DESERET NEWS, Sept. 3, 1927: Great Hero of the Air Greeted by 200,000 as he Circles Over Valley to Aerial Port; Field, Street and Park Crowded to Capacity as Parade Carries First Ocean Flier to View.
Falling with a driving engine, Colonel Charles Lindbergh passed westward over the 35,000 people gathered at Woodward Field at terrific speed. Those who thought the conqueror of the Atlantic was headed for the Pacific, however, were soon set at rights.The wheels of the Spirit of St. Louis touched the ground at Woodward Field at 2 o'clock to the second.
Passing over the field, "Lindy" banked his plane and drove the stout monoplane upward at almost a vertical angle while he circled the field twice in three minutes and came to a landing so gently that the dust was hardly stirred.
The throng at Woodward Field were taken by surprise as were the thousands in the city with eyes fastened to the Wasatch skyline, when the monoplane, appearing the size of a seagull, was sighted overhead at an altitude of 15,000 feet . . .
A hero's welcome for the man who was first to fly across the Atlantic filled the News for days. Merchants such as the local Piggly Wiggly stores welcomed Lindy, and the News editorial writer glowingly compared him to Mormon colonizer Brigham Young. Utah had entered the air age.