DAYTON — The Miami Conservancy District and the National Park Service will host a free public tour at Huffman Dam.
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The event, which will take place Thursday, Sept. 17, from 2-5 p.m., will feature a flyover by the Wright “B” Flyer along the Mad River.
Huffman Dam is one of five dry dams constructed by the Miami Conservancy District following the Great Flood of 1913.
Nearby Huffman Prairie Flying Field is where Wilbur and Orville Wright continued their aviation experiments following their flights at Kitty Hawk, developing the world’s first practical airplane.
Both the flying field and the adjacent Wright Brothers Memorial are part of the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park.
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Sarah Hippensteel Hall, manager of communications, outreach and stewardship for the Miami Conservancy District, noted the varied history concentrated at the location.
“This is one of those places where you can almost see the layers of our region’s history all at once,” Hall said. “We can talk about the Great Flood of 1913 and more than a century of flood protection while standing at Huffman Dam, look toward the place where the Wright brothers changed aviation history, and even share a 450-million-year-old fossil discovered while the dam was being built. Seeing the Wright ‘B’ Flyer overhead will make the afternoon even more memorable.”
That fossil, a trilobite estimated to be 450 million years old, was uncovered by district excavation crews in 1919.
The original specimen was donated to the Smithsonian Institution later that year.
During the event, the Boonshoft Museum will display its original cast of the trilobite alongside other fossils.
Although the tour is free, advance registration is required.