Hot Air Balloonist Makes a Splash
Clay County History: Female 'Aeronaut' Survives Plunge Into Doctors Lake
By The Staff of Clay County Archives Center in Green Cove Springs)
Fortunately, she ended up in Doctors Lake. Her great fall happened in January 1895. A crowd had gathered in the village of Orange Park to watch the daring young “aeronaut” leap from her balloon.
There was a bit of a circus-like atmosphere with young children running around giddily and their parents struggling to keep up with them. Refreshments were being sold—ice cream sundaes, lemonade, Coca Cola, sarsaparilla, bags of popcorn, and hard candy. The crowd gathered, ginned up by advertisements in the papers, to see the daring “ascension” by balloon and descent by parachute.
Balloon ascensions had been around since the early 1800’s and by the Gay 90’s they had become quite the draw. Crowds of thousands stood and watched as these high flying dare devils performed acrobatics and trapeze stunts hanging from their ballons. Then, as if to laugh in death’s face, the aeronauts (as they were called then) detached themselves from the ballon and plunge towards earth, some performing stunts all the way down to the landing.
Virgie Russell was the youngest of many female aeronauts at that time who traveled around the country performing similar feats of aerial wonder. There was also the famous American Hazel Keyes who in her lifetime performed hundreds of ascents and descents all over the county in her lifetime.
The parachutes were usually designed by the aeronauts themselves and were made of light weight fabrics such as silk. These contraptions had no resemblance to modern day parachutes, first patented in the United States by Glenn Martin. Martin was the aviator whose business became the military aircraft production powerhouse, Lockheed-Martin.
It was about 5pm and dusk was falling when all eyes focused on the young aeronaut as Virgie boarded her balloon. Soon, the airship was 2,800 feet above the earth. As Virgie prepared to do her signature headfirst descent, a sudden maelstrom of howling winds and cold rain gripped the balloon and its passenger in icy fingers that dragged Virgie out of sight. Virgie struggled with the ropes and her parachute failed. She was entangled in the balloons ropes. Spectators were stunned as cries of “Oh no” and “follow her” rung out in the cold wind.
The spectators scattered, some of them trying to keep the balloon in sight but it was to be for naught as darkness dropped its bleak curtain on the show. The fear was that Virgie and her airship had fallen into the St. Johns River and drowned. Search parties were out in boats looking for any signs of the balloon. Others searched by land hoping to see the balloon fluttering in treetops.
About 9 o’clock that night a group of sawmill workers on the shores of Doctors Lake heard faint cries coming from about 150 yards from shore. It was pitch black, windy and cold. The lake’s water was cold enough that hypothermia was a real threat.
Without a boat the workers were helpless from shore. Word got back to the searchers that Virgie had been spotted. A boat was dispatched but it was a mile away and took an hour to get to Virgie. She had been adrift for hours in the lake, being battered by wind and rain. The remains of her balloon were nowhere to be found. Her life preserver kept her head above water. When Virgie came out of the water, she was closer to death than life.
Mr. G.P Hall, who lived near the lake, pulled her from the water and into the boat. She was chilled to the bone. From the lake they rushed her to the Hall home where Mr. Hall and his wife quickly built a roaring fire, made cups of hot tea and provided hot soup to revive Virgie.
What happens when a brave, young aeronaut faces death? Virgie Russell gets back on the saddle—or back in the balloon in her case. Just a couple months later, Russell and her balloon show were in Tampa. Her agent and manager Professor Harry Calhoun of the Great British Balloon Society, chartered Tampa trolley cars to shuttle thousands of spectators to Ballast Point Park. This time, there were no complications!