First Airplane Landed in Sheridan in June of 1919

Today, we take airplanes for granted. Many of us have flown, either cross country or even international. Planes carry our mail, packages, freight, and are used to bring supplies during emergency situations. They are used to fight fires, spray crops, in war; and many people fly small planes for pleasure. Since the Wright Brothers famous flight in 1903, planes continue to affect our lives.

Planes were first used in war in WWI, and the pilots often confronted the enemy in ‘dogfights’. The pilots in each plane tried to out- maneuver the other to get a clear shot at the enemy pilot, often with hand guns. Later, machine guns were mounted on the airplanes, and an era of air combat began.

The first planes used in war were the biplanes and triplanes, with two or three wings stacked on top of the each other. Today, planes are monoplanes, with one wing, either low, with the wings sitting low on the fuselage, or high, with the wings above.

Most towns of any size have an airport for convenience of travelers, both for business and pleasure. Large airports, such as DIA in Denver, Colorado, which in 2019 was ranked as the fifth busiest airport in the country, have flights going in and out at all hours. DIA has six runaways, 24 regular airlines and, in 2019, they had around 1700 flight movements per day.

Although today airplanes are commonplace, in 1919 they were a rare sight. On June 22, 1919, The Sheridan Post there had this headline. First Airplane To Make An Overland Journey And Alight In Sheridan Like the first robin that comes as a harbinger of spring, to be followed later by his mates, the first airplane to ever reach Sheridan from an outside point, but which ‘will no doubt later be followed by birdmen in flocks, arrived in the city yesterday morning from Forsyth Montana. It was a Curtiss biplane, driven by Lieutenant F. S. Woolston who carried with him B. H. Edmister cashier of the American National Bank of Forsyth.

Lieutenant Woolston hopped off at Forsyth at 6 o’clock yesterday morning and arrived Sheridan at 7:20, his flying time being one hour and twenty minutes. As the distance is 140 miles it means that he made better than 100 miles per hour.

Arriving here Lieutenant Woolston made a successful landing and later went against the air and for a considerable time maneuvered over the city. Shortly, after 10 o’clock he again landed on the plateau near the fair grounds where the machine remained yesterday visited by hundreds who were attending the races.

Lieutenant Woolston made the early morning flight from Forsyth in order to attend the race meet and will probably remain for several days. Lieutenant Woolston was formerly in the aviation corps, holds a pilot’s license and has made successful flights in the machine which he purchased in the east.

However, it didn’t take long for enterprising businessmen to discover how planes could be put to good use. In The Sheridan Enterprise, August 15, 1919, Enterprise to set new Precedent. An Airplane for Sheridan Purchased by Carl Griffen and Dr. G. H. Buffum, Will Take Airplane Extra on Initial Trip

Establishing a new precedent in the history of newspaperdom in Wyoming, The Sheridan Enterprise will, within the next two or three weeks, deliver an airplane edition to Buffalo.

Arrangements for the delivery of a special airplane extra to Buffalo were consummated at noon today between The Enterprise and Carl Griffen and Dr. George H. Buffum, following the announcement that they have purchased an airplane to be used in this city by Dr. Buffum for professional calls in the country and commercial and exhibition flying. The machine is a two-seated Curtiss bi-plane purchased from the Aero Exchange in New York. It will arrive in Sheridan from New York in the near future and will be set up and ready for personal calls on or before September 1.

The initial flight of importance, after this plane has been thoroughly tested, will be made from Sheridan to Buffalo for the special purpose of delivering 500 copies of The Enterprise immediately after press time. The papers will be dropped over the city of Buffalo in parachutes and delivered in Buffalo within approximately one-half hour from the time of publication.

Carl Griffen will pilot the plane on the journey to Buffalo and return and he will have with him as his passenger Miss Vernetta Stager, society editor of The Enterprise, who will drop the papers in parachutes as the plane makes a series of “side swipes” and circles in an exhibition flight over the city.

In taking Miss Stager as a passenger, Young Giiffen has assured the management of The Enterprise that the journey will be absolutely as safe as a trip via auto.

“We will demonstrate to the public that there is no danger in the machine we are purchasing,” he said. “In a short time, we expect that any hesitancy on the part of Sheridan people over the possible hazard that is taken in making trips of this character will be overcome and we expect to be able to take many ladies as passengers.”

Special staff correspondents will “cover” the start, arrival and return of the plane on its initial trip while elaborate preparations are going forward to expedite circulation service for The Enterprise in Buffalo for this occasion.

If air currents are favorable, the plane will be able to make the journey from Sheridan to Buffalo in less than less one-half hour. The average speed of the plane is 85 miles per hour.

Grlffen has had three years experience in aerial navigation and in night flying during his service in the aviation section of the army. He has never had a serious accident. In engaging in commercial flying out of Sheridan, Dr. Buffum and Griffen plan to take passengers for a fee of $1 per minute. For each dollar spent, they agree to advance their passenger more than one mile through the air. Use of the plane in the forestry patrol to report forest fires is also contemplated.

