Whatever happened to that airline?

Carol Nash has a question.

The Clovis woman perhaps best known as the pronouncer at local spelling bees for years is also the granddaughter of a Quay County newspaper publisher and a regional history fanatic.

She wants to know which area communities still have evidence they were once part of a Los Angeles-to-New York aerial mail service that planned to establish itself in 1920.

She has reason to believe San Jon had a landing field associated with the National Air Lines Association project. That's partly because it was reported in her grandfather's San Jon Sentinel on April 2, 1920, and partly because of a collection of large cement stones that can still be seen from the air pointing the way to San Jon.

The photo she has was probably taken by her dad, Clark White, sometime around 1990 when the stones were last painted. The man in the photo is Earl Flint, mayor of San Jon at the time.

The stones spelling out San Jon - and pointing the way - can still be seen today, though they are largely covered in dirt. They are located northeast of San Jon, south of Interstate 40.

Jesse T. White was Nash's grandfather who was publishing the San Jon Sentinel when the National Air Lines Association announced plans of establishing a landing field at San Jon.

The article noted plans were for a "cross-continent line from Los Angeles to New York, via El Paso, Tucumcari, San Jon, Vega (Texas) and Amarillo with landing fields at the points just named."

The story said the association expected to be operating in June of 1920 and was "being established primarily for passenger service."

Whatever happened to the National Air Lines Association isn't clear, even to the all-knowing internet.

A Google search for the group provides some newspaper articles similar to the one reported by the San Jon Sentinel - but they're all about its plans for starting soon.

Good luck finding anything about it actually operating.

We do know the U.S. Postal Service began regularly flying mail across the country in 1918, but the first widely known airliner that moved people was Transcontinental Air Transport, which didn't launch until 1929. Neither San Jon nor Tucumcari was part of that route, though Clovis was a regular stop before Amarillo replaced it in October 1930.

National Air Lines Association clearly had some financial backing and big plans. Did it ever got off the ground?

Carol Nash and I would like to know.

David Stevens writes about regional history. Contact him at:

[email protected]