Wertz Field 

My Uncle, O.R. Hamrick is seen above with his arms folded for this picture. He is flying the National Commander

The first airport in the Charleston area to offer scheduled airline service, Wertz Field, just west of West Virginia State College (now University) in Institute, opened July 4, 1930. The airport was named for Charleston Mayor W. W. Wertz, and was leased to West Virginia Airways, Inc., a group of prominent Charleston businessmen.

 

For much of its brief history, Wertz Field boasted a small but very modern-looking administration building where passengers awaited their flights. There were three grass runways, each just long enough to accommodate the early Douglas DC-3s and similar craft but inadequate for the larger planes coming into use by the late 1930s. Image by Doug Andre, Roanoke VA

Among the famous aviators to make stopovers were Wiley Post and Harold Gatty, who toured America following their record-breaking 1931 around-the-world flight.

From the air.

Here is a great page on one of Kanawha County's home grown pilot heroes.

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