On a warm spring day in 1945, six people near here, a woman and five children, were killed when a Japanese balloon bomb, or Fugo, exploded after their picnic party discovered the deflated balloon and gathered around it. They were the only known civilian casualties of World War II within the continental U.S. The bombs had been launched 6,000 miles away in Japan in retaliation for U.S. bombing raids on Japanese soil, and the Japanese military hoped they would ignite fires and create terror and panic. Although nearly 10,000 were launched and at least 300 crossed the Pacific to North America, the effort failed because few caused real damage and most detonated over remote areas. The U.S. government kept news of the arrivals out of the media, and with no reports of success, Japan abandoned the attack. Fugo balloons were made of glue-laminated mulberry paper filled with hydrogen, measured 33 feet in diameter, and carried up to 1,000 pounds of machinery, ballast, and explosives. Their mechanism used an altimeter to release ballast when the balloon dropped below a critical elevation; after all ballast was gone, each Fugo released its bombs and then self-destructed. The Mitchell Recreation Area honors Elsie Mitchell, the local pastor’s wife, and the five children who died with her were Richard Patzke, Joan Patzke, Edward Engen, Jay Gifford, and Sherman Shoemaker.