Eyewitness Accounts

Eyewitness Accounts

"In 1933 my Father, Ralph A. Smith, was Foreman at the Rockerville CCC camp and was in charge of building support facilities for the Army in the Strato Bowl. Facilities included building the access road down to the Bowl, grading for launch area, fencing around the perimeter of the Bowl, plus utilities and structures for Ft. Meade soldiers. Prior to the launch in 1934 a dedication was held down in the Bowl at the launch site. My Father and Family were invited to this ceremony. Included was food, drink, speeches and a chance to see everything close up. I also got to shake hands with the Pilots who were on the first Launch."                                                                                                       Spencer R. Smith

"I was 13 years old-- and we drove to the rim of the Stratobowl in 1934. The bowl was surprisingly shaped like a bowl and I didn't realize how far down it really went. We had blankets to sit on. Preparations seemed to take forever. There was so much going on-- men walking around. We lit a fire. My father said to me, 'You can't go down there, it's dangerous.'

I saw it go up. It was still dark. We couldn't watch for long because of the trees. It seemed to go East [I was on the north side of the bowl], We waited for several hours, then we heard that it crashed."                                                              Lola Aimonetto

"I was 8 or 9 at the time of the successful flight. My father was Pennington County Sheriff at the time and he and one of his three deputies were in charge of policing the crowd. Therefore he took the family to the bowl the night before and we met the National Geographic Officials and the pilots. On November 11, I watched from home which was half of the building housing the Pennington County Jail. I saw the balloon drift off to the east."                                                                                       Fernie Scovel

"We arrived at midnight and found a place along the rim of the canyon. We could look down on the activity in the camp where the gas bag was being filled. It was supposed to be ready to go at dawn when the wind was calm. We waited and watched as the helium was fed into the huge bag. It rose up little by little and was held back by fellows pulling on ropes attached around the top. It was nearly full of gas when suddenly the top ripped open and all the gas went up in a cloud. The bag fell to the ground in a pile. A moan, 'Aw-w-w-w' could be heard from all the folks watching from around the rim of the canyon.

Nearly fifty years later, Dad and I watched, along with millions of other TV viewers, as American astronauts planted the stars and stripes on the moon! We couldn't help remembering that we had, in a way, witnessed Man's first efforts at space exploration."                                                                                                                             Cal Inman   

"I was in the 5th grade in a one-room school east of Platte when the Stratosphere balloon came down. A school patron packed a bunch of us kids in the car and we chased the balloon over dusty roads, rocks and fences to the place where the gondola landed. Captains Anderson and Stevenson threw out two ropes which Melvin Johnson and Guy Skogen caught to hold it down. The captains then climbed out of the gondola, dressed like Eskimos. As people were tearing off pieces of the balloon for souvenirs, the captains ordered everyone to step back. 'I can see the whole thing like it just happened.'"                                                                            Ruth Helland Burnham


"When the balloon was sent off just at daylight it was like a cloud of smoke. I remember most the sound of the shot hitting our clothes. The shot was ballast, and smaller than a bb. At first we were ducking so as not to get hit as the balloon floated over us. However, it didn't hurt us, we were just 'sprinkled'."                                                                                                                                                                                                                          Vern Haas

Stratolab I and IV

Broken Barriers