By Ed Shannon, staff writer

Back in 1927 there was an opinion expressed by several local folks that a portion of the Freeborn County Fairgrounds on North Bridge Avenue could be used for several more practical purposes.

This grassy area was located inside the oblong race track at the fairgrounds which wasn&8217;t then really being used for anything at all. Somehow, the thought of this unused portion of land became a challenge for members of the Freeborn County Agricultural Society (the fair board) and the Albert Lea City Council.

On April 25, 1927, the City Council approved an appropriation of $1,000 to start converting this parcel of land into a combination of aviation and athletic field.

The area within the race track would become the city&8217;s new airport, plus a football field and a baseball diamond. The rest of this money for this project would supposedly come from local residents through fund raising drives and from the fair board.

Promoting this concept of a combined facility were Bennett O. Knudson, a local attorney, and Lloyd Blakely, secretary of the fair board.

According to a Tribune news article on April 26, 1927, &8220;The field will occupy the entire area of land inside of the fairground race track. … All the trees in the center of the track will be cut down and grubbed out. … The plan is to make the inside of the track as smooth as the table.

&8220; This can be done by cutting away the knolls at the north and south ends and throwing the dirt into the low places. The race track which … was prepared for auto racing with the thought that the horse racing was a thing of the past will be put back into its original position. Horse racing is too popular to be killed off by automobiles.&8221;

One of the automobile racers who used this track, incidentally, was a person named Sig Haugdahl who then had a close local connection.

The concept of having aircraft land and take off from the local fairgrounds wasn&8217;t an impossible idea at all.

Eight decades ago this area north of the city was mostly rural. Also, in this era the airplanes were lighter and could land and take off on fairly short grass runways. One of the more popular landing fields in the early days of aviation was a cow pasture (minus the cows).

In fact, the fairgrounds had been used by aircraft prior to 1927 on several occasions. What were then also called aeroplanes became a part of the grandstand entertainment at five known fairs.

A check with old Freeborn County Fair programs indicate the first aircraft may have been a part of the program in 1911. The fair that year took place Sept. 20-22 and a Curtiss Aeroplane made three flights.

The year of 1912 was a significant one for the fairgrounds area. That&8217;s when an electrical connection was made for the buildings. Between Sept. 18-20 the Mills Aviators came with their biplane and performed various aerial aerobatics. An old photo in the files of the Freeborn County Historical Museum library confirms this aircraft&8217;s visit to the fairgrounds.

For the 1916 fair, held Sept. 13-15, &8220;Dare Devil&8221; Charles T. Mills made two flights daily.

The 1920 fair, which took place Aug. 31-Sept. 3, featured two aircraft. One was for giving rides to people attending the fair who looking for what was then an unusual thrill. The second plane was for stunt flying.

For the 1921 fair held Aug. 29-Sept. 1, a group called the &8220;Veteran Flyers&8221; presented a program based on aerobatic stunts and parachute jumps. These aviators may have been former U.S. Army pilots who served during World War I.

About this time and into the 1920s some of the pilots were called &8220;barnstormers.&8221; They flew their planes from town to town to present aerial shows and to give airplane rides for the public.

One of the reasons given for the city to have a designated airport in 1927 was based on rhe federal government setting up air mail routes. A top priority for this service would go to the communities with airports.

Blakely volunteered to raise $500 from area residents to be added to the $1,000 set up by the city council. He said the fair board would take care of the rest of the construction expense.

The 1927 Tribune news article said, &8220;When the (air)field is completed Mr. Blakely says that baseball and other athletics will take place on this field. The schools will also have access to this field for any of the athletic games. Polo games, the real games, where the horses play an active part, are being planned along with other sports of the season.

&8220;Without doubt the establishing of the landing field will put Albert Lea more strongly in the limelight. It will show that Albert Lea has the vision of what is to come in the very near future and by acting will be placed among the progressive cities by the aviation heads of the country.&8221;

However, the concept of a multipurpose area inside the fairgrounds race track never became a reality. For example, what would happen if a baseball game was taking place and an airplane wanted to land? Also, there would be the eventual need for hangers and aircraft maintenance facilities.

A few years earlier there was an alternative site for aeroplanes to land. This was at a place with a very grassy surface, the Albert Lea Country Club in what eventually evolved into the Shoreland Heights neighborhood. However, this option ceased in 1923 when the country club and its golfers moved to the west.

According to the late Bidney Bergie the city&8217;s airport was located at the &8220;Second Ruble Place&8221; near the first curve of what eventually became U.S Highway 16 (now County Road 46) in the late 1920s and &8217;30s. This airport was relocated to its present location north of the city in the early 1940s.