A small memorial near the old Lae airstrip marks the spot where Amelia Earhart made her last confirmed departure. On 2 July 1937, she and navigator Fred Noonan took off from the grass strip at Lae, bound for Howland Island roughly 4,000 kilometres to the east across open ocean. They were never seen again. The disappearance remains one of aviation's most enduring mysteries.
The memorial itself is modest — a plaque and marker rather than anything grand — but it sits in a location that resonates. Lae's airstrip was built in 1927 to serve the goldfields at Wau, and the town grew up around it. Earhart's departure was front-page news worldwide and briefly put this remote New Guinea outpost on the global map. The marker is near the Eriku area of town and easy to find on foot.