Huffman Prairie was named after Thomas Huffman, a prominent banker, who owned the land. The Wrights asked him for use of the land for airplane experiments, and he didn't mind. Above is a 1906 map of the area. Do you see the two major rail lines? Dayton, OH is off the map to the left and down. You see the Simms station on the Cleveland RR line? Follow that down the road to where it crosses the Dayton Springfield Interurban line. That's where the brothers rode to in order to get to Huffman Prairie. The field is just inside that 800 foot elevation contour.

On this up-to-date map above you still see the remnants of the two rail lines, though roads have been built on top of them. Prairie Road was built over the Cleveland RR line, and Marl Road was built over the Dayton Springfield Interurban line. Can you pick out Simms station? If you can, you may have what it takes to be a navigator!

Here's another test. Try to find the same place on this aerial photo. Did you realize that the overrun for runway 23R at Wright-Patterson is less than 1500 feet away? That's the thick white strip at the top of the photo. Talk about flying over hallowed ground! It is for pilots.

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