Recounting the day of the terrible accident, the Fort Myers News-Press of March 3, 1920, told of the editor's conversation with Page the morning of the flight. "We'll probably encounter some bumpy weather and some air pockets, but we'll try to make it all right."
Before he hurried out the door, Capt. Page turned to the editor of this newspaper, a personal friend, and laughingly remarked: "And listen, Mort, cut that 'hero stuff' when you write a piece about the trip. If anything happens be sure to write a good story about it. So long."
Page was a World War I hero both highly respected and well liked in the community. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1893, he'd graduated from the University of Virginia and had come to Lee County with his parents in July of 1915.
When the war broke out, Page had walked ten miles to Fort Myers to enlist, but was rejected. He went to Memphis, Tennessee to join up, but was again rejected because he was underweight. Next, he traveled to Washington, D.C. where he asked Florida Senators Fletcher and Drane to intercede on his behalf. They did and he became the first Floridian to join the Army Aviation Corps.
Page was also the first Floridian to receive a commission as an officer in that branch. Officially, he'd been credited with bringing down three German planes on the western front during World War I and, according to the Press, was "known to have two other boche (German airplanes) machines to his credit."
In 1918, Page had received the Distinguished Service Cross, the Croix de Guerre and other citations. His loss was keenly felt in the small community.
The next significant event in the history of aviation in Lee County occurred on November 1, 1924 when the City of Fort Myers acquired a quarter of a section of land south of Fort Myers for $18,000 from Charles A. Stadler, president of the Stadler Realty Company.
The City intended to use the land as a municipal golf course. That wasn't to be and a portion of the land, now known as Page Field and so named decades later to honor Channing Page, was used as Lee County's first airport.
By 1926, the airport consisted of two runways, 300 feet wide which formed an L along two sides of the city-owned quarter section off the Tamiami Trail.
The chamber of commerce, interested in bringing daily air service to Fort Myers, invited Reid M. Chambers, president of Florida Airways Corporation, to a dinner meeting on February 15 at the Royal Palm Hotel. Chambers told the audience that in order for his planes to fly into and out of Fort Myers on a regular basis, the runways at the municipal airport must be widened, smoothed and an additional 2,000 feet of air approach provided.
The main problem, he explained, was that the ground was uneven and full of snags, palmetto roots and ruts. The large planes needed to attain a take-off speed of 60 m.p.h. and a landing speed of 56 m.p.h. When the planes, which had balloon wheels, struck roots and snags, they veered and it was hard for the pilots to keep them on the narrow runways. Major Chambers, making a difficult decision, said no more Florida Airways planes would land here until these problems had been corrected. He feared another accident would negatively influence public opinion nationwide.
He cited the fact that the landing fields were too small for the "gigantic machines" as the reason for the many delays and accidents to the planes on the way here from Detroit.
Chambers added, "The field is excellent for ordinary sized aircraft, but for the flying monsters that will be used in the air service, it is inadequate."
Chambers was accompanied by E. LeRoy Pelletier, advertising manager for the Rickenbacker Motor Company. The men had flown into town in their sister airships, the "Miss Miami" and the "Miss Tampa," creating quite a stir and luring a sizable turnout of local citizens who gathered at the field to see them land and take off. The event warranted front page coverage in the Fort Myers Tropical News.
Among interested spectators that day were Thomas and Mina Edison. When asked about flying, Mr. Edison replied, "I am of the earth, earthy. I don't know anything about airplanes," he admitted. "I shall wait for a helicopter, if I ever do go up." However, his curiosity prevailed and he examined the plane inside and out.
When asked if Henry Ford liked to fly, Edison responded, "No. He likes to stay on the ground just as I do."
Mrs. Edison and the ladies in their party climbed aboard the "Miss Tampa," and according to the Tropical News, "sat on the comfortable cushioned seats which could be transformed into couches, peering into the cockpit where the pilot sits, and exclaimed over the odd appearance of the inside of the wings in which the gas tanks are located."
The Fort Myers City Commission was supportive and realized the landing strips were inadequate. In a meeting the following day, the city commissioners voted to authorize City Manager C. P. Staley to go ahead with the construction of a 30-acre landing field and to clear the field for a runway. However, it was clearly brought out by Commissioner A. E. Raymond and others, "that this was a temporary measure and would not interfere with the municipal golf course which had been planned for the property."
At a special meeting on February 26, City Commissioners authorized Don W. Wilkie, secretary of the chamber of commerce, to travel to Tampa to learn exactly what upgrading needed to be done and to make a "satisfactory arrangement" with Chambers.
Chambers demanded a triangular airfield which meant the airfield would take more than half of the quarter section off the Tamiami Trail which the city had set aside for a municipal golf course. The Tropical News of March 4, 1926 gave the date of April 1, 1926 as the official deadline for having the field ready. To put the land in excellent condition, Chambers suggested putting a railroad rail between two tractors and dragging it across the field.
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