Over the years I’ve come across a number of tantalizing hints about an airport or maybe just a landing strip on or very near the Rice campus back in the late teens and 1920s. Here’s one of the most interesting, a page from the 1920 Owl Calendar. We talked about this a while back but unsurprisingly never could reach a conclusion about the location of this particular facility or whether there had ever been any landing field close to campus:
A couple days ago I accidentally found the answer. I was looking at the transcript of an interview done by Ray Watkin Hoagland (later Strange) with Gaylord Johnson ’21 ’23 ’25 back in 1978, just kind of happily reading along about the streetcars and Tony Martino and all the usual stuff about the early days. Then I saw this:
So there you have it. And don’t even get me started about that stubborn Captain Baker.
It also somewhat belatedly dawned on me that the incredible Anderson Aeronautical Collection located just steps away from my desk might also be of some help. And indeed here is a little snippet from the April 15, 1924 Aeronautical Bulletin Route Information Series–essentially visual directions–that explain what to look for if you’re trying to fly from Dallas to Houston and back. So, is this the same field or a different one?
Bonus: Now this is clever.
