Melville Milton Murrell was born in 1855 in Morristown. The son
of a grocer, he was, himself, a farmer, but with an odd interest
– he wanted to fly. Melville built a flying machine that was
to be human powered, and it is reported that one of his farmhands
flew it, briefly, a quarter of a century ahead of the Wright
brothers’ famous first engine powered flight. Murrell filed
for a patent on his plane on April 16, 1877. Apparently, the plane
did not perform as he had hoped, and he abandoned the pursuit of
flight. Remains of Murrell’s house still stand on Murrell
Road in Morristown. The original wings, pictured here, are in the
Rose Center in Morristown.
Morristown’s airport is named Moore Murrell Field, and the
geocache is at a monument to Murrell just outside the airport
itself, near where the FBO stood until recently.
Thanks to Heidi Fehling for replacing this cache for me after it
went missing. She did this just after finding her 1000th cache -
Mama Bird. CONGRATULATIONS, HEIDI, ON YOUR 1K!!!!
Thanks to Team Cash Cache for replacing the cache after it was
muggled yet again! This time it is in a low location - see
clue.