Kirksville’s First Airport and the Man Who Started It

Kirksville's first established airport was not at the location used by Kirksville Regional Airport today.

According to the City's current aviation history, the first facility was a small private grass strip north of town owned by Roy B. "Cap" Dodson.

The present airport site came later.

1924: the City's starting point

The City says:

Aviation in Kirksville started in 1924.

It identifies the first facility as:

• a small grass strip;
• north of town;
• owned by Roy B. "Cap" Dodson.

That is the strongest current first-party statement about Kirksville's first established airfield.

"First airport" is not necessarily "first airplane"

Secondary local-history material mentions aviation activity in Kirksville before 1924.

Those earlier references may involve:

• local aviators;
• demonstration flights;
• temporary landing places.

That does not automatically contradict the City's 1924 date.

A first local flight can happen before a permanent or semi-permanent airport is established.

The two milestones should not be collapsed.

Who was Cap Dodson?

This is where the source record gets thin.

The City names Dodson as owner of the 1924 grass strip.

The current research does not yet establish:

• full biography;
• life dates;
• whether he was primarily a pilot, promoter, owner, instructor or operator;
• what aircraft used the field;
• whether commercial services were offered;
• exact years of operation.

Calling him "the man who started Kirksville's first airport" is supported by the City's airfield chronology.

A fuller biography still needs newspapers, directories and family records.

Where exactly was the field?

The City says it was north of town.

The current source set does not support publishing exact coordinates or parcel boundaries.

That is an important boundary.

A rough directional description is not permission to drop a modern map pin.

Property records, aerial photographs or period maps are needed before geolocating the strip.

1930: aviation shifts to the modern site

The City says the present airport site, four miles south of Kirksville, was established in 1930 when the federal government built an emergency landing strip there.

That was a different place from Dodson's airfield.

The current airport did not simply grow outward from the north-side grass strip.

Was the 1930 site part of a federal airway system?

Secondary aviation histories describe the field as an intermediate or emergency airway landing field and sometimes attach a specific site number.

The current research has not recovered the federal airway map or Commerce Department record needed to verify that designation.

So the federal-emergency-field role is supported.

The exact airway-site label remains open.

What happened to Dodson's field?

The closing date and later land use are not yet established.

That makes the original airfield a good local-history research target.

Useful sources include:

• 1920s newspapers;
• property records;
• City directories;
• aerial photographs;
• Adair County Historical Society collections.

Why the distinction matters

Kirksville aviation history has at least three separate beginnings:

early flights

1924 first established grass airfield

1930 present airport site

For the larger chronology, see The History of Kirksville Regional Airport.

Cap Dodson's airfield was small and temporary compared with the modern airport.

Historically, that makes it more interesting, not less.