You’re Going to Love This Colorado Daredevil’s Wild Story

Every state’s got a handful of legends, but in Colorado’s our legends live on a different level.

Maybe it’s the mountains. Maybe it’s the lack of oxygen messing with our good sense.

Either way, let us tell you about a guy who decided the best way to spend his life was walking across deep canyons on a rope. That would be William “Ivy” Baldwin.

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The Kid Who Literally Ran Off to Join the Circus + Fell in Love with Colorado

Ivy didn’t grow up dreaming of settling down somewhere quiet. Nope. At 12 years old, he packed up and ran away to join the circus.

While the rest of us were worried about math class, Ivy was busy learning how to walk a tightrope and take rides in a hot air balloon. Just a different level of childhood adventure.

The circus eventually brought Ivy to Elitch Gardens in Denver, and something musta clicked, because Colorado became home base for the rest of his daredevil career.

By the time he was 14, he had already done something most of us wouldn’t do for a million dollars -- he walked a tightrope stretched across Eldorado Canyon.

Most 14-year-olds can barely walk across the street. This guy walked across a thin wire hundreds of feet in the air, just swaying in the breeze, like it was nothing.

Not just once, either. Ivy walked that canyon more than 80 times. Imagine doing something terrifying once and then thinking, “Yeah, let’s run that back… another fifty or so.”

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Colorado Man Becomes International Sensation

Ivy didn’t just perform in the States. He became an international sensation, even performing for the Emperor of Japan, who was so impressed he gifted Ivy a silk kimono painted with his tightrope act.

He also once walked a cable stretched over the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco’s Cliff House out to Seal Rocks. No net. No harness. Just the ocean waiting below. Different breed entirely.

Most people slow down in their sixties. Not Ivy, he took a victory walk at 82 years old. At that age, you should probably be using a walker, not walking a tightrope.

On top of tightrope acts, he also became a pioneer in ballooning and parachute jumping. Over his lifetime, he logged more than 2,800 jumps. The man just didn’t believe in gravity the same way the rest of us do.

Ivy passed away in 1953 at age 87, still convinced he could do one more walk across that canyon. Honestly? I believe he could have, too.

Read More: From Maple Park to Modern Makeover: The History and Future of Whitman Park

The original wire he used in Eldorado Canyon was taken down in the 1970s, but the story hasn’t gone anywhere.

Ivy Baldwin is still one of the great thrill-seekers in Colorado history, a reminder that bravery isn’t always about wars or battles.