Deming Municipal Airport, ca. 1931 (Source: Webmaster)

Three pilots arrived at Tucson from Deming, NM. None called it home, and none cited it as a destination. Deming Municipal Airport is described in this REFERENCE, page 26, at left.

One thing is not mentioned in this description. The Deming airport lies near the railroad tracks that run from El Paso, TX to Lordsburg, NM and on to Tucson. Golden Age pilots followed these railroad tracks east and west between these cities, stopping, perhaps, at Deming or Lordsburg for fuel or rest. Over 200 landings at Tucson arrived from Lordsburg.

The railroad tracks look like the ones below, taken from your Webmaster's airplane on September 12, 2002. At least one Register pilot flew the same route in September 22, 1928, seventy-four years earlier, almost to the day. Flying the Travel Air NC4945, he stated in the remarks section of the Register, "2 hr. 40 minutes El Paso-Tucson, Ariz." Your Webmaster's flight was made in 3 hr. 40 minutes with a stop in Lordsburg.

Regardless, of all the changes that have occurred in airfields, towns and infrastructure since the Golden Age of Aviation, this railroad bed remains about as it was when used for guidance and flown beside by the pilots who landed at Deming, Lordsburg and Tucson. The desert and mesquite have not changed much.

Railroad Tracks Between El Paso and Tucson, 2002 (Source: Webmaster)

Below, from this REFERENCE, page 128, the airfield is described as it was circa 1937. It appears that a third NE-SW runway was added.

Deming Municipal Airport, ca. 1937 (Source: Webmaster)

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