Free Sept. 17 event combines flood protection, aviation history, ancient geology and recreation

News Release Date: September 4, 2026
Contact:Sarah Hippensteel Hall, 937-414-7017
Contact:Ryan Qualls, 937-345-0433

DAYTON, Ohio - Visitors to Huffman Dam will have something special to watch for in the sky during a free public tour on Thursday, Sept. 17, from 2 to 5 p.m. - a flyover by the Wright "B" Flyer.

The Miami Conservancy District and National Park Service are partnering for the afternoon event, which will give visitors a rare opportunity to explore Huffman Dam, talk directly with MCD engineers, visit the Wright Brothers Memorial and experience the remarkable flood protection, aviation, geological and recreational history concentrated in this area along the Mad River.

The Wright "B" Flyer flyover will add an especially fitting connection to the landscape. Nearby Huffman Prairie Flying Field is where Wilbur and Orville Wright continued their experiments after Kitty Hawk and developed the world's first practical airplane.

"This is one of those places where you can almost see the layers of our region's history all at once," said Sarah Hippensteel Hall, Miami Conservancy District Manager of Communications, Outreach and Stewardship. "We can talk about the Great Flood of 1913 and more than a century of flood protection while standing at Huffman Dam, look toward the place where the Wright brothers changed aviation history, and even share a 450-million-year-old fossil discovered while the dam was being built. Seeing the Wright 'B' Flyer overhead will make the afternoon even more memorable."

During the event, visitors can:

• Tour Huffman Dam and talk with Miami Conservancy District engineers while overlooking the structure. Learn how the dry dam stores floodwater and how MCD maintains this critical regional flood protection infrastructure.

• Watch a Wright "B" Flyer flyover, connecting the landscape visitors see today with the extraordinary aviation history that unfolded nearby.

• Explore the Wright Brothers Memorial with the National Park Service and learn about Huffman Prairie Flying Field and the Wright brothers' development of practical flight.

• See a cast of the famous Huffman Dam trilobite, a remarkably large fossil discovered by Miami Conservancy District crews during excavation of the dam in 1919. The original specimen was donated to the Smithsonian Institution later that year. Boonshoft Museum will bring their original cast plus other fossils.

• Meet regional park and recreation partners, with participating organizations expected to include Five Rivers MetroParks, Greene County Parks & Trails and others.

Huffman Dam is one of five dry dams constructed by the Miami Conservancy District following the Great Flood of 1913. Together with levees, floodwalls and improved river channels, the dams form a regional flood protection system that has protected communities along the Great Miami River and its tributaries for more than a century.

The Wright Brothers Memorial and Huffman Prairie Flying Field are part of Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park, preserving a landscape central to the story of American aviation.

The event is free, but advance registration is required. Visitors will be shuttled among the tour locations, and exact parking and arrival instructions will be emailed to registered participants before the event.

Huffman Dam Tour

Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026

2:00 p.m - 5:00 p.m.

Free; advance registration required

Register: https://forms.gle/iF4WzeoBrCvqx4667

The Wright "B" Flyer flyover is subject to weather and flying conditions.

About the Miami Conservancy District

Established following the Great Flood of 1913, the Miami Conservancy District protects communities along the Great Miami River and its tributaries from flooding and works to preserve and protect the region's water resources and river corridor. Learn more at mcdwater.org.

About Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park

Uniquely established by Congress as a national park unit that is managed through partnerships at over seven Dayton region locations, Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park tells the stories of the birth of powered flight and the aviation industry by the Wright brothers, and the works and life of Black American poet and author, Paul Laurence Dunbar.

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