Anamosa - A Reminiscence 1838 - 1988

another federal project grant.
In June, Mayor John Goodman, John McNamara, Lee
Sanner and Albert Clark met with the State Railroad
Commissioners at Des Moines. “in the interest of
securing an official sanction for the establishment of a
landing field". No official sanction had been made,
although some preliminary work was done on the CWA
project.
It was learned that, to be sanctioned, an additional
five acres would have to be obtained. The committee
consulted with Burlington bank officials who were
willing to cooperate in aiding Anamosa city officials
financially. to buy the five additional acres.
In July, the airport site was approved by the State
Railroad Commission. Two full-length runways were to
be built. One running practically straight east and west
from the southeast corner of the grounds; the other
southeast diagonally across the field from the extreme
northwest corner. They were to be 200 feet wide and
would be long enough to accommodate the largest
planes built.
The groves of trees would be left standing, as would
the old stock pavilion. Also,the legion trap-shoot would
not be disturbed and, “the completed project will give
Anamosa a splendid site for holding picnics and other
out-door affairs. and there is ample room for a base ball
diamond."
More time was spent in Des Moines consulting with
officials and making plans for the employment of Jones
County men on the Federal Work Relief project.
Aproximately 12,000 man hours of labor was allotted
by the federal government.
The old CWA project provided for about $1,000 in
tile, fencing, posts and paint. The work was slated to
start in August.
With the coming of August, the last obstacle in the
path of building a municipal airport was removed when
the city council voted to appropriate $250,000 to be
The new Moenck Airport, located one mile north and
two miles east of Anamosa, was dedicated Sunday, July
16, 1939. Arthur Moenck, who piloted his own plane
and was the owner of the airport, reported that over
2,000 persons attended the official dedication, with
1,000 more people unable to reach the Moenck farm,
due to heavy traffic jams on the approaching highway.
Among the visiting pilots were Dan Hunter of Cedar
Rapids, Mac Affery of Dubuque, Frankie Irish of
Hopkinton and Kenneth Benesh of Monticello.
One of the feature attractions was Ace Lillard's Death
Deflers, an internationally known stunt troupe, who
headlined the show with 13 events, which included a
hand-stand on a fast-moving sedan car. The auto
April ll, 1946, the local newspapers reported the
first try-out of the Anamosa Air Park. It was actually a
private air strip owned by Roland Dasenbrock, located
on the former Tom McNamara farm, just east of
Anamosa. George A. Wessels gave the air park an initial
try-out as a landing field about 5 {a.m. one Saturday,
and it was deemed successfully aid out. The next
weekend the public was invited to the site for free
airplane rides. The plane was jointly owned by William
H. Wessels of Center Junction and his brother George
used to hire labor and machinery for the project. The
action taken by the city, for all intent and purpose,
assured a successful venture. The Chamber of
Commerce purchased the five additional acres of land to
the south and east of the fairground site. The city
leased the whole grounds for five years, with an option
to buy at the end ofthe period.
A Mr. Burns took the place of Earl Pulver as engineer
and he reported that the project would require 25
workmen. He contemplated that the common working
man would be making 30 cents per hour. while the
skilled labor would be paid 60 cents per hour.
By August 9, 1934, a crew of 12 men started work on
the Anamosa Municipal Airport. The work consisted of
cleaning up old stumps and debris, removing fences
along U.S. highway I61, and building a new fence,
with white markings on the posts, to outline the
landing field.
By October, 35 Jones County men were working on
the FERA project, [Federal Emergency Relief
Administration). making the dirt fly, and the runways
began to take shape. It was anticipated that freezing
weather would postpone the remainder of the work
until spring.
That was the end of the airport at the fairgrounds. It
never got off the ground, nor did any kind of flying
machine. The total money actually expended was
$8,800.34. Of this, $4,742. 10 was spent under the Iowa
Emergency Relief Administration; $307.06 of local
funds; $2,605.78 under the Federal Emergency Relief
Administration; and $1,145.43 under the CWA
program.
The projected airport is indicative of the many plots
and plans, with ensuing state and federal acronyms,
that dominated the depression years, and represents
countless man-hours of study, frustrations,
expectations and, at times, final defeat that city and
town officials were to experience.
The Moenck Airport
Roland Dasenbrock’s Airfield
200
mechanics closed the program by making a 125-foot
jump, at 50 miles per hour, in a Ford V-8 stock sedan,
and hurdling four parked cars. The impact of this jump
was said to be equivalent to a drop from a two-story
building.
This occasion was marked by one of the largest
crowds and worst traffic jams ever witnessed in our
area. "lt took tail-end drivers more than three hours to
leave the air field, “said one observer.
The air strip was used for several years, according to
Allen Siebels. who remembers crossing the field with
his brother, to the old Strawman farm, where the strip
was located, and getting air plane rides.
A. Wessels of Anamosa. Also on hand were George W.
Dirks of Center Junction and Dasenbrock. For a time.
two strips one hundred feet wide were laid out in X
form. 1,600 feet in length. Later, this was changed to
one landing strip 2,300 ft.
The next year, a three-plane hangar was built.
Roland Dasenbrock explained that this was a Cuckler
building, the first Cuckler building erected.
Work on the steel and frame building began in
September 1947. The total cost of the construction was