This nut cup in the shape of Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis is from a banquet dedicating Davis-Monthan Field.
We’re defining Tucson in 100 objects. The daily series began April 20. Follow along at: azstarnet.com/100objects
This paper replica of Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis was a table favor at a banquet held at the University of Arizona dining hall on Sept. 23, 1927.
It held nuts.
The famous aviator had flown into Tucson to dedicate Davis-Monthan Field.
It was then a municipal airport, owned by the city of Tucson.
Its location southeast of town gave Tucson’s aviators more room than they had at the first municipal airport, which had opened just eight years earlier at the current site of the Tucson Rodeo Grounds — South Sixth Avenue and Irvington Road.
People are also reading…
The field, then just a paved runway and a used hangar hauled in from Nogales, is now Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.
Tucson International Airport came into being after World War II, when it became clear that military uses and the burgeoning airline industry needed separate runways.
A couple members of the Arizona Historical Society were smart enough to grab this party favor for safe-keeping at the society’s museum in Tucson.
It will be part of an exhibit of the museum’s 150 most-treasured items, being put together for the Arizona Historical Society’s 150th anniversary this year.
