The History
In March, 1918, the U.S. War Department made arrangements with the University of Texas to start a school to teach radio operators for the Air Service, Field Artillery, and Coast Artillery and was housed on the UT campus.
Troops on parade on Penn Field.
With the rapid increase in demand for trained radio operators, plans were made for a new school and flying field. A 350 acre site on the St. Edward's Plateau, about 3 miles south of Austin was selected and work began on August 27, 1918. The new location was named "Penn Landing Field" for an aviation cadet from Austin, Eugene Penn, who had died in a training accident in Italy on May 20, 1918.
The Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny"
Lt. John McCurdy of Kelly Field in San Antonio made a flight into the field and gave his approval of the field, except for the rocks and cornstalks. To clean it up, the Chamber of Commerce recruited volunteers, including boys from the local Boy Scouts and the Deaf and Dumb Institute (now the Texas School for the Deaf). Over the course of 4 Sundays, they cleaned out 317 truckloads of rocks and an unknown quantity of cornstalks.
Jennys lined up on Penn Field and ready to go!
Lt. McCurdy had begun bringing flights of Curtiss JN-4, "Jenny", training aircraft into Penn field several times a week and the field had been intended to be used to train pilots for World War I. However, the war ended before the field was completed.
A pilot with his "Jenny".
After the war ended, the entire site was auctioned off and wooden truck bodies were built there until a tornado destroyed the plant in 1922. The buildings were rebuilt and furniture was built on the site well into the Great Depression.
There was little activity on the site after that and there was no use of this site as an airfield during World War II. The buildings began to deteriorate. In 2000, developers bought the site and converted it commercial spaces, building the new offices within the confines of the original buildings.
The Cache
There's nothing special about this cache or where or how it is placed. This one is about the history of this area.
There is poison ivy in the area but you should be able to avoid it. Just look around for the best approach.