Elko Airport
Terminus of the First Commercial Air Mail Route
On April 6, 1926, Varney Air Lines pilot Leon Cuddeback, carrying one bag of mail, landed his tiny Curtis Swallow bi-plane at Elko, Nevada, completing the first scheduled air mail run in the United States.
The single engine, 90-horsepower aircraft had taken off from Pasco, Washington, stopped at Boise, Idaho, for fuel and mail, then completed the 460-mile flight to Elko. The Varney contract was awarded October 27, 1925, at a rate of eights cents an ounce. Varney sold to Boeing, which merged with United Air Lines in 1931.
Marker is on Murray Way.
Courtesy hmdb.org
