Then & Now: A History of Rice County, Faribault & Communities

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George W. Batchelder House, E. Division Street (early days)
George Luedke, Ralph Temple, Stewart Shaft,
Lawrence Merrill, Lloyd Schreiber and James
Burmeister, Burmeister had a share in the club, but
never did any flying. The field instructor, at that time,
was Neil Sorenson who now lives in Minneapolis.
This field was used until the City of Faribault built
the present airport along the south side of Trunk
Highway No. 21, northwest of Faribault. The City of
Faribault bought the Henry Johnson farm property,
described as follows: the S E lf4 section 14, Wells
Township that lies South of the Shieldsville Road which
contained 90 acres more or less, on July 1, 1944. The
city developed the 90 acres into an airport in 1946 or
1947.
On April15, 1948, the city secured theSE 1f4 of S.W.
114 Section 14-TllON-R21W, 40 acres, from Cora Ryan
and others. The City made further improvements to
the airport and it now has a 3000x75 foot paved runway
and a 2600 x 200 foot sod runway.
There has been a number of hangars constructed
over the years and several local and out of town people
keep their planes there.
Air Festival Held
An Air Festival, reflecting increasing interest in
aviation, was held at the Faribault Municipal Airport
on August 19, 1954, attracting several thousand
persons.
Twenty-five planes flew in from the surrounding
area to participate in the first event of the day, a
breakfast flight event sponsored by the Junior
Chamber of Commerce.
Oldest pilot was 39 while the youngest flier was
22-year-old Ken Wyhre of Austin. Oldest plane was a
1946 Taylor Cub piloted by Fred Lockwood,
Minneapolis. The pilot traveling the greatest distance
was Barney Weber of St. Paul who also flew the
smallest plane, a Mooney Mite.
Feature of the Show was a new Navy helicopter
flown by Lt. Molder of the U.S. Naval Station,
Minneapolis. The plane was used in a Civil Defense
demonstration. A unique flight of progress was staged
with a 1941 model Waco and the new Beechcraft
Bonanza being used to show relative speeds of old and
new aircraft and changes in design. All speakers of the
day stressed the importance of the airport to civilian
and military needs.
The Faribault improved airport officially was
dedicated on July 26, 1959 with 500 fliers in 161 planes
and hundreds of local residents participating. State
Senator A. 0. Sundet of Faripault was the speaker at
the dedication ceremonies.
A novel Penny-a-Pound airlift was conducted from
1 to 8:30 p.m. Proceeds were to be used to furnish a
room at the new Rice County District One Hospital.
Fifteen planes gave rides affording passengers a
graphic birds-eye view of Faribault.
Improvements made at the airport include:
addition of 1,000 feet of hard surface runway;
installation of running lights; rotating beacon; lighted
wind sock; safer blacktop taxiways. All improvements
were approved by the Federal Aviation Agency. These
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