A History of Aviation in Lee County, Florida
By
Prudy Taylor Board and Esther B. Colcord
Commissioned by the Lee County Port Authority
on the occasion of the tenth birthday of
Southwest Florida International Airport
May 14, 1993 Fort Myers, Florida
Fred Bartleson
Roland Eastwood
Bill Fussell
Porter Goss
Roland Q. Roberts
County Attorney-Jim Yaeger
County Administrator - Lavon Wisher
Director of Airport - Gary LeTellier
May 1993 Lee County Port Authority
Board of Port Commissioners
John E. Manning, Chairman
John Albion, Vice President
Ray Judah
Franklin B. Mann
Doug St. Cerney
Port Attorney - Jim Yaeger
Executive Director - Paul Doherty
A History of Aviation in Lee County, Florida
Wing walkers.
Barn storming.
Daring pilots in bi-planes lowering rope ladders to even more daring lady acrobats riding in touring cars who climbed the ladders while the planes circled the field and then descended to the touring cars.
Tri-motor Ford aircraft made of corrugated aluminum and nicknamed "tin geese."
These exciting machines, these dare devils and their feats were part of the early history of aviation that held the entire nation in thrall.
The residents of Lee County were no exception. Cautiously, intrepid local pilots landed in grassy meadows, trying -- not always successfully -- to avoid ruts and stumps. The list of those pioneer "flyboys" reads like a Lee County who's who: Carl R. Roberts, C. Franklin Wheeler, Cliff Zeigler, Carl Dunn and the Holladay brothers -- Warren, Randolph and Richard.
In Lee County, the recorded history of aviation begins in 1918 when a landing strip was built at Fort Myers Beach, then called Crescent Beach. Two airstrips had been constructed at Carlstrom Field in Arcadia by the Federal Government for the purpose of training Army Air Corps pilots during World War I. Student pilots would fly from Arcadia to the landing strip on the beach on their days off to sun, swim and watch the girls.
Not all the aviation history was that light hearted. On March 2, 1920, occurred an event that was described by the Fort Myers Press in a headline that read, "MOST APPALLING TRAGEDY EVER KNOWN IN LEE COUNTY OCCURS NEAR EVERGLADES."
The article reported that Capt. Richard Channing Moore Page, piloting a Curtiss Sea-Gull, was transporting G. Hunter Bryant, tax assessor, on County business. With him was Thomas H. Colcord, his "mechanician." According to an interview with eyewitness George Storter written up by Nell Colcord Weidenbach in 1988, "After completing the tax assessments at Naples and Marco, they headed for Everglade, where they could land on the nearby Barron River.
"The hydroplane was maneuvering in a circle in order to land on the river...the plane hit a dreaded air pocket and suddenly swerved. It sideslipped and fell to the earth from a height of some 50 feet." The three men were killed.
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