Helix Marching Band Made Debut in 1951—at Opening of ‘La Mesa Airport’

Sixty years ago, director Daniel Lewis of the new Helix High School Band jumped at the offer. Lewis’ 80-piece marching unit from the brand-new high school was offered it first public performance on Sept. 15, 1951.

And it was no small event.  More than 5,000 spectators reportedly visited the venue that Sunday afternoon and caught the show.  Although Lewis had prepared new compositions for the inaugural performance, the 5,000 came to see far more than the local community’s new high school band.

The “really” big show was the air show—at the grand opening of the newly dedicated La Mesa Airport. 

The “Gala” official opening of La Mesa’s namesake airport featured not only the new “Green and Silver” marching band, but also free airplane rides, glider flights, the local Civil Air Patrol squadron, model airplanes and a special visit by country-swing band leader and local children’s television show host Smokey Rogers—all for no admission.

La Mesa Mayor Miles Nagel served as master of ceremonies. Nagel presented airport manager Joe Eaton Jr,, son of La Mesa’s Dodge automobile dealer Joseph Eaton Sr., and his assistants ex-paratrooper LaMar Rich Jr. and chief pilot Bob Hendricks. 

Hendricks boasted of the special Lockheed Orion, the field’s charter plane.  The single-engine, six-passenger craft once belonged to Gen. James H. Doolittle, the famed World War II pilot, prior to his return to military service and his legendary April 14, 1942, bombing raid on Japan.

Capt. R.E. Davison led the 20 planes of the local Civil Air Patrol’s Squadron 99 in formation and aeronautical acrobatics. (The national organization of civilian pilots had become a fixture in the civil defense efforts of WWII and in 1948 had officially become an auxiliary of the new U.S. Air Force.)

Rapid growth of civil aviation during the postwar period came amid
thousands of returning veteran pilots, and the opportunity of using new private airfields, such as the newly extended and oiled runway at the La Mesa Airport. Thus Capt. Davison and his superiors expected that the new airport would serve the local CAP wing with an important training field.

As such, the airport’s opening proved a popular attraction for the local population.  San Diego Union and La Mesa Scout reports featured the large number of fathers explaining the air-machines to their young sons. 

Others were fascinated with the numerous model airplanes on display and joined in the chance to watch national model plane gliding champion Danny Alford show his “technique.”

In addition, the airport featured a playground area with jungle gym equipment for the youngsters.  Mothers were treated to a dinner at the airport restaurant—the Sweetwater Springs Café—or could buy soft drinks and snacks from the parents of the Helix Band—a fundraiser to buy more green and silver uniforms for the growing group.

All in all, the event appeared to forecast a long and prosperous life for the new La Mesa Airport.

Mr. Hansen’s High-Flying Plans

So you might be wondering: Where in La Mesa was this airport?

The answer is that it wasn’t in La Mesa.

The La Mesa Airport was at the intersection of today’s Sweetwater Springs Boulevard and Jamacha Road.  And, in fact, it wasn’t new either.

Property owner Fred J. Hansen first applied for the development of an airfield on his Sweetwater Springs property in December 1945. 

Hansen, who had made his first fortune with the Cyclone Fence Co. of Illinois, had arrived in San Diego in the early 1920s, and looked to speculate in real estate.

In 1925, he bought a picturesque knoll on the western slope of Mount Helix and built the first of his gentleman’s avocado estates, this one for himself. 

Shortly thereafter, Hansen bought large tracts of land on the western, eastern and southern slopes of Mount Helix. Here he became the key developer of the Mount Helix area with his 1920s Avocado Villa and Calavo Gardens tracts, setting the stage for the eventual postwar fill-in of the area.

In 1927, he opened his own real estate office in the new Southern California Bank building on the northeast corner of Palm and La Mesa Boulevard in La Mesa (which now houses the bar of Por Favor Restaurant).   

His prowess as a developer also led him to five straight terms as a San Diego County Planning Commission member. (After his death, Hansen’s trust would endow the Fred J. Hansen Institute for World Peace at SDSU.)

After surviving the Great Depression and World War II, Hansen looked to develop lands he had bought north of the Sweetwater Lake near the historic mineral springs. 

As documented in Thomas Adema’s 1993 history of the Mount Helix and Spring Valley areas, Our Hills and Valleys, these were the famed, and infamous, springs of Alfred Huntington Isham. 

Isham bottled the mineral waters of the Sweetwater Springs as “Isham’s California Waters of Life” in the 1890s with promises of its miracle curative values. In 1906, Isham’s waters were exposed as a fraud and his business was destroyed. 

In 1926, Hansen bought the vacant springs and much of the surrounding property.

In the 1940s, Hansen marketed the land as the Sweetwater Highlands.  His first efforts were to create two small reservoirs to capture the mineral waters (which he reportedly drank himself).  These were known as “Hansen’s Ponds” and still exist today.

In the Jan. 4, 1946, issue of La Mesa Scout, Hansen announced plans for a large recreational resort development around the ponds with the aforementioned airport.  The old ranch house on the property was to be turned into a clubhouse and café.  Hansen hoped to develop the 1,500-acre tract with health spa, hotel, golf course, polo fields, swimming pools and recreational fields.

On July 28, 1946, the San Diego Union quoted Hansen on the popularity of the new field with civilian aviators: “The number of planes varies from 15 to 24, but it is a rare Sunday that fewer than this number of sportsmen flyers do not land at the airport for breakfast at the new café.”

The 60-acre airport featured a 2,000-foot long runway and was having a large hangar erected.

However, the financial success of the Sweetwater Springs Airport did not meet expectations. 

In summer 1951, Hansen moved to rename the airfield as the La Mesa Airport.  He also attracted new investors Alfred Dahl and Col. James Moore to begin development of the property as the Sweetwater Springs Knolls housing tract to meet the growing regional demand for suburban homes.

In an effort to promote the new project, Hansen put on the La Mesa Air Show of Sept. 15, 1951.

This plan seemed to falter as well, and in July 1952 Hansen announced new plans for adding two golf courses, a ballpark, lake and a rest home to the housing tract.

But houses and airports apparently did not mix well.  By 1955, the La Mesa Airport was no longer listed as an operating venture. 

(Interestingly, another attempt at a “La Mesa” airfield in the late 1940s in Rolando Park would be stopped by complaints of low flying aircraft from residents in the already occupied and adjacent Rolando Village and Vista La Mesa neighborhoods.)

Hansen turned his efforts to the suburban development of the area.  He was a founding member of the Otay Water District, which was key to the future buildout of the area.

Thus the Sweetwater Springs area would continue to develop during the 1960s, including the 1961 opening of Monte Vista High School just to the north of the property.

Fred Hansen held onto much of his land, some of which would be developed after his death in 1974 as part of the Rancho San Diego community.

The shortlived nature of the Sweetwater Springs/La Mesa Airport is a memory that few of today’s La Mesans recall. 

Yet for a special day 60 years ago, La Mesans joined in the celebration that attracted a crowd half the size of the young and growing city at the time.  And afforded the new Helix High Marching Band its first public appearance.

Next:  The 1951 Helix Band performs at the first “Musket Game”