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Oral History |
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By Pappy Clay - January 24th, 1969 At the close of World War One (to end all wars) most citizens of the United States were in a happy festive mood. A number of Army War-plane Pilots went barnstorming over the country in an aerial-circus group doing stunt-flying and such, at County Fairs and other celebrations, including taking passengers up for short flights for a fare of around $2 each. Such were the circumstances in Ogden during May of 1919 so a citizen's committee arranged to have such an aerial circus as part of Ogden's celebration of the 50th anniversary of the "Driving of the Golden Spike" at Promontory Summit on May 10th, 1869, but the Fair-grounds in the north part of the city were not spacious enough for the take-offs and landings for such an exhibition and at that time Ogden had no official air-port, so the said committee went nine miles north to Utah Hot Springs Resort which operated a group of hot-water swimming pools and other attractions, and which resort owned around a thousand acres of land, partly on the hills east above and partly on the mineral flats west below the resort. The mostly chloride flats and had also converted the surface of said flats from being "just muddy" to an impregnated surface which was always damp and dust-free but with a rubbery texture which was very firm so that the Resort company operated a fine race-track for horse races on it in the form of a circular track one mile long within which was a half-mile circular racetrack with int which was a quarter-mile circular racetrack. The said committee was shown a very smooth 50 acre piece of this flat some distance (about a quarter mile) west of the Resort, and immediately west of the C.P. Railroad right-of-way, which would be ideal as a landing-strip for the aerial circus which was offered Free and was accepted by the committee. Therefore, on the evening of May 9th, about six ex-army bi-planes and a monoplane or two, landed on said 50 acres and were staked down for the night. The next morning, May 10, 1919, the crowds came from all around from Ogden to Brigham City and the aerial-circus was a great success and lasted all day long. Thus those Hot Springs flats, nine miles north of Ogden, became "Ogden's First Air-Port." At that time the W.A. Clay family were operating a fruit orchard, a roadside fruit-stand, a "hole-in-the-wall" grocery store plus a roadside gasoline pump located one mile north of Hot Springs on Highway 91. The gas-pump was between the roadway and the "Ogden, Logan & Idaho railroad track which ran north along Ogden and Brigham City. The aerial-taxi business of the fliers was so brisk that they used up their truckload of gasoline from Ogden and came up to our pump and had me haul a couple of drums of gasoline down to their flying-field on the flats and while I was down there I took three photographs of their air-planes being inspected by part of the crowd and which three photos are a part of this story. The children in the foreground are a mixture of the Housley, Woodland and Clay kids while the other persons in the photos are at present unknown. The aerial-taxi business was so good that the Circus stayed over the entire next day and then staked down for the night. They took off the next morning for parts unknown to the writer of this "Golden Spike Episode". |
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