Lindbergh Lands on the Beach

In the summer of nineteen twenty-seven, the most famous man in the world is said to have dropped out of the fog and onto this sand. Just two months earlier, Charles Lindbergh had flown alone across the Atlantic from New York to Paris, an achievement that made him an instant global celebrity. That summer he set out on a triumphant tour of the country in his famous plane, the Spirit of Saint Louis.

By the telling, he was meant to land at the airport in Portland, but thick coastal fog rolled in and closed it. Lindbergh, banked toward the shore instead and set his aircraft down on the hard beach sand, the same firm surface that would soon draw transatlantic crews. Word spread fast, and people rushed to the water's edge to catch a glimpse of the young aviator who had crossed the ocean and returned a hero.

It was a fitting stop. Old Orchard Beach would soon earn a name in aviation history as a launching point for the boldest ocean flights of the era. Now the man who had beaten the Atlantic himself had come to rest, however briefly, on its sands.