Eyes on the Skies
By 1920, the idea of seeing aircraft flying over Cuba City went from being a joke, like this doctored image, to a reality.
The summer of 1920 saw many "airship" sightings that were reported in the Cuba City News-Herald:
June 25, 1920: Who said North Hollow was not on the map? On June 8 an airship flew over, going west and Friday, June 18 one came over flying east. This was quite a sight for our people. No doubt we will see more of the big birds of the air in the future. [Contributed by the correspondent from North Hollow, located southwest of Cuba City.]
July 2, 1920: In our last letter we forgot to mention the fact that...an aeroplane had passed over this place one evening. Several saw it but would not only that they heard it first. It was flying at a great height and was going southeast. [Contributed by the correspondent from Meekers Grove.]
July 9, 1920: A number of our citizens witnessed the southbound flight of the two Al. Wilson aeroplanes, Tuesday morning. They had been at Platteville for the hair-raising spectacle of changing from plane to plane in midair. [Al Wilson was a popular stunt pilot of the day.]
July 30, 1920: The Dubuque airship made us an up-in-the-air visit, Wednesday afternoon, while enroute home from New Diggings.
Even more exciting then seeing airplanes in the sky was experiencing flight as a passenger--something Cuba City residents had the opportunity to do at the town's Fourth of July celebration that year. More details on this to come in a later post!
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| Postcard, dated 1912. |
The summer of 1920 saw many "airship" sightings that were reported in the Cuba City News-Herald:
June 25, 1920: Who said North Hollow was not on the map? On June 8 an airship flew over, going west and Friday, June 18 one came over flying east. This was quite a sight for our people. No doubt we will see more of the big birds of the air in the future. [Contributed by the correspondent from North Hollow, located southwest of Cuba City.]
July 2, 1920: In our last letter we forgot to mention the fact that...an aeroplane had passed over this place one evening. Several saw it but would not only that they heard it first. It was flying at a great height and was going southeast. [Contributed by the correspondent from Meekers Grove.]
July 9, 1920: A number of our citizens witnessed the southbound flight of the two Al. Wilson aeroplanes, Tuesday morning. They had been at Platteville for the hair-raising spectacle of changing from plane to plane in midair. [Al Wilson was a popular stunt pilot of the day.]
July 30, 1920: The Dubuque airship made us an up-in-the-air visit, Wednesday afternoon, while enroute home from New Diggings.
Even more exciting then seeing airplanes in the sky was experiencing flight as a passenger--something Cuba City residents had the opportunity to do at the town's Fourth of July celebration that year. More details on this to come in a later post!
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