Second lives, shows, the accident record, and the small fields

1911–2026 · the county's small fields (boundary)

The small fields. Mishawaka Airport opened on Labor Day 1934 at Dragoon Trail and Elm Road, with an air parade and parachute jumps at the opening ceremonies; it was federally listed as a commercial field in January 1935 and lay 3.7 miles southeast of the town. In September 1949 a successor, Sportsmen's Park on Day Road, was dedicated as the new Mishawaka airport. A third county field, Chain O Lakes, on Crumstown Highway / Grant Road at Pine Road, is named in the record reached and no more — its history is a settler's errand for the county build, not this township's. The fairs-civic fragment's Mishawaka Pilots Club line (a post-office box seat) is a mailing address for a pilots' club, not a field, and is not promoted into one. Second lives. The flagship's second life is cargo and mainline capacity: 19.2 million pounds of cargo in 2024 and the $105 million taxiway build of art-53-7, which refitted the field for large mainline aircraft at all nine gates. Shows. The show line runs from the first exhibition — Simon's 1911 flight was itself an air meet performance (art-53-1) — through Mishawaka Airport's 1934 opening parade and jumps; a present-day festival on this ground was not verified in the record reached and is not claimed. The accident record, tested. The NTSB record was searched for Osceola and Penn Township: no NTSB accident record seated in Osceola or Penn Township was returned by the search, and no field exists there to generate one; the database itself (NTSB CAROL / accident docket search, by city and state) is the settling source for the test at full strength, and the test as run stands printed as a search result, not a certification. No boundary question of the ballpark kind — a field against a neighbourhood use — arises on Osceola ground, there being no field.

Sources: Indiana Transportation History for Mishawaka Airport and Sportsmen's Park; airport statistics for cargo; NTSB accident database search by place, November 2026.