Pittston Police Chief Michael McHale with Charles Lindbergh at the Lehigh Valley railyard in Coxton. Picture published Times Leader June 23, 1928.

Pittston Police Chief Michael McHale with Charles Lindbergh at the Lehigh Valley railyard in Coxton. Picture published Times Leader June 23, 1928.

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<p>Charles Lindbergh examining his monoplane at a field near the Coxton rail yard on June 23, 1928. Picture published Times Leader June 23, 1928.</p>

Charles Lindbergh examining his monoplane at a field near the Coxton rail yard on June 23, 1928. Picture published Times Leader June 23, 1928.

A grandstand erected for a beauty pageant in Kirby Park forced flying ace Charles Lindbergh to find another location to land his Ryan B-1 monoplane on June 22, 1928.

Lindbergh, famous for the first nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean in May 1927, was on his way from Detroit to New York City.

As darkness settled on the horizon, Lindbergh needed to land as he flew high above the Wyoming Valley.

The Time Leader reported Lindbergh circled the Wyoming Valley looking for a large field and came across Kirby Park. As he studied the park on his landing approach, he noticed a grandstand forcing him to find another field.

“Lack of an airport in Wilkes-Barre cheated the city out of an opportunity to entertain the world’s foremost hero, but the group of railroaders who care for the Lehigh Valley railroad’s mammoth locomotives at the Coxton yards proved royal hosts,” the Times Leader reported June 23, 1928.

Lindbergh landed safely in a field near Coxton narrowly missing cables of the Scranton Electric Co. stretching from Campbell’s Ledge to the power plant at Harding.

The Times Leader in the June 23, 1928, story reported Lindbergh asked where he landed and how far was New York City.

“Coxton, near Pittston,” locomotive engineers told Lindbergh.

As word quickly spread in Duryea and Pittston that the famous aviator was at Coxton, Pittston police chief Michael McHale arrived and ushered Lindbergh to the railyard’s YMCA where he registered as “Lindbergh pilot.”

“Hardly had he finished signing his name, Esther Parzek, who prepares food for the railroaders, pulled the page from the book and secreted it to the envy of a group of men in smudged, oil-soaked denim,” the Times Leader reported.

Lindbergh enjoyed a meal prepared by Parzek before he was taken for a ride on a locomotive.

“The railroaders knowing that engines were about the only thing that Coxton affords for passing time, they ushered the flying ace through the shops, past wheels of different sizes, lathes and machines while warning him not to fall in the many repair pits,” the newspaper reported.

Lindbergh boarded a locomotive and was taken for a train ride on the Lehigh Valley line to Mountain Top and returned to Coxton while engineers set off sirens from 50 locomotives stationed at the rail yard.

“The flying ace told those with him that it was the first time he got to ride in the cab of a locomotive. The engine which he commanded was the first of two locomotives which drew express train No. 18 over the mountain to Mountain Top,” the Times Leader reported.

As Lindbergh settled in for the night at the YMCA, he advocated for an airport in the Wyoming Valley and encouraged arrows painted on the roofs of factories directing other pilots to open fields for emergency landings.

Just as the sun was rising at 5:45 a.m. on June 23, 1928, Lindbergh quietly took-off without the large crowds he encountered the previous night for New York City, but heavy fog forced him to return to land.

For the next several hours, Lindbergh met politicians, coal mine owners and greeted crowds that continued to grow in size prompting state policemen to the scene to control the masses.

At 1:15 p.m. on June 23, 1928, Lindbergh climbed into the cockpit of his monoplane and warmed the engine for 20 minutes before he took-off.

“The ship gracefully left the ground and reached an altitude of 500 feet. The flying colonel circled the Coxton field several times to give the multitude a full view of him in action before he disappeared over the horizon,” the Times Leader reported.