SPARTA - Earlier this fall, people celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Sparta airport, which was created in 1958 by local business leaders who saw a future in air enterprise for Randolph County.

What business leaders had to build on was a rich aviation history in the immediate area which they honored by naming their new airport "Hunter Field" to commemorate four brothers, Albert, Kenneth, John and Walter.

"They were of that era when records were to be set," airport manager Marvin Campbell said about the brothers from Sparta.

The Hunters set a new endurance record July 4, 1930, when they stayed in the air for 553 hours, 41 minutes and 30 seconds, which totals slightly more than 23 days.

"These guys were real barnstormers," Campbell said, looking at a framed picture of the four brothers mounted in the airport's main lobby.

What the brothers ingeniously did to establish the new endurance record was create a fuel line from a second plane. They also devised ways to do airplane maintenance while airborne.

"It was the first mid-air refueling," said executive director Molly Hamilton of the Sparta Area Chamber of Commerce.

Hamilton said in its early aviation days, the Sparta area was punctuated with small landing strips on private property and farms.

Octogenarian Herschel Hunter, who is the son of Albert Hunter, has an airstrip on his farm located southeast of nearby Marissa.

A Herschel Hunter nephew, Neil Schoeneberg, who is on the Sparta chamber's board of directors, said he has listened to many stories from his uncle about a frequent visitor to the Hunter farm - aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh, who would fly in for a weekend to a family Sunday dinner.

"I was told Lindbergh was a very quiet and soft-spoken individual," Schoeneberg said, noting that a draw which brought the famed aviator here was the fried chicken that was usually the main course of those Sunday dinners.

Three of the Hunter brothers eventually lost their lives in tragic accidents. John was killed at age 29 when he fell into an airplane's whirling prop. Albert died when he fell off a barn roof. Kenneth was killed in a weather-related flying accident in 1975.

Walter eventually became a commercial pilot for American Airlines.

Today, Hunter Field is home to 33 aircraft. It is also the base of an emergency medical helicopter service.

"We try to provide services on a shoestring budget," Campbell said.

There are vintage aircraft housed at Hunter Field such as a 1942 L4 Piper Cub rebuilt by Brian Kissinger, who has flown the aircraft across the country to help raise funds for the National Brain Tumor Foundation.

scott.fitzgerald@thesouthern.com / 351-5076