Born in 1897, Carl Ben Eielson grew up in the small town of Hatton, North Dakota. In 1903 the Wright brothers invented and flew the first "flying machine." Eielson was fascinated with airplanes since childhood. In 1917, during World War I, Eielson enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Service. By the time he completed flight school, the war was over.
Hundreds of military-trained aviators came home determined to keep flying. Commercial aviation jobs were just a remote idea in the 1920s. Thousands of army surplus biplanes were auctioned off, enabling the barnstorm era. Daredevil pilots performed thrilling stunts and sold joyrides to the public. Pilots traveled the country and used local farmers' fields and barns for makeshift airstrips, dropping flyers over towns to advertise their arrival and draw paying crowds.
Eielson was a barnstorming pilot for three years. Then he went to Alaska to teach high school. Seeing the need and potential growth for aviation in Alaska, he started a commercial air service between Fairbanks and the remote interior. He started the first airmail route which lasted a short time before losing its government contract.
Yet, he continually envisioned great new possibilities. His aviation skills and achievements became legendary. In 1928, he took Australian British explorer Sir George Hubert on the first transpolar flight across the Arctic. They also flew over Antarctica, another first.
On this date in 1928, pioneer aviator Carl Ben Eielson was honored with a jubilant, town-wide homecoming celebration at Hatton following his flight across the Arctic Ocean from Point Barrow to Spitsbergen, Norway.
The sky was the limit for Eielson. In November of 1929, he died in a crash during a rescue mission to save crew and cargo from an icebound ship in Siberia. More than 10,000 people traveled to Hatton to attend his funeral and pay him tribute.
In 1948, Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska was named in his honor. He received a posthumous North Dakota Rough Rider Award in 1997, the state's highest honor. The Eielson family home at Hatton became a historical museum. The impressive Queen Anne style residence is evocative of an era and the remarkable North Dakotan who grew up in it, well worth a visit.
Dakota Datebook by Lise Erdrich
Sources:
- Carl Ben Eieleson, Pioneer Aviator. Theodor Roosevelt Rough Rider Award website. https://www.governor.nd.gov/theodore-roosevelt-rough-rider-award/carl-ben-eielson
- Hatton-Eielson Museum website. https://hattonmuseum.com/ben-eielson/
- Britannica. Carl Ben Eielson, American Aviator and Explorer. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Carl-Ben-Eielson
- Steve C. Martens and Ronald H.L.M. Ramsay writing credits. Society of Architectural Historians SAH Archipedia. Carl Ben Eielson House. https://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/ND-01-TR2
