Yukon who is who

John Leonard

John Leonard was an “aeronaut.” Yukon’s first balloon ascent took place in West Dawson in 1899 and attracted an estimated 10,000 people who lined the shore of the Yukon River. Leonard performed aerobatic feats on a trapeze under the balloon. When he reached about 500 feet and was near the west bank opposite Third Street, he unhitched a parachute and after dropping into the Yukon River he swam to shore. The balloon circled over the city and, rapidly losing air, disappeared over the hill opposite Church Street. The balloon was recovered about an hour later and taken back to West Dawson. Leonard passed the hat after his performance. By September, his shows were drawing a large percentage of the Dawson population. On Labour Day, he dropped about 150 feet from the balloon and then was carried down to the roof of the North American Transportation and Trading Co. (NAT&T Co.) warehouse by his parachute. When the parachute lost air with the landing, Leonard fell from the roof and injured his hip and body. A spectator was heard to say he would rather go through White Horse Rapid on a cook stove than tackle ballooning. Leonard cancelled a scheduled Grand Forks performance and went outside for the winter.¹⁾

Leonard returned in May 1900 and did several performances until late June when he left the Yukon. He went to Nome where he performed several times in 1900. It was, if anything, even more dangerous there as twice the wind blew him out to sea. On one occasion he took a photographer up with him for spectacular photos of Nome. He returned to the Yukon in May 1903 with stories about travelling the world. He planned three exhibitions before returned south to join forty other aviators performing at the St. Louis Fair. On May 25th, he did a performance in Whitehorse and on June 25th he did another in Dawson. A crowd of about 1,000 watched him plunge into the Yukon River at Dawson and he did quite well as he passed the hat. His last performance was made close to Dawson’s celebration for July 4th.²⁾