Bingham Bulletin | 1929-11-28 | Page 6 | Muskogee to Replace the "Hat-Box" Airport

Muskogee to Replace The "Hat-Box" Airport Muskopee, Okla. Hat-boi field, whose register includes signatures of nearly every aviator of prominence, is to bow to progress after ten years as Oklahoma's pioneer private airport. A municipal field la to repluce the "Hat-box," w hose present steel hangar was erected by the army, following demands for a handy refueling point between Texas fields and northern cities. Little commotion was caused In aerial circles when Joe Witt, nn army aviator, leased a plot of ground here and built a one-plane wooden hangar shortly after the war. Nevertheless, It proved a convenient stop for army airmen. When Witt's ramshockle equipment , was destroyed by fire the army was asked to rehabilitate It Thnt was done, and a lieutenant was placed In command. One day a squad of nearly 50 army ships stopped, en route to maneuver in the North. Cramped in (the small field and struck by black and white vertical stripes on the hangar, the army flyers remarked, "Why, It's Just a hat-box 1" Thus the field was christened. Muskogee Is most hospitable to aviators. avi-ators. Invariably they are given "keys to the city" when they stop here. That concession Includes admission to all theaters and golf courses and special spe-cial hotel rates.