Serving Midwest Aviation Since 1960
Serving Midwest Aviation Since 1960
Sorted by date Results 76 - 100 of 124
Interstate Highway 90 connects Boston to Seattle. It's the longest road in the United States. Like the first transcontinental railroad, I-90 was constructed from both ends toward the middle. When the railroad builders met in Utah in 1869, the last spike they drove was painted gold. The highway crews met in Blue Earth, Minnesota in 1978, commemorating the event by painting a "golden stripe" across the road. The stripe can be seen from the Blue Earth rest areas. Besides the historical...
In 1858, Minnesota became the 32nd State of the Union. The new state's most populous county had about 13,000 residents, but it wasn't named after Louis Hennepin or Alexander Ramsey. That honor went to Millard Fillmore, who was president in 1853 when the county was incorporated. In the 21st century, Fillmore County has a population of about 21,000. It may no longer have the most people of any Minnesota county, but it could well have the best scenery. This is a part of the state that resembles...
Starbuck, what a great name for a great town! The City wasn't named after the first mate in "Moby Dick," or the fighter pilot in "Battlestar Galactica." The consensus is it got that unusual name from a 19th century railroad tycoon, William H. Starbuck who financed the Little Falls and Dakota Railroad. Another story has the place named for a pair of oxen named Star and Buck who worked on building the railroad. Or maybe a railroad worker was having some fun at the boss's expense. No matter how it...
Litchfield has some great history. The City is named for E. Darwin Litchfield, whose brother was Egbert E. Litchfield, founded the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad. Darwin was a major investor in the Railroad. The town was settled in 1855 and incorporated in 1872. After the American Civil War, Union veterans formed the "Grand Army of the Republic", or GAR. It was much like the present-day American Legion with meeting halls and social events. The last original G.A.R. Hall is in Litchfield. It's a...
Waseca (wasecha) is a Dakota word. The first Europeans to visit the area interpreted it to mean "rich" but the Native Americans who inhabited the Great Plains at the time had no concept of monetary wealth. What the Dakota were saying is the place had "plenty of provisions." In any case, the name stuck. The City of Waseca (and the county with the same name) is in one of the most fertile (and thus well provisioned) regions of North America. Waseca was platted in 1867 and incorporated in 1881....
M*A*S*H was a movie and TV series about the Korean War (aka "Police Action").The setting is the 4077th Mobil Army Surgical Hospital between 1950 and 1953. In the opening scenes of both the movie and TV shows, a pair of helicopters carrying wounded soldiers are headed for the MASH. The helicopters are H-13 Sioux, or in civilian use the Bell Model 47. The Model 47 is a historically significant aircraft. It was the first helicopter certified for civilian use, and the first used extensively by the...
Minnesota is blessed with two great streams called Pine River. One originates in a chain of lakes in east central Minnesota, then flows north and east to join the Kettle River near Sandstone. The other, Pine River, joins the Mississippi near Crosby after rising in central Minnesota. Both are scenic rivers. They're excellent for canoeing, kayaking and tubing. The second one is better for pilots though, because there is an airport on it. The western river also includes the White Fish Chain,...
Aviation's golden age might have been the 1930s, but flying back then wasn't all that reliable. Equipment failures were common and many airlines used airplanes with only one motor. Emergency landing sites were needed. The economy wasn't exactly "golden" either. It was The Depression. People needed work! The US Government started a program to build airports for emergencies, which also created jobs. Willmar was on the proposed route from Minneapolis to points westward, making it an ideal...
East Gull Lake is a modest size town in central Minnesota. It was incorporated in 1947, but the community was there long before it became an actual city. About 2,000 people are full time residents. East Gull Lake is known throughout the upper Midwest for its resorts. In fact, the whole concept of a resort might well have been invented there. Just for the record, the City gets its name from being on the east side of Gull Lake. There is no West Gull Lake. Cragun's and Madden's are the two largest...
"A Solid Foundation" is the Dodge Center City motto. That's appropriate since the largest employer in town is Oshkosh Corporation, owner of the former McNeilus Truck factory. It's one of the largest manufacturers of Ready Mix concrete trucks in North America. McNeilus also makes trash-hauling equipment. That's garbage trucks, not cargo planes. The City got its name for being in the center of Dodge County. For some reason, the county was named after the Governor of Wisconsin, Henry Dodge. Dodge...
Even if you went to school 50 years ago in some exotic place like New York, there's a good chance your ring or year book came from Owatonna. Jostens (aka, Newell Brands) is probably the country's largest manufacturer of scholastic memorabilia. Founded in 1897 by Otto Josten, the company is just one of several that make Owatonna an economic success. Other local industries include tool manufacturing, insurance, and fabricating heating/air-conditioning equipment. One important reason for the...
Hector, Minnesota is named after a legendary warrior from Greek mythology. Hector, a prince of Troy, figures prominently in the story of the siege precipitated by the famous love affair between Helen and Paris. First told by Homer in the Iliad, the story has been less skillfully portrayed in several movies. The most recent was "Troy"' where Hector was played by Eric Bana. The Minnesota City comes by the name indirectly. Many of the early settlers came from Hector, NY and brought the name with th...
