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Numidia Airport History

On March 24, 1925, 55 acres of Amos Teple’s farmland, located south of Numidia, was leased by the government for the creation of an emergency landing field and lighted guide for airmail planes. The land was originally reported to be rented at an annual rate of $12 per acre. Mr. Teple himself helped in the construction of the field by beginning to remove the fruit trees from the land. The original plans included the construction of a 50-foot tower topped with a powerful beacon light to guide night flying. It also included battery-powered spotlights to illuminate the field, as well as a small caretaker’s shanty to house equipment. Work progressed quickly and the beacon light was lit for the first time on April 22, 1925.
The Numidia airport was an important link in the chain of airmail fields that lit the way across the Eastern portion of the United States. Night flying of airmail routes officially began on July 1, 1924. But it wasn’t until May 16, 1925, that the first trial of the newly created and illuminated airmail route over the eastern US was run from New York City to Cleveland. This was the most difficult portion of the coast-to-coast airmail route, commonly called “Hell Stretch” because of the Allegheny Mountains of central Pennsylvania. This area was feared by most pilots because of the tumultuous and unpredictable weather conditions and the hilly terrain that made emergency landing very difficult. So the US postal service began to search for relatively flat areas of land that could support airfields, and thus the Numidia airport was created as one component in the series of airfields across central Pennsylvania.
Amos Teple, grandfather of the current owner and operator, George Beaver, not only leased the land to the government, but also held the position of part-time caretaker of the airfield. His responsibilities included mowing the grass, monitoring weather conditions, and illuminating the airfield at night. In just a few short years, his job changed with the arrival of telegraph wires at the airfield. This technology linked the Numidia airport to other airfields, including the one at Bellefonte. Once the telegraph arrived, it was necessary to man the caretaker’s shanty 24 hours a day. So the post office called for two people to be hired for 12-hour shifts, 7 days a week, at a rate of $1200 per year. Teple could not meet these demands alone, so he hired Stanley Beaver to operate the airfield for one of the 12-hour shifts. Stanley Beaver was courting Teple’s daughter at the time, and they later became the parents of George Beaver.
Stanley Beaver worked at the Numidia airport for 10 years and collected many important pieces of memorabilia. He also met many interesting and sometimes famous pilots, including future World War II hero Jimmy Doolittle, whose heroic bombing raid of Tokyo was later depicted in the movie “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo.” When the Numidia airport closed in 1935, Stanley Beaver continued to work in aeronautics until 1972, when he retired with the important distinction of being the most senior flight service specialist in the country at that time.
The Numidia airport was then closed from 1935, when the post office discontinued its airmail service, until George Beaver reopened it as a private airfield in the early 1970’s. In 1995, George Beaver decided to recreate the original look of the airport by replicating the beacon tower and caretaker’s shanty. He enlisted the help of Susquehanna University professor Lewis Dewart, who was researching the history of airmail flights. Dewart helped Beaver recreate the original look of the shanty by using historical photographs of the original shanty at the Sunbury airport. The recreated 12-foot by 12 foot shanty was built exactly the same as the original with the help of Amish construction workers. The beacon tower was built on the exact spot it was originally located and contains the original lenses from the tower of 1925.
On July 1, 2000, George Beaver commemorated the Numidia airport’s 75th anniversary by opening the airport to the public. This open house showcased the recreated beacon tower and shanty, as well as several historical displays. These displays included memorabilia, equipment, books and photographs from the early history of the Numidia airport and the US airmail system. A replica of an old airmail plane was present for viewing, as well as several ultralight planes that are now used at the Numidia airport. Finally, the planes were not the only flyers at the anniversary. The airport was visited by several trumpeter swans, as well as their trainers, who were working on a migration-training program. The airport is sometimes used as a layover sight when swans are being trained to migrate from New York to the Chesapeake Bay.
The anniversary open house was also celebrated with some distinguished guests and speakers. Pennsylvania State Representative Robert Belfanti and Senator Edward Helfrick presented a special citation from The PA House of Representatives to the Numidia airport. Bloomsburg University professor Dr. Douglas Karsner spoke to the public about aviation. Donielle Rininger, the lead biologist for the trumpeter swan migration project spoke about her work with the swans. Finally, Sally Edlings from the Columbia-Montour tourist promotion agency was also present.

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