Our Legacy
Acte Gratuit: A Gift To Our Nation & Humanity
Serendipitous Events
In the late 1950s, after drilling a well and confirming an aquifer, Jacques-André Istel bought over 2,900 acres of near-worthless desert land “to do something with in the future.” Over decades, inadvertently at first, he decided to create a work for future generations.
Meet Our Founder:
Jacques-André Istel
Early Life
Jacques-André Istel was born in Paris in 1929, the third of four children in a close-knit French family. He was mischievous, and deservedly disciplined. A pre-WWII French education was unbelievably strict by modern American standards.
In 1940 France was occupied by the Nazis. His banker diplomat father kept fighting from England, and his older brother escaped to Canada, joining then dying in the Royal Canadian Air Force. Jacques arrived in America at age 11 with the remainder of his family.
Jacques attended Stony Brook School as a boarder. A difficult time ensued due to loss of Country, separation from family, and lack of English. During summer vacations at age 15 and again at 16, he hitchhiked solo across the country, sleeping rough and taking odd jobs along the way. His experiences confirmed a taste for adventure while instilling immense affection for America.
Growing Up
The Christian Stony Brook School was strict. Along with spanking, each demerit earned two hours shoveling coal. In 1945, Jacques graduated salutatorian with a school record for penalties, admiration and respect for his teachers, and life-long love for the School. He entered Princeton University at age 16, graduating with a degree in Economics.
Now an investment banker, Jacques’s Wall Street job sent him to Canada to assess a road construction problem in a vast forest. Recommending stoppage and sale took time … enough time for Jacques to earn a pilot’s license! The forest sale earned his first ever bonus ($800), allowing the $625 purchase of a war surplus plane. He flew himself from Vancouver back to New York with only one crash and a passion for the sky.
Good bye banking and, with the Korean War, hello United States Marine Corps as a Private! The USMC in war and peace was to become a second family, and Jacques eventually found himself a Lieutenant Colonel.
Determined
If the motor fails in a single engine aircraft, by day one may glide to a field. At night: death. Hence, Jacques purchased a $10 parachute for night flying but, he wondered, “would I really jump?”
In 1950 there were no parachuting schools. He arranged a short how-to lesson with a paratrooper. “Count slowly to 3 before pulling ripcord or else the chute may hang up on tail of airplane.”
Jacques made his first jump in street clothes, a freefall with a difficult exit from a small Piper Cub. The opening shock was tremendous, often causing injuries, as was being briefly knocked out in a (helmet-free) hurtful, haphazard landing. But, after his understandable fear (“I was scared to death“), the silent descent was almost a religious experience.
“I must do this again.”
It was clear that the whole affair could be improved, and this is how he later – in solving these problems with his and others’ inventions – changed parachuting from a hazard to a sport. He is known as “the father of sport parachuting” (the title earns an “ugh” in his opinion.)
The sport became known as skydiving.
Parachuting
Before addressing a joint session of the Massachusetts Legislature, Jacques in landing brushed the arm of Governor Volpe; this while bringing in an appropriate manner the Act of Congress signed by President Eisenhower inviting the 1962 World parachuting Championships. He walked out of the State House as Chairman of a new State Commission, but with only half the necessary budget.
Photo credit: The Boston Globe
Events leading to this spectacle included:
- 1955 Becoming the only American stable in free fall after lessons in France.
- 1955 Facing disbelief as Air Force written doctrine stated such stability impossible. The US Army had banned free fall parachuting.
- 1956 Organizing training and leading a pick up team to the 1956 World. Championships in Moscow. Events required stability and accurate 180 and 360-degree turns, US placed 6th out of 10 teams.
- 1956 Brought back sleeve first seen in Moscow which locked canopy until jumper upright thus almost eliminating feared opening shock.
- 1957 Founded the world’s first sport parachuting company after developing means for accuracy and greatly reducing landing shock, partly with concept of very low porosity cloth in first sport parachute, his now in the Smithsonian Institution.
- 1957 Received contract to train US Army in Free Fall. His students becoming first members of famed Golden Knight Army Exhibition Team.
- 1958 His First Jump with Sport Parachute from a Military Jet proved that sport chutes did not blow up at high speed, a Defense contractor concern.
- 1961 Led the 4 man team setting first official day and night parachuting World Records for the United State.
- 1962 Organized and chaired as I-1 the first national Sport Parachuting Instructor Conference. Later US Army award “Honorary Army Free Fall Instructor #1.”
- Later in 1970’s After training tens of thousands of students in now several schools, a full page ad in TIME magazine “I INVITE YOU TO JUMP OUT OF AN AIRPLANE.”
- 1980’s Sold company, hung up rig, on to California desert to explore new horizons.
- NOW: Named “Father of Sport Parachuting now Skydiving”, a term he avoided as too close to a circus act for a then dubious 1950’s public. He remains amazed and delighted by the inventions and extraordinary feats in free fall skydiving of his successors.
Jacques-André Istel
Felicity
In 1985, Jacques and Felicia moved to the desert and created the Town of Felicity. Here Jacques wrote and published the first edition of a children’s book called, Coe: The Good Dragon at the Center of the World, in which it is revealed that a Good Dragon, while searching, found the Center of the World (universe).
A fairy tale is memorable and uncontroversial. Coe: The Good Dragon At The Center Of The World was presented to the Supervisors of Imperial County, CA as evidence that the Center of the World (set by invisible Dragon Coe) would indeed be located in the County of Imperial as soon as made OFFICIAL by their passing a law.
On May 21, 1985 it was written into law. The Official Center of the World™ with geographic coordinates Longitude: 114° 45’ 55.35” W, Latitude: 32° 45’ 1.38” N was confirmed by satellite (courtesy General Dynamics). A 21-foot granite and glass Pyramid was built to house the Official Center of the World™.
The following year, on March 11, 1986, Felicity was legally established as a town by the Board of Supervisors of Imperial County. A quote from Edward Gibbon, who wrote “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” encouraged Jacques – who was hesitating in view of the momentous and complex task – to undertake his next challenge. And so began the quest to build the History of Humanity in Granite.
Jacques-Andre Istel (Inspired by Edward Gibbon 1737-1794)
Mission
“To engrave in granite highlights of the history of humanity.”
The History of Humanity in Granite exists partly so that distant descendants, perhaps far from planet Earth, may view our history with understanding and, hopefully, with affection.
Arrive Intrigued, Leave inspired.
