audubon Media Corp., Audubon, IA {{DEFAULTSORT:Baldwin, Ivy American aviation pioneers Aviators from Texas American balloonists 1866 births 1953 deaths

Biography

Halls of fame

See also

References

External links