Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE – Though it’s been nearly three decades since students of the Maine Migrant Summer Youth Employment Program at Northern Maine Vocational Technical Institute created a sheet metal replica of the Double Eagle II, Dennis Albert remembers the project like it was just yesterday.
Now in his 30th year as a sheet metal instructor at Northern Maine Community College, formerly NMVTI, Albert helped create the monument to commemorate the first successful trans-Atlantic balloon flight that lifted off Aug. 11, 1978 from a hayfield owned by Merle and Alice Sprague on the Spragueville Road in Presque Isle.
“There were 14- to 18-year-old students in both junior high and high school who participated in the migrant program,” said Albert. “It was for anybody who had family who worked in wood harvesting or potato farming. We had about 80 students from Buffalo – which is near Portage, Ashland and Mapleton. They were also bused in from north Caribou, Caswell, Stockholm, Limestone and Connor.
“It was an exploratory program for the students during the summer,” he said. “It was a way to give them some exposure to the college, and they got paid to go to school. We taught them a little bit of math and drafting. I’d say at least 80 percent of them ended up going to NMVTI.”
Albert said Dan Butts, a former NMVTI administrator, knew one of the Double Eagle II balloon pilots and approached him with the idea of creating a monument.
“Dan and Dick West, our department chair, came to me and asked if I could draw something up and make a replica of the balloon,” said Albert. “We made a welded eighth-inch by one-inch skeleton of the monument inside the sheet metal shop and had the students help weld them. We made metal strips that went around the skeleton, and I had them drill them and pop rivet them on.
“We had another group of students who made the gondola,” he said. “I think I tried to make it one-eighth scale proportionately to what the balloon actually was.”
Other NMVTI instructors assisted in the project. Bill Findlen dug the postholes and put the fencing around the site, Guy Jackson oversaw the carpentry aspect and made the benches that are at the park, Dave Guerrette, who was the automotive instructor, painted the sheet metal replica; Larry Gardner taught the students how to do the masonry work, and Sonny Michaud handled the welding component.
The Double Eagle II monument is about 18 feet tall from the ground up.
“The pipe holding up the monument goes into the ground about eight feet, and has fins coming out four feet with one-eighth black iron so if anybody hooked onto it with a pickup it would leave their bumper,” Albert said.
One bit of information that not too many people are aware of is that the students/instructors buried a time capsule inside the pipe that goes into the ground.
“It has a six-inch diameter pipe that holds the balloon up and goes down into the ground, and we decided to make a time capsule. It was a threaded pipe that has covers on both ends, and that was put inside the bigger, outside pipe,” said Albert. “Everybody put some stuff in it … a note or whatever. It will be in there forever.”
The memorial park was established in 1981 at the site of the balloon launch on the Spragueville Road in the Star City, five miles south of Presque Isle. The Spragueville Homemakers Extension oversees the park, and recently had a new, vinyl fence installed.
“The Extension held fund-raisers and accepted donations throughout the past year to replace the previous deteriorating fence,” said Extension member Ann Knight. “In conjunction with the upcoming Crown of Maine Balloon Fest, Extension members will showcase the fence while serving cookies and lemonade Saturday, Aug. 23 from 2-4 p.m.
“If anyone is unable to join us at this time,” she said, “we cordially invite the public to stop by the site at any time to view this worthwhile project.”
Photo courtesy of Northern Maine Community College
STUDENTS of the Maine Migrant Summer Youth Employment Program at Northern Maine Vocational Technical Institute created a sheet metal replica in July 1981 of the Double Eagle II at the site of the historic launch on the Spragueville Road in Presque Isle. Here, students and instructors work on establishing the base of the local monument, which is about 18 feet tall from the ground up.
Photo courtesy of Voscar
MAXIE ANDERSON, one of the Double Eagle II pilots, returned to Presque Isle Aug. 11, 1981 for the dedication of the Double Eagle II monument at the launch site sponsored by the Spragueville Extension. Students of the Maine Migrant Summer Youth Employment Program at Northern Maine Vocational Technical Institute created the sheet metal replica of the balloon for the park.