"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:XTTXe.144456$084.132385@attbi_s22...

I know, that's what makes this find so strange -- and exciting. (I know;
I lead a sheltered life... :-)

See:

https://www.alpa.org/alpa/DesktopMod...DocumentID=415

to read the article.


The article states; "In May 1929, passenger service was started to
Rochester, Minn. Service to Elgin and Rockford, Ill., was added to the
Northwest Airways route map in 1930, as were weekly flights to Sioux City
and Iowa City, Iowa, and Omaha, Neb." I can confirm service to Sioux City
and Omaha in 1930, but not to Iowa City. I have a history of Northwest
Airlines, "Flight to the Top" by Kenneth D Ruble. It contains a Northwest
Airways route map, originally published in The St. Paul Daily News of June
15, 1930. It shows service to Sioux City from St. Paul and on to Omaha but
no further.

Northwest didn't want to serve those cities at all, they were ordered to
provide the weekly STP-SUX-OMA service by Postmaster General Walter Folger
Brown. Northwest wanted to create a northern transcontinental route to
Seattle.

"On occasion, the Postmaster General exercised his dictatorial powers by
telling a carrier: 'I want you to fly from this point to that point, whether
you think it's a good idea or not.' In 1930, for example, Northwest was
ordered to fly once a week from the Twin Cities to Omaha, connecting with
the Central Continental. Like the earlier weekly service to Winnipeg, this
anemic schedule produced little business, so Brown finally authorized a halt
to the money-losing route." -- "Flight to the Top", page 34.

I'll scan the route map and post it to alt.binaries.pictures.aviation.