By Marjory J. Sente
On Sunday July 4, 1926, Prescott’s Frontier Days did not hold any cowboy contests, nor open the Northern Arizona State Fair. After religious and patriotic exercises were held on the Plaza, eyes turned to the sky for an aero show and flying circus. Ground activities included a model airplane contest and dedication of a new landing field, located eight miles northeast of the city on land leased from the Perkins Cattle Company.

Charles Franklin Parker recalled the event in the May 1947 Arizona Highways. “The open field was bladed and marked. Old Ford axles were gathered from local garages and used as tie downs for the ships, and a crew of fellows with shovels filled up the prairie dog holes.”

World War I flying ace and the first barnstorming pilot in Arizona, Captain Bob Hausler, was aviation director for Frontier Days and oversaw the arrangements for the day,