Amelia Earhart: The Iowa Years
Before Amelia Earhart became one of the most famous aviators in the world, she spent part of her childhood in Des Moines, Iowa. Those Iowa years included an event that would become an interesting footnote in her remarkable life: her first encounter with an airplane.
Earhart was born July 24, 1897, in Atchison, Kansas. In 1907, her father, Edwin Earhart, was transferred to Des Moines while working for the Rock Island Railroad. Amelia and her younger sister, Muriel, eventually joined their parents in Iowa.
The Earhart family moved several times while living in Des Moines. Iowa Legislative research identifies five Des Moines residences associated with the family between 1907 and 1912, including homes on Arlington Avenue, 8th Street, University Avenue and Cottage Grove.
Her first airplane was in Iowa
One of the most interesting parts of Earhart’s Iowa story happened at the Iowa State Fair.
In 1908, when Amelia was about 10 years old, she saw an airplane for the first time. According to accounts of her childhood, she was not immediately impressed.
The future aviation pioneer reportedly viewed the aircraft as little more than a strange contraption of wood and wire. Her first reaction was essentially that she would rather return to the fair’s rides.
At the time, there was little indication that the young girl watching that aircraft would eventually become one of the world’s most famous pilots.
And that’s what makes the Iowa connection so interesting.
The first airplane Amelia Earhart ever saw did not inspire her to become a pilot.
Her fascination with aviation came years later.
Iowa was only the beginning
Earhart eventually left Iowa, and her family continued moving around the country. She attended schools in several states before her interest in aviation truly took hold.
Her transformation into a pilot began in California. In 1921, she began taking flying lessons from Neta Snook, an Iowa-born aviation pioneer.
That connection is another remarkable Iowa link to Earhart’s story: an Iowa native helped teach the woman who would become one of the most famous female pilots in history how to fly.
Earhart’s career quickly accelerated.
In June 1928, she became the first woman to cross the Atlantic by airplane as a passenger aboard the Friendship. Although pilot Wilmer Stultz did the flying, the flight made Earhart an international celebrity.
Four years later, she returned to the Atlantic—this time as the pilot.
On May 20-21, 1932, Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She flew from Newfoundland to Northern Ireland, completing the trip in roughly 15 hours.
Earhart returned to Iowa
Her Iowa connection didn’t end with childhood.
After becoming famous, Earhart traveled through Iowa during aviation tours. A 1928 Daily Iowan report describes an aviation goodwill tour that included Des Moines and Centerville, along with stops in Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, Mason City, Fort Dodge and several other communities.
Earhart also continued making appearances around the state during the years when aviation was becoming one of America’s great technological fascinations.
The Iowa connection to a mystery
In 1937, Earhart attempted something even more ambitious—flying around the world.
She and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the Pacific Ocean on July 2, 1937. Despite decades of searches and numerous theories, the exact circumstances of their disappearance remain unresolved.
Her disappearance transformed Earhart from a celebrated aviator into one of the world’s enduring historical mysteries.
But here in Iowa, her story has another chapter.
Long before the records, the fame and the mystery, Amelia Earhart was a 10-year-old girl standing at the Iowa State Fair, looking at an airplane for the first time.
She apparently wasn’t impressed.
She would later become one of the most recognizable pilots in American history.
And that makes her Iowa story a fascinating reminder that sometimes history begins with an ordinary moment that nobody realizes is important at the time.
