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The Charlotte L. Evarts Memorial Archives
The Dirigible Von Hindenburg Over
Hammonasset State Park
by Al Miller
In the spring of the year 1936, the newspaper had the approximate time the German airship known as the "Von Hindenburg" would be flying over Hammonasset State Park.
My folks lived just outside the Park. I got my camera and walked down to the beach where all the cars parked. There I stood in the road waiting for the airship to fly over the Park.
Sure enough, here came the airship straight at me. From the front it looked like a huge, giant whale flying, but it wasn't. It was the Von Hindenburg. I took four pictures of it. It seemed so low that I could see people inside the airship. What a beautiful airship it was.
A year later the Von Hindenburg caught fire and crashed to the ground as it prepared to land at its hanger at Lakehurst, New Jersey on May 6, 1937.
Below are the four pictures I took. The one in the upper right corner is the one I thought looked like a giant whale coming right at me.
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