Denison History

October 17, 1911, the day that the Vin-Fiz became the first airplane to be seen in Denison. The plane, piloted by Calbraith P. Rodgers, had taken off from McAlester, OK on one leg of the first coast of a coast flight from New York to Los Angeles.

The aviator had take off 30 days earlier form Long Island, N. Y. in attempt to win the $50,000 prize offered by Publisher William Randolph Hearst to the first man to fly form New York to San Francisco in less than 30 days. Weather and machinery failure cost him any hope of winning the prize, but he continued on to fulfill his contract with the sponsor for this historic flight, J. Ogden Armour. Armour was using the flight to promote Vin Fiz, a new grape drink that sold for a nickel and was hailed as "refreshing and invigorating."

Denison's brief experience with the history making flight was vividly recalled by Fred Sisson. Sisson was at work at the Katy Shops the morning of the eventful flight made without benefit of navigational aids.

To guide the plane a special train was operated by the Vin fiz company, containing a passenger car with its top painted white as a beacon. Rodgers' wife, Mabel, his cousin, Lt. John Rodgers, Crew Chief Charles Taylor and other members of crew occupied the other cars. Dubbed the "white hangar," the special car was also a first aid center and machine shop. It held spare parts and rumor suggested a coffin, "just in case."

Sisson recalled that word of the flight over Denison arrived days ahead of time. "Most of the men at the Katy Shops climbed up on building roofs long before the plane was due. When the foreman couldn't get us back to our jobs, they climbed on the roof with us. The fire bell started ringing as soon as the plane was sighted coming in from the north, and it rang until the aircraft passed on to the west," Sisson told the reporter interviewing him in 1959.

After arriving in Fort Worth Rodgers followed the Katy tracks on to San Antonio, where the smallest plane made by the Wright Brothers, weighing less than 800 pounds, was overhauled. Rodgers then headed west along the Southern Pacific line.

Rodgers continued to be plagued by weather and machinery failure. Rodgers had his share of problems in Texas where he admitted he had spent more time on the ground than in the air. He said, "I'm the only aviator on earth who had a tire punctured by cactus spine."

He went on to finish his contract with Armour and became the first man to fly across the continent. Cal Rodgers utilized 49 days to travel 3,350 miles, flying mostly on the "not straight as the crow flies" route.

Soon after he reached California Rodgers fell into the ocean while "chasing sea gulls," and was killed. His plane was in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.. in 1959 and we assume it is still there. However there wasn't much of the original machine that hadn't been replaced by the time Rodgers reached California.

This material was provided courtesy of Donna Hunt. She can be contacted at dhunlimited@texoma.net