On April 6, 1926 the airfield became the terminus for the first scheduled air mail run in the United States, flown by Varney Air Lines. The route operated from Pasco, WA to Boise, ID to Elko, NV. By 1928 the mail route was redirected from Boise to Salt Lake City and Elko had become one of ten stops on a new route from San Francisco to Chicago operated by Boeing Air Transport. Boeing and Varney later became predecessors of United Air Lines.