Backus Municipal Airport could easily be confused with an exotic wilderness retreat. The turf runway is 3,600 feet long and lighted. There are lots of tie downs.Hangar rentals are available for long term storage. A very nice log building has Arrival/Departure space, plus flight planning and a loft for meetings or quiet time. The building was constructed in 1996 and won the Project of the Year award from the Minnesota Council of Airports. Within walking distance of the airport are places that...
Cook County has only one City. It has three townships, eight "named communities," and a couple ghost towns, but only one incorporated City. If you only get one city, Grand Marais is the one to have. Once a commercial fishing port and logging center, Grand Marais is now the jumping off point for many wilderness adventures and a well know center for the arts. Getting to Grand Marais is an adventure by itself. One way to get there is to drive, following Highway 61 along Lake Superior to the extreme...
In Fosston, they work hard and accomplish a lot. A list of the talents displayed by the residents over the years would be rather long. Alphabetically, the first two things on the list of what they're good at are airports and basketball. Both aviation and hoops have a long and colorful history in this northwest Minnesota town. Fosston Municipal Airport has served the needs of General Aviation since 1946. The basketball story is a little longer, and begins in 1889. After World War II, a local...
In the spring of 1876, George Armstrong Custer was returning to Fort Abraham Lincoln after meeting with General Alfred Terry at Fort Snelling. He stopped in Hawley, possibly because another officer in the 7th Cavalry Regiment (Marcus Reno) had a cousin supervising railroad construction in the area. Incidentally, "Reno's Camp" was the first of six names the town had between 1871 and 1874. Custer went on to fame and notoriety at the Little Big Horn that sum- mer. Hawley grew into one of the most...
Milaca is a shortened version of Mille Lacs. The name, given to an area in Central Minnesota by 18th century French traders, translates as “Thousand Lakes”. Milaca is the seat of Mille Lacs County, but the County only has 34 lakes. The City is on a river that connects Lake Mille Lacs to the Mississippi. Water has an important role in the religion of Native Americans. The Dakota call it the “Spirit” or “Mystic” River. The French had a different kind “spirit” in mind and named it the Rum River....
"Morris is where agriculture and culture come together." That's how the City advertises itself, and it's very true. If you fly to Morris, the agricultural connection will be obvious. Some of the world's best farm land surrounds the Morris Municipal Airport. Morris has an airport with the "right stuff." That includes a 4,000-foot-long primary runway and a 2,600-foot-long turf "cross wind" runway. The main runway is paved, lighted, and features all the modern visual aids (REILs and PAPI). A VOR...
A Roman Legion consisted of about 5,000 disciplined and well trained soldiers. Two thousand years ago there were 30 legions in the Roman army, and they usually won their battles. Then, the Romans ran into a guy named Herman. In 9 AD, three Roman Legions were defeated in the Battle of Teutoburg Forest by a group known as the Cheruscans. Herman was the Cheruscan leader. He effectively kept the Roman Empire from expanding into a big part of what is now Germany. He is a national hero in Germany. A...
School days in the 1950s were sometimes punctuated by "Air Raid Drills". The Cold War was on. The Soviet Union had built a nuclear bomb. It was probably false hope, but we practiced taking shelter in the school basement. Some wealthy people even had bomb shelters in their back yards. Military experts figured Soviet bombers would reach the United States by flying over the North Pole. To get us enough warning to take shelter, a series of radar stations was built to detect the incoming aircraft....
In 1948 the Church of Christ in Tracy got a new pastor. About the same time the city opened its new municipal airport. These events are related, how? Pastor Homer Dobson was also a pilot. For 53 years he attended to the spiritual needs of his congregation while working to improve and maintain the Tracy Municipal Airport. He served on the Airport Commission, and for many years was the Tracy Airport Manager. Pastor Dobson learned to fly in 1946 when he was working in Carthage, South Dakota. His pl...
If any two Minnesota Cities could be said to have a lot in common, it would be Virginia and Eveleth. They share a geographic location called the Mesabi Iron Range, or simply "The Range." Both started out as logging towns. Erwin Eveleth was an important person in the lumber business. The city was named after him. Many of the early lumber jacks moved to the area from Virginia. They named the other town after their home state. By 1900 the local economy had shifted from logging to iron mining. That...
Moorhead has always been a transportation center. Early in the 19th century the route between the Mississippi and the Red River of the North was serviced by ox carts. A settlement sprung up where the cart road met the river. River boats then connected to Winnipeg and points north. Ox drivers and riverboat crews were a rowdy bunch. The settlement soon developed a reputation as "sin city" with over 100 taverns, plus some other establishments that added to the notoriety. By 1871 railroads had...
"Back in the "good old days" pilots could walk into a Flight Service Station (FSS). Weather briefings were delivered "over the counter" by one of the staff. At various times there were 10 FSS sites in Minnesota and one of them was at the Redwood Falls Municipal Airport. In the old FSS, the walls were festooned with charts and the ambient sound was the clatter of the teletype. In the 1980's, the FAA consolidated the Minnesota system into a single Flight Service Station and closed the one in...
Tom Foster "Life is not a dress rehearsal." Both pilots and Irishmen are naturally philosophical, so it should be no surprise to learn that these are words of wisdom from Joe Dooley. Better known as the Flying Irishman, Mr. Dooley was a local pilot and long-time supporter of the Hutchinson Municipal Airport. He learned to fly in 1977, but got bored with just flying around so he taught himself aerobatics. That turned into a long airshow career. Dooley did over 500 performances in his stock Pitts...
