Two kite hobbyists from Jamestown, N.D., brought their huge, colorful kites to Southside Regional Park Saturday. The Jamestown men drew a crowd of neighbors and passersby thrilled to watch the oversize “wings on strings,” including a dragon with a 30-foot wingspan that measured 80 feet from tip to tail. Photo/Taylor Wilson.

Nancy Edmonds Hanson

South Moorhead was looking up Saturday … up in the air, where a flock of mammoth kites floated above Southside Regional Park.
Hundreds came to witness the soaring creations. The most awe-inspiring was an enormous flying black dragon. With its wingspan of 30 feet and tip-to-tail measure of 80 feet, it was easily visible over most of the south half of the city.
As passersby paused to watch the spectacle, the question arose: Just who was behind the high-flying display? And why were they here?
“It was a spur of the moment thing,” reports Chris Dodson, who lives in Jamestown. “On Friday night we were talking about a great field for flying, It sounded like perfect weather, so we figured – why not?”
Chris and colleague Mike Gee brought some stars from their personal kite collections, joined by Dusty Colon of Fargo, who had clued them in to the park’s advantages: An expansive space free of fences and power lines. By 8 a.m., their brilliantly colored wings were flying high. The trio spent most of the day on the site, packing up about 5 p.m.
Chris and Mike are part of Jamestown’s Wings on Strings, the highly informal coterie of kite flyers that sponsors Jamestown’s three-day kite festival each June. The event, now in its 26th year, draws kite lovers from as far away as New York State and Oregon, Chris says. Members of the group participated in a similar festival in Medora shortly before their foray to Moorhead.
Some local children brought their own kites to fly the usual way from the ground. The visitors’ kites were a different matter. Too large to fly by hand, they were staked securely to the ground. “These are big,” Chris notes. “They’d lift you right up if you tried to hand-hold them.”
Grown-up kite flyers like Chris generally started smaller. “I’ve been flying kites since I was a kid,” he says. “About 25 years ago, I got back into it.” Serious kite fans have their own arsenal of creative shapes, far from the familiar diamond shape of Charlie Brown fame. While many make their own, some of the most spectacular come from specialists. Chris’s black dragon was born in New Zealand.
It was a good day for the flyers as well as the audience drawn to watch. “The wind was perfect,” he said of the 8- to 12-mph breeze. “This is one of the better locations we’ve ever seen.
“We had a great time. The people were fantastic,” he says. “So many expressed their appreciation, and we all had fun. That’s what it’s all about!”