Historic WACO Field was acquired in February 1997 by the WACO Historical Society Inc. to create a vintage flying field in the Troy community, where WACO airplanes were manufactured from 1923 to 1946. Local and regional businesses partnered with WACO volunteers to provide raw materials, heavy equipment, and in-kind support to build a grass airstrip specially designed for vintage aircraft, and the field was completed in seven months. After the airstrip was finished, local, state, and federal officials helped secure final approval and official designation as a public-private airport, and the Federal Aviation Administration assigned it the designation 1WF. On October 10, 1997, the Annual WACO Fly-In was held on the new field, and during it a community barn raising re-erected an 1856 post and beam barn originally located southwest of Troy on Kessler-Fredrick Road, with more than 250 WACO Historical Society volunteers taking part. The moved and reconstructed WACO Barn was made possible by a donation from the general fund of The Troy Foundation and serves as a vital link to the barnstorming era of aviation. The Annual WACO Fly-In continues to bring WACO airplanes and other vintage aircraft together for a weekend of fellowship among owners and enthusiasts and to celebrate the legacy of the WACO Aircraft Company and the airplanes it produced in Troy. The WACO Historical Society, founded in 1978, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated both to preserving the history of the WACO Aircraft Company and the Golden Age of Flight and to educating young people in math, science, technology, and history through aviation-themed programs. Supporters are working to create a living-history airstrip of the 1920s or 1930s, and the WACO Air Museum features four WACO airplanes, a WACO primary glider, a 1902 Wright Brothers Glider replica, photo murals, rare photographs, RC models, interactive exhibits, radial aircraft engines, vintage propellers, an archive and research library, a museum gift shop, and the WACO Learning Center, which offers educational camps, school tours, and outreach programs for all ages.