CELEBRATING 50 YEARS A Year-Round Presence: The Balloon Museum eople often wonder about the big building to has a strong educational emphasis, off ering interactive the south of the Balloon Fiesta launch fi eld. exhibits for children and families and a Weather Lab. Those who know what it is often think it is run In the Museum’s off site archives, its curators collect by the Balloon Fiesta. and conserve a large collection of balloon systems and That big building has a big name: the artifacts. This year, special exhibits honor Balloon Fiesta Anderson-Abruzzo Albuquerque founder Sid Cutter and recount the 50-year history P International Balloon Museum. It is part of the of the Balloon Fiesta. City of Albuquerque’s museum system (not The Museum off ers expanded hours and run by the Balloon Fiesta), but it is located in hospitality packages during Balloon Fiesta, but Balloon Fiesta Park and, of course, has a close it’s open all year and gives ballooning a year- connection with both the Balloon Fiesta and the round presence to be enjoyed by both visitors ballooning community in Albuquerque. to Albuquerque and residents. It also off ers The Museum is named after Ben Abruzzo special events throughout the year and gratefully and Maxie Anderson, two of the three men accepts donations through memberships and (the third was Larry Newman) who were fi rst other fundraising opportunities. The City of to cross the Atlantic Ocean by balloon. Both later went Albuquerque’s Balloon Museum website and the Balloon on to achieve other epic “fi rsts” in ballooning – you can Museum Foundation website both off er much more read more about it on page 188. Both tragically died in detailed information about the Museum, its programs, separate aviation accidents: Maxie while fl ying in the and additional material related to exhibits. Gordon Bennett balloon race in Europe, and Ben in a small plane accident in Albuquerque. In 1984, the year after Maxie’s death, the Anderson family began looking into the possibility of creating a museum to honor his memory and to preserve and promote the culture, art, science, and history of the world’s oldest form of aviation. After Ben passed away in 1985, the Anderson and Abruzzo families joined forces. It took two decades to realize the dream, with a lot of support from city and state public offi cials as well as the local ballooning community. But fi nally, in 2005, the new Balloon Museum opened its doors to the public. A The Museum contains exhibits ANT about the history of ballooning and the OR B T epic fl ights of Abruzzo, Anderson, and VIC others (including some of the gondolas Y O B and fl ight gear actually used during T their record-breaking exploits). It also PHO ® 250 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta