The unimoggers' Roaring '20s 20-Cache Series is designed to bring you to little-known jewels within our region or to learn a little bit about the events happening during that time. We encourage you to read the complete descriptions so that you will have that "I didn't know that!" moment. Some are short hikes, some are park and grabs, some are lengthy hikes with each cache type presented for your caching enjoyment. They will be published throughout 2020, and now 2021, in no particular order. This one is:
Cache #14: Amelia Earhart Flies to ABE, 1929
“Never interrupt someone doing something you said couldn’t be done.”
After you pass security at ABE, on the right side of the hallway are these pictures, along their history wall.
ABE
The airport began in 1927 when the U.S. Department of Commerce rented 50 acres of farmland as an emergency landing air strip for airmail pilots. This 1,500-foot grass landing strip was the first airstrip in the Lehigh Valley. A steel tower topped by a rotating beacon was erected and a small frame building constructed for an attendant. This wooden structure eventually became the first terminal for the Allentown Airport Corporation. The original 50 acres form the northwest portion of the Allentown Bethlehem Easton Airport, known today as Lehigh Valley International Airport. It is one of the oldest airports in the country that still operates from its original location.
The first company to rent the airport was the Allentown Aviation Corporation, headed by John H. and Dorothy B. Leh. John was a partner in H. Leh’s Department Store. John and Dorothy were only the second couple in America to both earn flying licenses.
The Allentown Airport Corp. ran into financial problems during the Great Depression. To stay afloat they sold 27 acres of land to farmer Frank Dlugus in 1933. In 1948, the Allentown Airport Corporation was reorganized as the Lehigh-Northampton Airport Authority, and the name of the airport was changed to Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton Airport. In the same year, TWA began providing flights from ABE to Newark and Pittsburgh. Unimoggers loved TWA!
On May 5, 1972, an Eastern Airlines 727 jet was hijacked at ABE Airport. This, the airport’s only hijacking in its history, occurred when Frederick W. Hahneman, boarded the jet and threatened the crew with a gun.
But let's get back to Amelia!
In 1929, after placing third in the All-Women’s Air Derby, the first transcontinental air race for women, Earhart helped to form the Ninety-Nines, an international organization for the advancement of female pilots. Learn a little more about this remarkable woman and enjoy a nice viewing area by solving this word-find puzzle.
