Eastern Iowa's Aviation Heritage

Iowans embraced aviation from its very beginning. In the late 1800s, Keokuk�s Baldwin brothers headlined Lee County Chautauqua festivals with balloon ascensions. Two decades later, early powered-flight daredevils like Lincoln Beachey, Glenn Messer, and Eugene Ely thrilled huge crowds along the Mississippi River from Decorah to Fort Madison. Dubuque�s Clifton �Ole� Oleson barnstormed from Oelwein to Mount Pleasant and in communities in between. Visionaries like the Livingston brothers from Cedar