Roger Erickson lived in the country in that part of the country. He was just a few years older than my father. My father, owned an airplane before he owned a car. It was a Taylor Craft (a tail-dragger).
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| Photo from Wickipedia |
One day, while in High School 1955-56, Dad had taken a trip in his airplane with a flight plan from Silver Lake to Rochester to Owatonna to New Ulm then back to Silver Lake. It was a requirement for his private pilots license during his solo cross country trip to have his log signed at three different airports. Flying just North of Winthrop he hit a weather front that started tossing him around. He turned the plane around and found an open pasture. He estimates that he landed his plane somewhere just east of Lafayette, North East of New Ulm and possibly close to Bernadotte. He tied down his airplane by some trees at the edge of the pasture and sat out the storm. Once the weather was clear, he untied his plane and took off again.
Did he land in the pasture of Roger Erickson's family home? Did the memory of the young pilot landing in a pasture outside of Bernadotte spawn the stories of Bernadotte International Airport that sent listeners on a wild goose-chase across Minnesota looking for this mysterious airport?
Help me find out the other side of the story!
Although the story of your dad is good. The airport started in 1971 when my cousin landed a Chinook army helicopter in my grandpa's field just east of the church. Roger caught word and announced the airport the following Monday on wcco.
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