{"id":1346,"date":"2018-09-30T19:07:35","date_gmt":"2018-10-01T00:07:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adamshistory.com\/?page_id=1346"},"modified":"2018-10-12T10:32:13","modified_gmt":"2018-10-12T15:32:13","slug":"adams-county-in-the-air","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/new.adamshistory.com\/?page_id=1346","title":{"rendered":"Adams County in the Air"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adams County in the Air<\/strong><\/h1>\n

County People Caught the Fascination of Flight<\/h4>\n

By Harry Davis<\/p>\n

A \u201cBumpy\u201d Beginning<\/h4>\n

Adams County\u2019s first experience with the airplane turned out to be a non-starter.\u00a0 Wisconsin pilot Floyd Barlow \u2013 who promised to fly in \u201cRain, Shine or Cyclone\u201d\u2014promised to fly in to the 1913 Adams County Fair in Friendship on his tour of west central Wisconsin county fairs.\u00a0 Before he got to Friendship however, he \u201cbumped into a bluff\u201d at Durand and had to cancel the Friendship exhibition.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Other pilots and other planes later did come to central Wisconsin to give local people a taste of what it was like to be up in an airplane.\u00a0 In the 1920s, Adams County was often visited by Westfield flyboy Rellis Conant, whose brother John practiced law in Westfield and Friendship.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

A Place to Land<\/h4>\n

The first airport in Adams County was laid out in 1928 at what was then Berry’s Resort near Wisconsin Dells. The location is now the golf course across River Road from Chula Vista. Because it was on the Milwaukee Twin Cities airmail route, the runway was marked with directional arrows whitewashed into the grass and had a beacon light that rotated full circle when someone remembered to turn it on. How long the airport continued to be used is uncertain, but it was still there in 1933.<\/p>\n

Up, Up and Away<\/h4>\n

It was not until the 1930s that local\u2019s appetites were whetted sufficiently to pilot their own planes, which they then did with enthusiasm.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Some twenty years after Floyd Barlow missed flying into Friendship, another transient pilot was giving plane rides at the Adams County Fair.\u00a0 Two local young men, Shirley Johnston and Everett Erickson took plane rides that day and in so doing were bitten by the flying bug.\u00a0 Very soon the two were traveling to Wisconsin Rapids to take flying lessons for $6.50 an hour including instructor and plane.\u00a0 So far as anyone knows, Johnston and Erickson were the first native Adams County pilots, getting their pilot\u2019s licenses in 1936.\u00a0 A third pilot soon joined them:\u00a0 Bob Roseberry got his permit in 1938.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

The three pilots soon bought airplanes.\u00a0 Roseberry and Erickson went together and purchased a Rearwin Sportster.\u00a0 Johnston bought an Aeronca C-3.\u00a0 The three then built an airport complete with a frame hangar and grass runway in a field located at State Highway 21 and 18th<\/sup> Avenue.\u00a0 As to the aircraft, Roseberry\u2019s and Erickson\u2019s Sportster was traded for a Curtiss-Wright Junior and Roseberry later bought a J-3 Cub as well.[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

Over the next several years the pilots flew around the state landing at any clear flat space, visiting fairs, giving rides and giving flying lessons.\u00a0 Archie Davis, who became a military pilot in World War II, was one of their students as was the first woman pilot in the county, a schoolteacher named Jane Olsen.[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

Grounded<\/strong><\/h4>\n

World War II brought an end to that era of flying in Adams County.\u00a0 Shirley Johnston joi\"\"<\/a>ned the Army Air Corps.\u00a0 Everett Erickson became an American Airlines pilot based out of O\u2019Hare Airport in Chicago and flew Boeing 707s before his retirement in the 1970s.\u00a0 Bob Roseberry stayed in Adams County during the war, but had to move the planes to Wisconsin Dells because of wartime restrictions on aircraft.[6]<\/a><\/p>\n

Flying High <\/strong><\/p>\n

After the war, civil aviation resumed in Adams County with more and more residents becoming interested and participating.\u00a0 Attorney Donald Hollman flew his plane off a grass landing strip south of Adams during the 1950s.\u00a0 Later, Leslie Flott cleared a 1,800-foot runway on his property near County Highway M and 11th<\/sup> Avenue.\u00a0 In 1958 a forest fire burned a large area adjoining Flott\u2019s property including an American Legion Memorial Forest.\u00a0 After the fire, the local Legion post donated the former forest property to the county and the new Legion Field airport, named for the property donors, was born.\u00a0 Since it\u2019s opening in 1962 the Legion Field has been improved and expanded several times and has been the site of many successful flying events.[7]<\/a><\/p>\n

___________________<\/p>\n

This article first appeared in the Winter 2002 edition of The Quatrefoil<\/em> Adams County Historical Society newsletter<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Adams County in the Air County People Caught the Fascination of Flight By Harry Davis A \u201cBumpy\u201d Beginning Adams County\u2019s first experience with the airplane turned out to be a … Continue reading »<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":809,"featured_media":0,"parent":1323,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1346","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.adamshistory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.adamshistory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.adamshistory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.adamshistory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/809"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.adamshistory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1346"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/new.adamshistory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1413,"href":"https:\/\/new.adamshistory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1346\/revisions\/1413"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.adamshistory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.adamshistory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}