Kanawha Airport

The photo of this mountaintop removal project was taken in the summer of 1945 during construction of Kanawha Airport. It took 2 million pounds of explosives to move the 9 million cubic yards of earth from Coonskin Ridge into the valleys for the mile-long runway. Timber had been cleared from the site by August 1944 in preparation for the fall groundbreaking. Charleston had been without an airport since 1942, when Wertz Field near Institute was taken by the government for its synthetic-rubber plant. In the photo, the road to the airport is at lower right, and Meadowbrook Country Club is upper right. (Photo from Charleston Newspapers file)

"It seemed to rise out of the valley to meet the plane as we came in," the personal pilot for President Truman said of the new Kanawha Airport. Only once before had he seen an airport like it, and that was in the Azores. The president sent his plane, The Independence, and a personal representative to the dedication of the $7 million airport on a rainy Nov. 3, 1947. Stonewall Jackson and Charleston high school bands played, and the crowd, estimated at 10,000, stood in the mud and listened to speeches. One of the speakers was World War I hero Capt. E.V. Rickenbacker, then president of Eastern Airlines. The crowd learned that Kanawha County spent more money per capita on its airport than any county in the nation. Still to be built were a modern administration building, parking area and another runway. (Photo from Charleston Newspapers files)

Notice the gloves, fur stoles and hats worn by a group of passengers waiting to board a plane at Kanawha Airport. The undated photograph was found in the Charleston Newspapers library. Most likely the group is part of a tour sponsored by either the Gazette or Daily Mail in the 1960s. Passengers exited the terminal by the outside staircase seen on the right. An Eastern Airlines plane is in the background. A recent story in the New York Times recalled in the 1960s dress for air travel was semiformal. "The term 'jet set' now means a matching sweat-suit ensemble. I've seen more style-savvy passengers on the casino bus to Atlantic City," wrote Rick Marin.