Tuesday

A New Historical Marker in the Bootheel

A new historical marker was approved by the New Mexico Scenic Historic Marker by the Cultural Properties Review Committee at its December 10 meeting in recognition of Rodeo's first airfield.  The Rodeo Intermediate Field was built in the late 1920's as part of the national intermediate field system, a system of emergency landing fields built along early commercial aviation routes in support of the growing aviation industry.  The route through the San Simon Valley and Rodeo was flown by Standard Airlines (later to become part of TWA) and included flights from Los Angeles and San Diego to El Paso.  During WWII the field became part of the Army Axillary field system and additional buildings were added.  The radio building from the airfield now sits in Rodeo and is part of Rodeo Cottages.  The history of this project may be found at The Sky Gypsies.


Big Red Arrow pointing to El Paso

Former Radio building in Rodeo, New Mexico
 

2 comments:

  1. Very interesting reading of some history of aviation in the Rodeo, New Mexico area.

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  2. Thank you. Many do not realize that this isolated part of the bootheel has an aviation history, but the first aircraft to fly across the San Simon Valley was in 1911, the Vin Fiz, on the first US transcontinental flight of an aircraft. The background is on The Sky Gypsies.

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