Cowboy Chronicles: The story of how a few aeronautic pioneers made national news
Wednesday, January 7, 2026
Media Contact: Mack Burke | Associate Director of Media Relations | 405-744-5540 | editor@okstate.edu
In 1943, Herb Graham heard about a farmer who used an airplane to hunt coyotes.
Coyotes were, and still are, the most significant predators of sheep, goats, poultry and young cattle in Oklahoma, accounting for half of these losses for farmers and ranchers.
Graham, the Oklahoma A&M College Extension editor and radio director, and Ferdie Deering, farm editor for the Oklahoma Farmer-Stockman Magazine, traveled to Calumet, Oklahoma, to interview the 45-year-old man who was attempting to reduce some of these livestock losses from the skies above.
Henry G. “Heinie” Bomhoff, known as the “King of the Coyote Hunters,” was a colorful character with over 4,000 hours of flight time, much of it only 100 feet above the ground. He was one of nine children and the first generation in his family to be born in America.
The interview with Bomhoff led to the formation of a new organization, initially called Oklahoma Flying Farmers, which quickly expanded to 35 chapters and 11,000 international members within three decades.
While interviewing Bomhoff, Graham and Deering learned there were dozens of other farmers and ranchers using airplanes in a variety of ways to help with their agricultural operations.
Graham returned to Stillwater with an idea he wanted to share with the college president, Dr. Henry G. Bennett. Would Bennett support the creation of a local flying farmers organization? Would the college be willing to sponsor this group?
Bennett, a flying enthusiast and visionary for various endeavors, heartily endorsed the proposal and foresaw the possibility of making the group a national organization headquartered at OAMC.
Graham then shared this idea with Bomhoff, and they began coordinating their efforts to bring flying farmers to Stillwater.
Each summer, OAMC Extension offices were already inviting visitors from across the state to visit campus for Farm and Home Week. The latest research discoveries were shared in “Short Courses,” which were offered to the guests at no charge. Thousands of Oklahomans resided on campus while attending these classes.
Bennett, Graham and Bomhoff felt this would be a perfect opportunity to gather a group of interested agricultural flyers together. So, they planned a fly-in on Thursday, Aug. 3, 1944.
Planes arrived at the south Stillwater Airport between 9 and 10 a.m. as Bennett, Graham and Shawnee Brown were there to greet and welcome them to Stillwater. Brown, a native Oklahoman, had been named the director of agricultural extension two years earlier.
Also meeting the flyers was a group of photographers and a number of newspaper reporters. After interviews and photographs, the contingent made their way to the College Auditorium for a presentation by Bennett. Reporters from state radio stations then interviewed them for live broadcasts shared statewide regarding agricultural applications for airplanes.
Once all the interviews were completed, college officials escorted the group to the college cafeteria for lunch. Afterward, Bomhoff shared the story of his first flight in an aircraft he built. Al Guthrie, a local flying legend, and Bill Morgan of Braniff Airlines informed the group about airplanes then being used in World War II and their impact on the future of flying.
The final official activity was a tour of the OAMC campus and buildings. Most of the group departed later that afternoon with a 30-35 MPH wind at the south airport, as recorded by the group’s secretary, Broneta Davis of Minco, Oklahoma.
The Oklahoma Flying Farmers met for a second time in October at the Country Club Airport in Oklahoma City, where they elected officers. Bomhoff was chosen president and the group voted to meet in Stillwater for its annual meeting in August. By this time, there were 38 charter members and the organization was designated as a Chapter of the National Aeronautic Association.
It met again in February and March at the “Bomhoff” airport outside Calumet. The weather was bad that February, with the few attendees driving to Calumet. In March, the group again met at Bomhoff’s airport hangar, once more under poor weather conditions. Bomhoff had parked his tractor nearby in case anyone needed a tow to the highway. It was decided during these two meetings that qualifying group members should have a flying license or certificate and at least 51% of their working capital in ranching or farming.
The first official meeting of the Oklahoma Flying Farmers was held on Aug. 2, 1945, on the OAMC campus. Over 150 flying farmers and spouses flew into the south Stillwater airport, known as Stillwater Municipal Airport No. 2, with a significant number flying over the city and OAMC campus in formation.
