Milwaukee County's First Airport
Currie Park, Wauwatosa, Milwaukee County
One of the earliest publicly owned airports in the United States was established here on July 3, 1919, by the Milwaukee County Park Commission. The nation's first commercial air transport, the Lawson Airliner, took off from this field on August 27, 1919, on a demonstration flight to New York City and Washington, D. C., and returned on November 15, 1919. This two-engine biplane, 95 feet in wingspan, carried 16 passengers and two pilots. Milwaukee's first airmail was flown from here on June 7, 1926, by the Charles Dickinson Line, operating from Chicago to St. Paul via Milwaukee and La Crosse. This airport was deactivated during November 1926 when the need for more space led the county to purchase Hamilton Airport, the site of present General Mitchell Field.
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[Source: McBride, Sarah Davis. History Just Ahead (Madison:WHS, 1999).]