Dryden Intermediate Field Site 29
Dryden, Terrell County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The U.S. Government first invested in Terrell County Aviation in 1919, with an airfield built west of Sanderson for the 90th Aero Squadron that flew biplanes for the border patrol. After the squadron relocated, the East Dryden Aerodrome was an active field until 1941. During World War II, American Airlines and the government joined to build a new civilian intermediate and emergency military landing field here. The Civilian Aeronautics Administration supervised construction that ended in October 1943. Two intersecting runways, each nearly a mile in length, were built of rock asphalt on a caliche base. Later named Terrell County Airport, this facility has also hosted civil air patrol and military training exercises.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Aviation came early to remote Terrell County: in 1919 the U.S. government built an airfield near Sanderson for the 90th Aero Squadron, whose biplanes patrolled the Mexican border. When World War II demanded a chain of civilian and emergency military fields across the Southwest, American Airlines and federal aviation authorities built this landing field, finishing its two mile-long rock-asphalt runways in October 1943. Later renamed Terrell County Airport, it went on to host civil air patrol and military training.
Why it matters
The field is a tangible link between early border aviation and the vast wartime network of intermediate airfields that knit the country together for military and commercial flight.
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Related events
- · Construction of Dryden intermediate landing field (1943)
Themes & tags
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