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Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part column

With a spotlight on him, the Human Fly carefully climbed his way up Austin’s 121-foot-tall courthouse, reaching the metallic dome crowning it.

Yet, H.F. Pigman – the real name of the Human Fly – still wasn’t satisfied with his death-defying stunt that summer evening in 1924.

“For heaven’s sake! I hope he stops there and comes down,” a spectator said near an Austin Daily Herald reporter covering the spectacle.

On Aug. 2, 1924, Pigman, who had scaled 315 buildings over 30 years before Austin, opted to keep climbing the 1884 courthouse to reach a second, smaller tower. A strong wind “ballooned” Pigman’s sleeves and the back of his shirt.

“At the top, he lowered his head, stretched his legs upward and a headstand crowned the act,” the Herald wrote.

Pigman, a 46-year-old originally from Los Angeles, recently had moved to Austin to work as a carpenter, and his new community was in awe of his past work as the Human Fly.

But this would be a short-lived – and nearly fatal – revival of his Human Fly act after Pigman fell 45 feet from the courthouse in Albert Lea, making national news.

Pigman’s past

A Herald front page announced Pigman’s arrival to Austin after three decades of scaling buildings all over the country. Pigman planned on July 4 to make his “first venture of his spectacular occupation” in Austin by climbing to the courthouse tower.

“Austin is the home of one of the two ‘human flies’ who have thrilled crowds by scaling buildings without the aid of tackle, ropes or other devices of any kind,” the Herald wrote June 27, 1924.

Mower County’s courthouse would make the 313th building scaled by Pigman, who was asked if he ever had accidents during these stunts.

“No, never. You only have one of those,” said Pigman, whose tallest building scaled was 22 stories.

During the World Fair in 1893 in Chicago, Pigman created the idea of making money by climbing buildings – a feat unheard of at the time. A structural iron worker used to balancing himself on “perilous edges of structures,” Pigman scaled a building every day for 30 days during the fair.

Pigman went on to do many other climbs, including overseas in Japan, England and France. He credited his success to good living and eating and not drinking liquor.

During World War I, Pigman had his busiest period of stunts to “assist in Liberty Loan drives.”

When he started, buildings in larger cities were not as tall but the height didn’t make Pigman’s job any harder.

“The newer types of architecture usually provide ledges and projections that make them easy to scale,” he said. “And with me, it is a matter of finding some projections that will afford footholds.”

Pigman said he had climbed skyscrapers that were easier to scale than the courthouse in Austin, which featured a smooth surface giving “little chance for holds.”

First climb in Austin

“See Mr. Pigman, a local man, scale the Court House, most daring and thrilling feat ever attempted – We are engaging this act at immense expense, so take advantage,” stated a Herald ad.

As one a feature of the American Legion’s $10,000 celebration expected to draw thousands of people from all over Southern Minnesota, Pigman’s “death-defying feat” was advertised as “one of the hardest he has ever attempted to climb.”

The ad promoted a “Mammoth Street Parade” both days along with vaudeville acts, band concerts, fireworks, riding devices, 40 concessions, prominent speakers, Austin vs. Blooming Prairie in baseball, horse racing at the fairgrounds, auto races and a dance until 1 a.m.

On July 4, a crowd packed the courthouse grounds waiting for Pigman to scale the towering structure. But it was delayed 45 minutes to allow baseball spectators to get downtown. During the wait, “half-grown boys tossed lighted firecrackers into the seething mass of humanity to their hearts’ content,” the Herald wrote.

At 12:45 p.m., officials introduced Pigman and asked the audience to “maintain quiet and exert its influences in preventing the shooting of firecrackers” during his stunt.

Starting at the courthouse’s northwest pillar, Pigman quickly scaled his way up before various challenges slowed him at the third story. But he used a water spout to reach the roof.

“Two women fainted during exciting moments when Mr. Pigman hung suspended over the ledges, skirting the huge tower of the building.”

“Up, up, up the ‘human fly’ climbed” until he stood on a small tower’s dome. The crowd cheered loudly for Pigman, who waved a salute and “viewed the landscape around Austin from the highest point in Mower County – a point eight stories above the Main Street sidewalk, 170 feet from” the ground.

“It was one of the hardest buildings I have ever scaled,” Pigman said as he walked back down inside the courthouse, “but I did it fairly and squarely although not within the time I expected.”