We all love to watch the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade that takes place in New York. All kinds of elaborately decorated floats, marching bands, entertainment, and the big attraction…the giant helium filled balloons that are navigated through the streets. Ever wonder where parade officials get all the helium required to fill the balloons? The answer….Otis, Kansas. A community of only 248 people, right in the middle of the state. It has a Co-Op, post office, library and a helium plant, and that’s about it.
The helium, in liquid form, is loaded onto trucks at the Otis plant and driven cross-country to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where it’s converted to gas. There is never a shortage of people at the Otis plant that want to make the trip to New York every year. They estimate the Otis plant supplies enough helium to the parade to fill half a million party size balloons. So, on Thanksgiving Day, when the Spider Man balloon comes down the parade route, you can tell everyone that all the helium to fill Spidey comes from Kansas.
Helium was discovered in Kansas in 1903
