Flowers Brought Flyers - Huffman Prairie Flying Field, Ohio
Posted by: DougK
N 39° 48.402 W 084° 03.703
16S E 751536 N 4410434
This sign tells how the Wright brothers remembered this field from a school field trip. They returned years later to use it as their flying field.
Waymark Code: WMFJ2T
Location: Ohio, United States
Date Posted: 10/24/2012
Views: 6
Flowers Brought Flyers
Young Orville Wright first came to this field, not to fly, but to sketch wildflowers. Orville's 9th-grade science teacher, William Werthner, regularly brought Central high School students to Torrence Huffman's property to study the unusual plants found there.
When the Wright brothers sought a place for their next flying trials, they remembered banker Huffman's pasture. A new electric trolley line would make it easy for them to reach this relatively isolated place from their workshop downtown. Mt Huffman let them use the field free of charge - as long as they did not disturb his cows and horses.
… a quiet reserved boy, faithful to his work, but not strikingly different from the rest … whom I would have forgotten had not his sister Kate … told me she was the second of her family … in my classes.
Science teacher, William Werthner,
speaking of Orville Wright
This is one of many interpretative signs on the flying field, telling the story of early flight.
Group that erected the marker: National Park Service
URL of a web site with more information about the history mentioned on the sign: [Web Link]
Address of where the marker is located. Approximate if necessary: along Symmes Road Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio USA 45433
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