The city of LaSalle, mistakenly spelled La Salle, is located in LaSalle County, Illinois, at the intersection of Interstate 80 and Interstate 39. Originally platted in 1837 over one square mile, the city has grown to 12 square miles. City boundaries extend from the Illinois River and Illinois Michigan Canal to a mile north of Interstate 80 and from the city of Peru on the west to the village of North Utica on the east. Starved Rock State Park is located approximately 5 miles to the east. The population was 9,796 at the 2000 census. LaSalle's industries include cement and potassium permanganate products.
One bright Fall afternoon in 1998, my Champ and I were cruising along a few hundred feet above the Illinois River. At 80 MHP the towns passed slowly under our wings; Morris, Seneca, Marseilles, Ottawa. Ottawa! From out of nowhere an oft-read phrase flashed across my mind, "The sheriff from Ottawa arrived, and we took the mail to the Ottawa Post Office to be entrained at 3:30 A.M. for Chicago." It was, of course, Charles A. Lindbergh recounting an incident of some three quarters of a century ago now.
Since I frequently fly over and land at many of the small airfields that dot the area I never missed an opportunity to question local pilots, especially the older ones like myself, for any information they might have regarding the incident. While some had heard about it only one came up with a fruitful suggestion; had I talked with the people at the LaSalle County Historical Society? I had finally struck paydirt.
A call to their office in Utica, IL in July, 1999, put me in touch with one of their directors, a Mrs. Mary G. Small. She turned out to be an absolute angel. Not only was she a lifelong resident of the area but had first hand knowledge of the incident. She placed it near Wedron in Rutland Twp. It was not long before she was caught up in the spirit of my quest. She and her husband, Davis, drove up to the area and started questioning residents. They located a Mr. Russell Thompson living on what had been his father's farm where the pilotless plane crashed. While he was only seven years old at the time he was able to point out the field where Lindbergh alit as well as the DeBolt home where he spent the night and the fence row where the plane came to rest, both still standing. Davis did such a fine job of marking up a plat map that I had no trouble in locating the area and its features from the air and getting some excellent air to ground photos.On a regular airmail flight from St. Louis to Chicago on the night of September 16, 1926, with his plane out of fuel and on top of a dense fogbank, the 24 year old pilot parachuted to safety into a cornfield. His stricken plane, a DH-4B, crashed a short distance away.
LaSalle was named in honor of the early French explorer, Robert de LaSalle. In presettlement times the Illinois River was navigable upstream only to LaSalle; beyond LaSalle were a series of portages, in which boats had to be carried around rapids. During the 1830s, the Illinois and Michigan Canal was built to connect the Illinois River with Lake Michigan. LaSalle was the southwestern terminus of the Canal; Chicago the northeastern. At first LaSalle was the larger of the two cities, but it was soon dwarfed by its partner on the Lake.
Although the original town of LaSalle was platted in the 1830s, the city was not incorporated until 1852. Six years after incorporation, two men - Frederich W. Matthiessen and Edward C. Hegeler - established the Matthiessen and Hegeler Zinc Company in LaSalle. This company would remain one of the largest employers in the city until its closure in the 1960s. Edward Hegeler built the world famous Hegeler Carus Mansion near his company's site. His daughter, Mary, married Paul Carus - the founder of Carus Chemical Company, another of LaSalle's large industries
