Where the Pilots Stay!
(620)716-1085
Welcome to Clyde's Lodge named after Clyde Cessna. Located across from Cessna aircraft and the Independence airport (IDP) outside of Independence, KS.
Our Story
First we bought 80 acres in close proximity to Cessna Aircraft Company which featured a ranch-style home. On this land we envisioned a log lodge which would provide unique accommodations for aircraft buyers and others while they were in this area doing business with Cessna. However, in the meantime, we saw a need for a daycare for the children of Cessna employees. So we converted the ranch style home into the Lil' Mustang's Daycare which we operated for two years.
Still, we kept dreaming of having a lodge. So, following our hearts, we have now closed the daycare and started what we are excitedly calling Clyde's Lodge.
Our Vision
Someday this 'home' will be a beautiful log lodge with several more guest rooms. The landscaping will be as great as the main lodge will be and we'll have a long list of guests waiting to stay with us. We hope one of them will be you.
A Kansas Portrait
Clyde Cessna was 47 years old and had already worked on several airplanes when in 1925, Walter Beech and Lloyd Stearman offered him a partnership in the Wichita Travel-Air Company. Cessna accepted and served as president of the company for two years, but a disagreement with his partners over monoplane versus biplane design eventually caused him to leave and form his own company.
He was determined to build a single wing plane that could outperform any biplane. When Cessna finished that task, during late 1927, his model "AW" as it was known, could reach speeds of 145 miles per hour and remain in the air for more than seven hours. It was innovative and a success.
But the very success of Cessna's new model led into financial difficulties. Over-extended, he went bankrupt in the depression, his business closing down completely in 1931. Three years later, Cessna re-opened his Wichita plant. When he sold the business to his nephews to return to farming in 1936, Cessna's company was on a firm footing. Clyde Cessna died in 1954 at the age of 74, but the company he left behind is now one of the largest makers of small aircraft in the world.
Watch new Cessna aircraft take off and Land during the day and view expansive sunset or sunrise from either the front or back porches.
The owner's garden and young orchard offer a homey feel to the premises.
Savor a relaxed evening in the lodge living room, watching television or reading a favorite book, or studying the G1000 cockpit.
