Amelia Earhart in Texas (January 12, 2026)
by Scott Sosebee
Amelia Earhart is a name that is not only iconic when it comes to early American aviation, but because of her bold career, her gender, and her tragic disappearance she has become one of the most notable figures in the broader scheme of American history. Earhart was without a doubt an aviation pioneer as well as a champion of women’s rights. Her subsequent disappearance while attempting to become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the world also heightened her fame and notoriety. Earhart was not a Texan—and we shouldn’t hold that against her—as she was born in Kansas and later lived in Iowa. However, she did have a number of “Texas connections,” and the Lone Star State was quite often a backdrop for her career and exploits.
When the dream of manned flight became a reality in the early years of aviation, Texas almost immediately became a center of flight activity. Its agreeable clear weather most of the year as well as wide open spaces led the U.S. military to establish early training bases in Texas; San Antonio, for example, became a center of military aviation and a number of Texas cities were some of the first to build airports. Many pioneer aviators came to Texas to train, such as Charles Lindbergh and Benjamin Foulois who is often called “the Father of the U.S. Air Force.”
Amelia Earhart was a name that made headlines in the 1920s. She developed a love for flying early in her life, and by the time she was in her late teens she had begun to be recognized for her exploits. Inspired by Lindbergh’s solo flight across the Atlantic, a number of philanthropists began to look for “the right woman” to also make such a flight. Led by Lindbergh’s publicist, George Palmer Putnam, the group would ultimately choose Earhart to attempt such a feat. After a few abortive efforts to begin, Earhart completed the flight in 1928. Her triumph carried a Texas connection as she was accompanied and assisted in the flight—in a subordinate role—by Louis Gordon of Collin County, Texas.
During her trans-Atlantic flight, one of the barriers for Earhart was that she was not trained to fly via instruments. That meant that she had to only fly in clear weather that allowed her to fly by sight. Since fog and haze was a true impediment for trans-oceanic flight, it behooved her to obtain such certification. Those early efforts to promote manned flight had led Texas to become a center for such training, and one city in particular became prominent. Brownsville, the South Texas city on the Mexican border, had early on established, at its airport, a reputation among pilots for such instruction, so those who hoped to one day fly internationally flocked to the city. That reputation is what led Earhart to come to Brownsville in 1929. She became just the fourth American woman to receive such a designation when she graduated with her class in 1931. There is a statue of Earhart today in Brownsville that honors her and the training she received.
Even before she came to Brownsville, Earhart had interactions in Texas. In September 1928, shortly after she had completed her transatlantic flight, the famed aviator was flying to Los Angeles for an air show. During her trip, her plane developed mechanical issues as she flew across Texas. Running low on fuel, she had to land in Hobbs, New Mexico, a place that had no airport (she had to land on the main street of the city), where she refueled. However, the gas was not a proper mis for her engine and she began to have engine trouble when she was approximately over Carlsbad, New Mexico. Carlsbad also had no airport so she pointed her crippled craft toward Pecos in Reeves County, which did have such a venue. However, she couldn’t make it and had to make an emergency landing near Toyah, which was about twenty miles west of her destination. Unable to repair or even restart her plane, locals in Toyah came to her aid. They rigged up a tow system to a truck and pulled her broken plane to Pecos, where after some recalibrations she was able to at least start her plane. She then flew the approximately two hundred miles to El paso where she was able to have her plane fully fixed.
Earhart was not yet done with Texas. After her trans-Atlantic flight and a number of other accomplishments, her fame grew exponentially so much so that other than Lindbergh there was no other pilot in the United States whose celebrity was larger. That led, in 1931, for her to embark on a nationwide flight to promote a new single engine plane built by Lockheed. As she again flew over West Texas the craft developed mechanical problems over Abilene. As the plane began to stall, Earhart guided her aircraft to a crash landing on what was then the outskirts of the city, near where Nelson Park Zoo is today. Earhart only had minor injuries, but the plane was rendered unable to fly. However, Lockheed constructed another plane for her, one that she would fly in 1932 on her solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic in commemoration of Lindbergh’s accomplishment.
Earhart would return to Texas in 1936. On that trip she landed and was feted at Love Field in Dallas to bring notice to that city’s new paved runways and improvements that would allow an expansion of its commercial flights. While in Dallas, Earhart visited the State Fair grounds where Texas was holding its centennial celebration. She gave a speech and received a “key to the city.” She then continued to Denton, where she met with and honored students and faculty at that city’s Texas State College for Women (now Texas Women’s University).
There is no record that Earhart ever returned to the Lone Star State. Earhart, of course, embarked on her famed attempt to circumnavigate the globe in the spring of 1937, accompanied only by her navigator Fred Noonan. She landed in Lae, New Guinea om June 29, 1937. She only had about 7,000 miles left to accomplish her goal. She left Lae on July 2 on a flight path toward Howland Island. She never arrived. Radio operators lost contact with her craft sometime on July 3. There have been numerous theories about what happened to the famed female pilot, but none have ever been fully confirmed.
The East Texas Historical Association provides this column as a public service. Scott Sosebee the Executive Director of the Association and can be contacted at sosebeem@sfasu.edu or via www.easttexashistorical.org.