This ground was the site of the first municipal airport in the United States. After receiving an official letter from Brig. Gen. “Billy” Mitchell of the U.S. Air Service urging Tucson to provide a municipal airport, Mayor O.C. Parker and Allen B. Jaynes, president of the Chamber of Commerce, appointed a joint committee of city and Chamber of Commerce members. The Tucson City Council approved financing for the airport on July 21, 1919, and the City of Tucson, in cooperation with the Tucson Chamber of Commerce, established and constructed it. The committee purchased this 84-acre site from L. H. Manning for $30 an acre, and a $5,000 loan from the Consolidated National Bank paid for the property and the necessary improvements and airport facilities. The first plane landed on Nov. 20, 1919, with pilot Swede Myerhofer.