Lindbergh anniversary to be celebrated with Madison Lake presentation

Renee Berg, The Free Press, Mankato, Minn.
·2 min read
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Jul. 17—MADISON LAKE — It's been 100 years since Charles Lindbergh Jr. created a stir in Madison Lake and Mankato.

Mary Lou Ihrke, of Madison Lake, is hosting a video presentation 3 p.m. Saturday about the events surrounding Lindbergh's famous local stop. There's no cost to attend Ihrke's presentation, which will be at the Community Center on Main Street in Madison Lake.

"2023 marks the 100th anniversary of Charles A. Lindbergh Jr.'s barnstorming stop in Madison Lake," Ihrke wrote in a brochure advertising her presentation. "He landed in a wheat field on Aug. 9, 1923, and stayed four days in the town while a mechanic worked on his Jenny airplane."

It's the initial viewing of a video she made based on her research into those barnstorming days, and it will later be available on YouTube, she said.

Ihrke said Lindbergh came to Madison Lake looking for a mechanic for his plane, but while visiting decided to enroll — at the mechanic's urging — as an air cadet in the U.S. Army Air Corps. The mechanic, Glenn Allyn, was a service man, too, and encouraged Lindbergh to enroll.

The two worked on Lindbergh's now famous "Jenny," a fragile, two-winged fabric craft. When Lindbergh, then 21 years old, visited Allyn, they repaired the engine and the wing, Ihrke said.

Lindbergh had had trouble with his airplane stalling, and he and Allyn found pieces of rubber in the engine that may have been the cause, she said. The damaged wing was the second repair.

While in the area, Lindbergh also took time to do a Mankato barnstorming event. Barnstorming is when a pilot would land in a farm field and charge thrill goers $5 a ride for a spin in the plane.

"Five dollars was a lot of money in 1923," Ihrke said. "Another term for it was gypsy flying."

From his barnstorming days, Lindbergh became an air cadet in the U.S. Army Air Corps, and from then on his rise as a U.S. mail pilot was meteoric, culminating in his electrifying, solo, nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean to Paris in 1927, according to media reports.