The group gathered at the Prairie Playhouse Auditorium for a 2 p.m. meeting during the middle of the annual Farm and Home Week. Morgan was in attendance and acted as moderator. At this meeting, the organization decided to draft bylaws and consider expanding nationwide with headquarters in Stillwater. It coordinated planning and activities with Graham.
That evening, the group attended a banquet where the speaker had flown in from Lock Haven, Pennsylvania. The presenter was the president of the Piper Aircraft Corporation, William T. Piper.
Piper had started building aircraft in 1929 and was known as the “Henry Ford of aviation.” He was a proponent and supporter of small city-run airports with grass runways, rather than investing billions in federal funds in large, privately owned regional airports with concrete runways. Piper felt that airports should be available to the public, just as all motorists used highways.
Piper’s attendance at this first official gathering would not be his last. He attended every annual National Flying Farmers meeting for the rest of his life, his last at 88, six months before his passing in January 1970.
At 6:15 a.m., Friday, Bomhoff demonstrated aerial coyote hunting strategies from the south airport using six planes. A short time later, farm radio stations statewide broadcast a program on “Farm Use of the Plane” featuring Bomhoff.
Later that morning, the group began a series of panels and forums on campus, starting at 9 a.m. that lasted until 3:30 p.m., with a break at 11:30 a.m. Topics included “Use of the Airplane on Farm and Ranch,” “Landing Facilities,” “Adapting Aircraft to Farm Use,” and an aerial crop-dusting demonstration.
The Flying Farmers had joined the crowds from the Farm and Home Week for the 11:30 a.m. session with the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Clinton P. Anderson, which was broadcast coast to coast on NBC Radio. Oklahoma Gov. Robert S. Kerr was also in attendance.
National, state and local publications, as well as radio stations, carried stories throughout the week featuring the Flying Farmers. These included the Associated Press, Life magazine, Air Travels, the “Kansas City Star,” and many others.
Aircraft manufacturers Aeronca, Piper Cub Cruiser, Taylorcraft, Luscombe Silvaire, Stearman, Funk, Swift and Aviation Enterprises provided displays, sent representatives and advertised in local papers. The First National Bank in Stillwater and the Frigidaire Division of General Motors Corporation, businesses with no direct relationship to flying, paid for advertisements welcoming the Flying Farmers.
Discussions, presentations and exhibits demonstrated some of the many uses of aviation in agriculture. Farmers and ranchers were already using their planes in crop seeding, crop dusting for insect pests and weed control, monitoring soil erosion, feeding livestock, checking fences, finding lost livestock and controlling livestock predators. Some had even used their aircraft to travel long distances quickly to acquire replacement parts for other agricultural equipment, limiting downtime during critical peak periods, such as harvest.
The attendance, programming and presentations led all to believe the first annual meeting was a resounding success. The organization used this momentum to move forward with dramatic expansion.
The flyers met in Oklahoma City in November, landing at the Country Club Airport and then busing to the Skirvin Tower for a luncheon. The speaker that day was Igor Sikorsky, who shared agricultural applications for helicopters and introduced them to a number of international observers.
Later that day, OAMC attorney John Monk read a draft of the Articles of Incorporation to those assembled. In January 1946, the group was formally incorporated as the National Flying Farmers Association under Oklahoma law with headquarters at OAMC. The organizational president, Forrest Watson, reported that he had traveled more than 34 days, flying over 12,000 miles in his efforts to attract farmer/ranchers in other states to membership. Within seven months of incorporation, there were 24 state chapters that had joined the national association.
Just a few days after the first official Oklahoma Flying Farmers meetings ended in August 1945, two atomic weapons were dropped on Japan from aircraft over Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Aug. 6 and 9, bringing World War II to an end.
Thousands of aircraft used during the war were sold and converted for a variety of uses, including agriculture. Oklahoma Flying Farmers played a substantial role, encouraging agricultural advances utilizing aviation at the local, state, national and international levels.
In some small ways, these advancements assisted in the future development of geographical information systems (GIS) common in large agricultural enterprises today.
Photos by: OSU Archives
Story by: David C. Peters | STATE Magazine