He became the first person to fly an airplane across the Continental Divide in September 1911 when he flew fifteen miles over Mullan Pass.

With another child on the way, Annie moved to Columbus, Ohio, where she kept her little family together and made a living by renting out rooms and taking in sewing.

[1] At the age of ten, Dixon invented a roller coaster[dubious – discuss] for the neighborhood kids; in 1903 he built his own motorcycle.

[2] Local newspapers took an interest in Dixon's inventions and began publishing articles about the young inventor by the time he was twelve.

After getting advice from A. Roy Knabenshue at the Ohio State Fair in Columbus, Dixon scrapped his first design, which would have used a gasoline-powered engine under a hydrogen balloon.

To fill the gas bag, he made his own hydrogen generator out of a wooden barrel full of iron filings and sulfuric acid.

The Columbus Dispatch reported, "It was his first flight, his first trial, in fact, and the little airship, propelled by foot power after the fashion of a bicycle, which the youthful protege of the great Knabenshue built with his own hands, responded to every touch of the enthusiastic lad as he manipulated it gracefully at an altitude of 200 feet for more than an hour before 500 shouting and excited spectators.

A promoter noticed Dixon's success and scheduled him to make daily flights for the week of July fourth.

On September 4, 1910, he nearly crashed into the sea with his motor-powered dirigible when the engine failed at a height of 500 feet (150 m) during a flight at the Harvard aviation meet in Boston, Massachusetts.

[5] By 1911, Dixon had switched to heavier-than-air craft, flying a Curtiss biplane, and he received his air pilot license (#43) on August 6, 1911.

Dixon immediately embarked on a cross-country tour, traveling by train with his plane on a flatcar and stopping for performances in major cities.

Flying his biplane in front of 12,000 spectators, the plane fell from 100 feet (30 m) into the Northern Pacific railroad cut north of the fairgrounds because of a strong downwind.

A monument commemorating his historic Continental Divide flight was erected at the Montana State Fairgrounds in October 1912, but it was moved a few times over the years.