Question:
When I first moved to Anchorage, one would regularly see hot air balloons dotting the skies around Anchorage and Eagle River. Now, they’re gone. What happened? Was there some change in regulations, or in insurance? What would need to be done to bring them back?
Curious Alaska: For a time, Anchorage was hot air balloon heaven. Then cocaine and insurance costs ruined everything.
Well, not exactly. But the tale of what happened to hot air ballooning in Anchorage reflects broader change in a young city.
Anchorage’s balloon days seem to have commenced in the 1970s. Mike Bauwens thinks he brought the first hot air balloon to Anchorage, around 1976.