Lindbergh in West Texas

The Abilene stop was one of 82. Between July 20 and October 23, 1927, Lindbergh flew the Spirit of St. Louis 22,350 miles through all forty-eight states for the Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics, riding 1,290 miles in parades and giving 147 speeches to an estimated 30 million people. Weeks later he set off again, on a goodwill tour of sixteen Latin American countries from December 13, 1927, to February 8, 1928, during which he met Anne Morrow in Mexico.

What the plaque says

Four months after his record-setting trans-Atlantic solo flight, Charles Augustus Lindbergh (1902-1974) landed here for one hour and thirty-six minutes during a nationwide publicity tour. Touching down at Kingsolving Field (now the site of Abilene Zoo) after an almost nine-hour flight from Santa Fe, "Lucky Lindy" was given a hero's welcome by thousands of West Texans. His famous Ryan Monoplane, "Spirit of St. Louis," was taxied into a fenced area and surrounded by National Guard Troops for protection. An escort plane landed later. Heading a parade into Abilene were seventy-one mayors and countless officials. Lindbergh was escorted by Mrs. Mildred Moody (1897-1983), wife of Governor Dan Moody and an Abilene native; Mayor Thomas Edward Hayden (1891-1949); and Chamber of Commerce president Charles William Bacon (1871-1947). The young pilot reportedly balked at a "throne" rigged for him in an open Nash automobile, and rode with Mrs. Moody through the town to Federal lawn. Lindbergh delivered a brief speech over loud speakers praising the ideal terrain and weather in Texas for developing civil and military aviation. He was escorted back to this plane and flew two hours and forty-two minutes to his next stop in Fort Worth. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Frontier Texas! — 3.8 mi
  Abilene's multimedia museum of the frontier as the settlers told it, beside the Texas and Pacific tracks the town was built on, and the official visitor center for the Texas Forts Trail.
• Buffalo Gap Historic Village — 12 mi
  The 1880 stone courthouse and jail of the county seat Abilene took away, with about twenty old buildings from around West Texas gathered around it since 1956.
• Fort Phantom Hill — 16 mi
  A field of lone stone chimneys north of Abilene, left by the fire after the Army left in 1854, later a stage stop and a buffalo-hide town of more than 500 people.
• Abilene State Park — 17 mi
  A pecan-shaded park on Elm Creek in the Callahan Divide south of Abilene, with red sandstone CCC buildings, a summer pool, a bird blind and yurts under the trees.

More markers nearby

• Abilene State School — 2.6 mi
• Parramore Post #57, American Legion — 2.9 mi
• 45th Infantry Division at Camp Barkeley — 3.8 mi
• Taylor, Edward, James, & George — 3.8 mi