A free tour near Dayton, Ohio, will bring together an airplane, a dam, and a fossil that is hundreds of millions of years old. Although those things may seem completely unrelated, they all have a connection to the same area along the Mad River.
The Miami Conservancy District and National Park Service are hosting the Huffman Dam Tour on Thursday, Sept. 17. It will run from 2 to 5 p.m. and include several stops around the dam and nearby Wright brothers sites.
The event is free, but you can’t just show up. Visitors have to register ahead of time and will receive parking and arrival instructions by email.
A Wright “B” Flyer is also scheduled to fly above the area, although the flyover may be canceled if the weather or flying conditions aren’t safe.
The Wright Brothers Flew Nearby
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The Wright “B” Flyer is not one of the Wright brothers’ original airplanes, but it operates as a modern aircraft built to resemble the brothers’ Model B.
However, the plane will fly over a place with a real connection to Wilbur and Orville Wright. Huffman Prairie Flying Field is the spot where the brothers continued testing their airplanes after their famous flights at Kitty Hawk.
The brothers used the field while working toward an airplane that could turn, fly in circles, and stay in the air longer. Visitors will also stop at the Wright Brothers Memorial to learn more about those experiments.
Both the memorial and flying field are part of Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park.
Workers Found the Fossil While Digging the Dam
The tour also includes a chance to see a cast of the Huffman Dam trilobite. Workers discovered the unusually large fossil in 1919 while digging during the dam’s construction.
The trilobite is approximately 450 million years old. The original was donated to the Smithsonian Institution during the same year it was found. Boonshoft Museum of Discovery will bring its original cast of the trilobite to the tour, along with several other fossils.
Visitors can also speak with Miami Conservancy District engineers and learn how Huffman Dam works. It is a dry dam, meaning it normally allows the river to pass through but can temporarily hold back water during a flood.
The Dam Was Built After a Deadly Flood
Huffman Dam is one of five dry dams built after the Great Flood of 1913 devastated Dayton and other communities in the region.
The dams work with levees, floodwalls and improved river channels to protect communities along the Great Miami River and its tributaries. During the Sept. 17 event, shuttles will take visitors between the different tour locations. Anyone interested can register here on the National Park Service’s website.