First Airship Flight in Lorain County – August 1910

Yesterday’s post highlighted the first airliner, which flew over the city of Lorain in August 1919 on its way from Toledo to Cleveland. Well, today’s post goes back even further in those early days of air travel.

Below is an article that appeared in the Elyria Republican – the “Pioneer Paper of the Western Reserve” – on September 1, 1910. It tells the story of Jack Dallas of Sandusky, credited with “the honor of having conducted the first airship flight which ever occurred in Lorain Co.”

In this case, the airship was a dirigible, specifically a Strobel airship, and the flight was arranged via a contract between Dallas and the Lorain County Agricultural Society. His flight took him from the fairgrounds to the downtown business district, down Broad Street to Lodi Street, over the courthouse, and back to the fairgrounds, where he circled the track to the cheers of onlookers.

This vintage photo from Ebay gives you a pretty good idea of what the spectacle looked like that day. The photo shows Dallas piloting a Strobel airship at a fair in Toledo, circa 1910.

To read more about Jack Dallas and the Strobel airship, visit this link on the www.earlyaviators.com website.

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Michael Brown
(Photos courtesy
Elko Daily Free Press)

The vintage newspaper article behind today's post was sent to me by Michael Brown of Nevada, who wrote to me in early January of this year. Michael has contributed to this blog before, in this great two-part series featuring his reminisces about Midway Mall.

Michael wrote, "I came across the attached and thought you might wish to use it. 

"Can you imagine flying in that hydrogen filled contraption?” he wondered. 

"At this time, the county fairgrounds were on the west side of Elyria,” he noted. "I understand the pilot crashed and was killed two years later in Seattle.  

"Lorain County saw visits in the 1920s and 1930s from several dirigibles, including the Shenandoah, the Macon and twice visited by the Los Angeles. The Graf Zeppelin was expected, but flew on from Detroit to Toronto.  I have never found any photos.”

During my last exchange with Michael, he was serving as President of BarrickGold USA, the nation’s largest gold mining company. I asked him how the gold business was going these days.
  

"I retired in 2018 and was recruited by oncoming Governor Steve Sisolak to join his cabinet,” Michael noted. "I am now the Director of the Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development.” Thus his full time retirement has been delayed a few years.

Michael believes in giving back to the area that he called home for many years. "I am in regular touch with LCCC and have a scholarship program there for emerging leaders,” he explained.  

He also keeps busy with his own research projects. “I continue to research interurban rail and the railroads of Grafton,” he noted.