West Bend, WI – On May 25, 1930, the West Bend Municipal Airport was dedicated. Located east of the City on Highway 33, land for the airport was purchased by B.C. Ziegler, Dr. William Urkart, and Frank Groom. Courtesy the West Bend American Legion.
The 96 acres were then leased back to the federal government, which maintained the airport. Lt. Ray Dickop Post 36 was responsible for organizing the event.
According to an article “the field is well drained and has a beacon light and boundary lights and obstruction lights.”
Darold Hoelz, 96, of West Bend went into the Navy when he was 17; he got out when he was about 21. “It was July 1946 and in fall I was right back in school ….”
Hoelz said what he really wanted to do was fly planes.
“I had been on an aircraft carrier, I built model planes and my first flights with Jimmy Geib were in 1943,” he said. “In 1946 I started paying for my own time and in ’46 it was $6 an hour to rent an airplane. I got to learn from really good people.”
Hoelz said he wasn’t at the airport dedication but he did have an interesting observation about the kids in the photo. “When I was a kid, when you would get a suit you would get a pair of pants and you would get a pair of knickers and the kids running around in the one photo all have knickers on,” he said.
Hoelz said he recognizes the tree line in the background. “Those were the trees down by the river,” he said. “When I was working there were no paved runways, it was all grass. There were three runways and another going east and west.
“Nobody knows but at one time there was supposed to be a resort down by the river,” he said. “If you go down to the river there used to be a road down there along with a whole row of lilacs … but there are steps going down to the river.”
Hoelz said there were concrete steps on the north side. The resort never came to fruition.
There was a second airport in West Bend. “It was at Chestnut and Silverbrook,” said Hoelz. The photo below, courtesy Terry Becker, Aerial Blight Control – 12th & Chestnut, 1950.
“That field is where the dental offices are,” said Hoelz. “They took off and landed where Silverbook is.”
Cliff Ducharme built airplanes from scratch.
