View of Wright Flyer ‘B’ over Huffman Prairie, c. 1911

At the dawn of the 20th century, local land owner Torrence Huffman would have most likely found it hard to believe that someday, his old cow pasture located eight miles northeast of Dayton would become a historic landmark.  Huffman had agreed to let the Wright brothers use his 84-acre pasture for their practice flights so long as they agreed to move the cows and horses out of the way. Almost 100 years later, in 1990, Simms Station, also known as Huffman Prairie Flying Field, was designated a National Historic Landmark.  The field provided the brothers space to conduct experiments and practice flying their various machines.  The Wright brothers made 105 flights, resulting in a total of 49 minutes of air time, in the 1904 flying season alone.  Over the next few years, various hangars were built on the property, and the brothers developed and installed a derrick and weight launching system for their aircraft. Shown here are two men flying in a Wright Model “B” at Huffman Prairie in 1911.  The picture is made complete with a side view of the hangar, a group of on-lookers and a few brave cows nibbling grass in the background. This photograph is from the William Preston Mayfield/Marvin Christian Collection at Dayton History.

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