Did you know Amelia Earhart once called Des Moines home? Where she lived:

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Amelia Earhart took to the skies in 1921, but did you know she saw her first plane at 10 years old when she lived in Des Moines?

Earhart was born in Atchison, Kansas, in 1897 to her parents, Amy and Edwin. Along with her younger sister, Muriel, born in 1899, the family often moved because of Edwin's work as a lawyer for the Rock Island Railroad.

The Earharts ended up in Des Moines after Edwin was transferred to Iowa's capital city for work in 1907.

Amelia, known as "Millie" or "Dusey" by her classmates, according to Des Moines Register archives, went to West High School, a long-gone school that preceded Roosevelt High School, during the family's time in the Hawkeye state.

According to PBS, Earhart reportedly saw her first plane at the Iowa State Fair. Unimpressed at the time, she recalled it as “a thing of rusty wire and wood and looked not at all interesting.”

While the Earharts were Iowa residents, they lived in many houses in Des Moines before they moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1913 after Edwin lost his job.

Amy, Amelia and Muriel eventually ended up in Chicago in 1914 after Amy left Edwin because of his alcoholism and inability to find a job, according to a report from the Iowa Legislative Services Agency in 2019.

After attending Hyde Park High School in Chicago and later, Ogontz School, an exclusive finishing school outside of Philadelphia, Amelia Earhart did not end up completing her education. She instead volunteered at Toronto's Spadina Military Hospital as a nurse for wounded World War I soldiers, according to PBS.

It was while she was in Toronto that she attended her first flying exhibition in 1918. According to PBS, she pointed to this as a personal awakening that changed her life and motivated her to take to the skies.

Where did she live in Des Moines?

The Earharts lived in five houses while in Iowa from around 1907 to 1912. According to the report from the Iowa Legislative Services Agency, they lived in these houses:

1907: 1806 Arlington Ave.

The Earharts lived at 1806 Arlington Ave., Des Moines, when they first moved to Iowa in 1907. The house, built in 1883, still stands as a residential home.

1908 to 1909: 1443 Eighth St.

The Earharts lived at 1443 Eighth St., Des Moines, from 1908-1909. The house, built in 1898, still stands as a residential home.

1910: 1530 Eighth St.

The Earharts lived at 1530 Eighth St., Des Moines, in 1910. The house, built in 1903, still stands as a residential home.

1911: 4201 University Ave.

The Earharts lived at 4201 Unversity Ave., Des Moines, in 1911. The house, which no longer stands, was a gas station from at least 1999 to 2010, according to the Polk County Assessor website. It is now a Little Ceasar's.

1912: 3002 Cottage Grove

Although the home at this address no longer exists, it was the last one the Earharts lived in before they left for St. Paul without Edwin in 1914.

What did Amelia Earhart accomplish?

Earhart ended up in Los Angeles, California, in 1919 after dropping out of Columbia University's pre-med program to join her reunited parents.

In December 1919, she was at a Long Beach aviation show with her father and took her first flight with pilot Frank Hawk.

After that first flight she declared: "As soon as we left the ground, I knew I myself had to fly," according to the National Air and Space Museum.

She took lessons from Ames native Neta Snook, and after six months of picking up odd jobs to save money, she bought the infamous yellow Kinner Airster biplane she named "The Canary."

She soon became "America's famous aviatrix," a title given by the Iowa Department of Transportation, known for being the first woman to break altitude records, flying across the Atlantic Ocean and more.

Friend remembers Amelia Earhart in the Des Moines Register

At Earhart's height of fame, in the 1920s and 1930s, the Des Moines Register coined her as one of Iowa's own.

In the Saturday edition of the Register on June 23, 1928, an old playmate of hers, Mrs. Stanley C. Bell, remembered Earhart as "Eighth Street's agile tomboy" when she lived at 1443 Eighth St.

The Register covered Earhart's records, her location and other accomplishments while she was making national and international headlines.

What happened to Amelia Earhart?

Her infamous last flight — an attempt to go all around the globe in 1937 alongside navigator Fred Noonan — would become one of the greatest aviation mysteries.

According to the National Air and Space Museum, they departed Miami on June 1 in a twin-engine Lockheed Electra and reached Lae, New Guinea, on June 29. They had covered around 22,000 miles at that point. They left Lae on July 2 for their next refueling stop, Howland Island.

Her last radio transmission was recorded on July 2 before attempting to find Howland: "KHAQQ calling Itasca. We must be on you but cannot see you . . . gas is running low . . . "

They were never able to find Howland.

Then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued a search for the two, even urging U.S. citizens to tune into Earhart's radio channel. Dozens reported hearing distress signals, however the search came up dry.

They were declared lost at sea just over two weeks after their disappearance on July 18, 1937. Two years later, on Jan. 5, 1939, Amelia Earhart was declared legally dead.

Are there any updates on Amelia Earhart's disappearance 86 years later?

Although many conspiracies have come up through the years to explain what may have happened to America's favorite aviatrix — she was eaten by giant crabs, assumed a new identity, was kidnaped by the Japanese Navy or died on impact — it is not known what actually happened to Earhart and Noonan.

However, there have been multiple searches from independent researchers and groups claiming to have found evidence of the twin-engine Lockheed Electra in which the two were attempting to fly across the globe.

Deep Sea Vision, an ocean exploration company, claimed in an Instagram post on Jan. 27, 2024, that they found "what could be the legendary American aviator's Lockheed 10-E Electra."

Other researchers have yielded similar results, but none have come quite as close as Deep Sea Vision so far.

No matter where Earhart and Noonan ended up, whether it was on another island or in the ocean, Iowans claim Earhart as one of their own, even though she lived here for only a short time.

Kyle Werner is a reporter for the Register. Reach him at kwerner@dmreg.com.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Amelia Earhart once lived in Iowa before becoming the legendary pilot