On 18 May 1923 a 21-year-old barnstormer named Charles Lindbergh came down in a meadow between Maben and Mathiston, in Webster County, and broke his propeller. He was flying a war surplus Curtiss JN-4 Jenny he had bought that spring at Souther Field near Americus, Georgia, where he made his first solo flight. The state historical marker on Mississippi Highway 15, about a mile north of US 82, says he landed northeast of the marker, waited in Maben for a new propeller, and then spent several days selling rides at five dollars each to cover his costs. Lindbergh told the story himself in his 1927 book We. By his account a storm was coming on, and as he taxied back toward the fence corner at high speed, his wheels dropped into a ditch hidden in the grass and the propeller struck the ground.
The men who ran up told him he had come down about halfway between the two towns. Meridian was where he had set out from; he had flown north when he meant to fly west.
He had bought two spare propellers before leaving Georgia and telegraphed for one to be sent to Maben; the men who gathered pushed the plane to a group of pines and tied it down. While he waited he took a room at the hotel in Maben, and he fitted a compass to his cockpit. The marker was placed by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History in 1987. Four years after the landing, Lindbergh flew alone from New York to Paris.
Getting there
33.5453, -89.0984
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