The first hot air balloon floated over Warren County in August 1875. Barnum’s circus had a show in Des Moines and launched a balloon into the sky. It rose a half-mile, then drifted to the southeast for about an hour before landing in a field in Carlisle. “Horses and cattle ran, chickens cackled and people stared as if the clouds were falling.”

In 1896, Warren County had its first successful balloon launch during the county fair, an early fore telling of the long partnership to come between two of the county’s flagship events.

In 1970, a committee was planning to launch the first National Balloon Championship from the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines. But organizers worried that they had too many balloons to fit, so they decided to have 11 to 15 pilots take off from Indianola in a preliminary competition.

Marlene Wall of the Chamber of Commerce was put in charge of finding crews with pickup trucks to chase the balloons and help pilots bundle up their deflated aircraft. She called farmers, figuring they had pickups.

Some laughed. Some worried they would be gone for days and would need help with their chores. Some pitched in and Indianola’s bond with hot air ballooning was born.

By 1975, the community founded the National Balloon Museum and by 1976, 215 balloons were flying in Indianola each year, taking off from the practice fields at Simpson College.

Organizers decided to move the event away from power poles and campus buildings after a wind shear whisked a partially-filled balloon across the field, snapping power lines with a spray of sparks sending people madly dashing and screaming out of harm’s way. They bought 150 acres east of Indianola, now the Memorial Balloon Field, where pilots still gather every year to show their skills, floating over the rolling hills of Warren County. To see part of what makes Indianola so special, you have to just look up.