Other uses were detailed in the next two articles.

The Sheridan Enterprise, June 21, 1919: Hops Into Airplane Flies To And City To Take In Racing: Hopping into his Curtiss airplane at his home at Forsyth, Mont., early this morning, Joseph E. Leiter flew to Sheridan to take in the races, arriving here in two hours. For several hours today the plane circled over Sheridan. The plane is used by Mr. Leiter to herd cattle on his ranch near Forsyth. This is an innovation in cattle herding although it may become very common in the future. A cattle herder with an airplane has a unique advantage with a machine in that he can cover a large territory in a short time and keep trace of a larger herd of cattle with greater facility.

In the Intermountain Globe, Hulett, June 1919: From the San Francisco Chronicle. The department of agriculture has adopted the airplane to its needs and plans to have a large fleet of machines to serve the farmer and lumberman during the next six months, according to an announcement from Washington recently. The machines will be used to find forest fires, map out forests and be used for other surveys.

Today, planes not only spot fires, but are also used to fight them. In the Museum of Flight and Ariel Firefighting in Greybull, there are exhibits and information about using planes to drop slurry, or fire retardant, on the fires.

Other uses included helping a marooned family in Nevada, from The Sheridan Post February 22, 1922. Airplane Saves a Marooned Family by the Associated Press Reno, Nevada, Feb 21. — Marooned from the rest of the world with no means of replenishing their food supply, the father, mother and two children living on a homestead twelve miles north of Reno were saved from possible starvation today by airmail service, which sent food in the laden plane to the district and dropped three large sacks of food in the yard as it circled over the house. Heavy storms had prevented the neighbors from reaching the house even on horseback. It took the plane half an hour to complete the errand.

In the Glendo Pioneer, Glendo, Wyoming, May 11, 1921. Storm Damages Wires Wyoming Telegraph Lines Suffer from Recent Storm: Another Use Has Been Found for the Airplane. Due to the heavy, wet snow of last Friday, serious damage was done to the lines of the Postal Telegraph Co. between Rawlins and Rock Springs and the general manager of the company has been making arrangements with an airplane company for the use of two machines to carry foremen over the line to find the breaks and by using the air route it is claimed at least twenty hours’ time can be saved. It is estimated that the use of the two planes would run between $500 and $600 but the rental of the wires amounts to something like $50 an hour. The inspectors would fly over the lines and locate the breaks and report them in, a crew of workmen can be sent directly to the break, thus saving great deal of time.

And some newspapers, like the Campbell County Record, March 17, 1921 predicted the future.

Giant Airplanes. Airplanes of the future, required to make long overland journeys, will be specially built for this purpose, probably with multiple engines, with a fuel supply capable of 24 hours or more. Indeed it’s possible to build such a type of craft at the present time, flying hundreds of miles with unfailing regularity over deserts, mountains, cities and villages in all kinds of weather with an absolute freedom from danger, which is more or less prevalent in war type airplanes in use at the present time. The cost of the upkeep of an airplane and the salaries of the pilots and mechanics to keep the machine in order would soon be paid for out of the sums now given for slower rail and boat transportation, for horses, carts, pack trains, etc., necessary for desert transportation.

Perhaps the writer was clairvoyant. Today, of course, planes fly in nearly all types of weather, and fly thousands of miles, even overseas. For example, the air travel distance from New York to London is equal to 3,470 miles. From LA to New York is a little under 3,000 miles.

However, the Col. J.G. Vincent, Automobile Engineer, wasn’t quite as prophetic in an article from The Homesteader in Wright, Wyo., on May 6, 1921. Airplane Soon to Become Quite as Economical as the Automobile. In the matter of costs, airplanes will in due time become a form of transportation almost, if not quite, as economical as the automobile. There are airplanes today which carry six passengers at the rate of 100 miles an hour and make ten miles to the gallon of gasoline. Two other factors are tremendously in favor of the airplane. The first is the fact that the airplane requires no rails; not even a road to travel on. Its only requirement is landing fields, and these can be easily and cheaply prepared and maintained. The other saving in respect to airplanes is in tire cost and the maintenance bills. The saving in tire cost will be almost 100 percent. Until recently the repair bills have been large because of the somewhat experimental character of the machines and lack of skill in landing. Both of these handicaps have been almost entirely eliminated. The price of an airplane is at the present far beyond the reach of the average person, but this too will be changed within a short time.

Today, commercial plane travel, especially over long distances, is much faster and almost as economical as driving, but better highways have made auto travel easier than it was in the 1920s, and few people, even now, can afford to trade their automobile off on an airplane.

Today, as we board an airplane to fly off on a business trip or a vacation, remember that only 103 years ago this month airplanes were a new and unusual mode of travel and commerce. The first one landing in Sheridan created quite a stir.