MARTIN KIDSTON/Gazette Staff
Kevin Danz climbs into the cockpit of his Long EZ experimental plane on Saturday to give rides over Blossburg, where Cromwell Dixon landed to make aviation history 100 years ago.
MARTIN KIDSTON/Gazette Staff
Kyle Delaney, left, and pilot Mike Ferguson get ready to fly over Blossburg, where Cromwell Dixon made aviation history in 1911, becoming the first pilot to fly over the Continental Divide.
HELENA -- Experiment aircraft pilots and aviation buffs gathered over the weekend to celebrate Cromwell Dixon's historic flight over the Continental Divide 100 years ago.
Nearly two dozen pilots flying aircraft ranging from a T-34 Beechcraft Mentor to a Long EZ powered by a Lycoming engine celebrated Montana's history of aviation, which has included the likes of Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindberg and Dixon, among others.
"Dixon inspires me," said experimental pilot Kevin Danz, owner of the Long EZ. "The experimental aviation world has been growing so fast. It has opened up so many windows for me."
Danz and other pilots offered children free rides over the landing site west of Helena, giving their passengers a unique view of the mountain meadow where Dixon touched down at 2:33 p.m. on Sept. 30, 1911.
Others dressed in period costume with displays on Montana's aviation pioneers, including Katherine Stinson, who dropped mail sacks across the state in 1913 and became the fourth woman in the U.S. to earn a pilot's license.
"You just think of the thrill of being up there and how much has happened in the last 100 years, it's amazing," said pilot Leo Wadekamper. "I remember the old J3 Cubs as a kid. I learned to fly in the Super Cub back in 1959."
Wadekamper learned to fly five years before Lulu Dixon, Cromwell's sister, fulfilled a lifelong dream by returning to Montana in 1964 to see where her brother had landed in 1911.
The family tradition continued over the weekend when Lulu's grandson, Jeff Berry, arrived from Austin, Texas, to participate in the weekend festivities.
Standing on the tarmac, surrounded by a dozen experimental and vintage aircraft, Berry recalled his grandmother's stories about the early days of flight and her brother's bold endeavors.
"When my grandmother Lulu was alive, she always kept Cromwell's name in the forefront through a contact of hers at the Columbus Dispatch," Berry said. "She told me she and her mother, Annie Wooten Dixon, did some of the sewing and lacquering and cutting of his dirigible balloons."
Dixon, of Columbus, Ohio, began flying dirigibles at a time when the Wright Brothers looked to pursue and perfect heavier-than-air flight at Kitty Hawk in North Carolina.
Like many other pilots of his day, Dixon made the transition from balloons to biplanes as technology advanced, earning the 43rd pilot's license issued in the country.
In 1911, the 19-year-old aviator arrived in Montana for the state fair. He accepted a $10,000 challenge by John Ringling, Louis Hill and Lewis Penwell to attempt a flight over the Rocky Mountains, which many thought couldn't be done.
Flying a Curtiss Pusher dubbed "The Little Hummingbird," Dixon succeeded in the mountain crossing, touching down in Blossburg, in Lewis and Clark County. Headlines declared his performance the "greatest exhibition ever seen in the Northwest."
Three days later, Dixon crashed on takeoff and was killed in Spokane, Wash. His legacy was nearly forgotten until recent years, when publicity turned in Dixon's favor, thanks in part to pilots across the Northwest.
Last year, the "History Detectives" on PBS aired a segment on Dixon and this year, the Montana Pilot's Association dedicated their annual conference to his memory.
"One hundred years comes only once in my life," said Berry, who hopes to keep Dixon's name in the pages of history. "I think this is awesome, what can I say?"
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