Charles Lindbergh is viewed as a historical hero to many Missourians and he has a connection to Perry County.
The son of Swedish immigrants, Lindbergh, born in 1902 near Little Falls, Minn., earned his fame as an aviator in the 1920s as a pilot, barnstorming his way through the Midwest before joining the Army Air Corps and eventually becoming the first person to complete a solo trans-Atlantic flight in the iconic Spirit of St. Louis.
One of the stops Lindbergh made on his barnstorming tours was St. Mary’s Seminary cow pasture in Perryville — now known as the Seminary Picnic Grounds — where he performed aerial shows and sold rides to interested residents for $3 a person.
To pay homage to this time period, Perry County Heritage Tourism announced a plan to honor Charles Lindbergh and his contribution to aviation by erecting a “Field to Flight” historical marker at a site overlooking the Seminary Picnic grounds, through a ribbon cutting on Saturday at 2 p.m.
Director Trish Erzfeld said it’s an exciting time in Perryville.
“Charles Lindbergh barnstormed all over, but he came to Perryville enough that he made friends and people got to know him,” Erzfeld said. “When he came to Perryville at the Seminary airport, it was the first time that a lot of the residents had any interaction with aviation. They never saw a plane or met a pilot. It would be like if an astronaut landed a shuttle in Perryville today.”
A temporary sign was erected at the intersection of Highway T and Sycamore Road in late July 2019 to mark the arrival of a historical marker, and Erzfeld noted that the plan was to unveil it last year, but plans changed after COVID-19 hit the area.
The structure will have an eight-foot wing connected to a nine-foot tall section of tempered glass behind it. The glass will have a bi-plane etched at the top. Six panels of the wing portion will have local photographs and content that will explain Lingbergh’s history in Perryville.
“It will have quite the presence,” Erfeld said. “The idea is that you stand at the marker and read about the history and see the Seminary grounds behind it. It gives you a flash in time where you can imagine him coming in and landing his plane.”
Erzfeld hopes that the marker helps develop an interest in aviation and its history in Perryville
“If a person is interested in aviation or Charles Lindbergh, then it’s something that would be very beneficial to visit,” Erzfeld said.
