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    Aviation in Southern Oregon
    Aviation in Southern Oregon
    Aviation in Southern Oregon
    Ebook163 pages1 hour

    Aviation in Southern Oregon

    By Bill Alley and Southern Oregon Historical Society

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    About this ebook

    Medford, Oregon, pioneered aviation in Southern Oregon and has long enjoyed a reputation for being an air-minded city. When the City of Medford built Newell Barber Field in 1920, it established the first municipally owned airfield in the state. In 1926, Pacific Air Transport selected Medford as a station for the West Coast airmail route. While Portland s airmail service was located across the river at Vancouver s Pearson Field in Washington, Medford s Newell Barber Field was Oregon s only airmail stop. The 1920s secured Medford s position as a leader in the growth of both civil and commercial aviation. When technology rendered the original field obsolete, the voters handily approved a new, state-of-the-art field that has continued to expand and grow into a major international airport and free trade zone, capable of accommodating some of the world s largest aircrafts.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateFeb 7, 2011
    ISBN9781439625446
    Aviation in Southern Oregon
    Author

    Bill Alley

    Author Bill Alley, a certified archivist and historian, is a member of the board of directors of the Pearson Field Historical Society and, in addition to numerous articles on aviation, also penned the script for the award-winning documentary An Air-Minded City. In this volume, he has gathered more than 200 photographs from the Pearson Air Museum and other area repositories to recount a century of aviation at Pearson Field.

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      Book preview

      Aviation in Southern Oregon - Bill Alley

      Washington

      INTRODUCTION

      Of all the cities and towns in Oregon, Medford—situated in the southern end of the Rogue River Valley—played a dominant role in the development of aviation in the Pacific Northwest. The city’s strategic location halfway between Seattle and San Francisco, coupled with local recognition of the benefits of aviation, secured Medford’s preeminent place in Oregon’s aviation heritage.

      Like countless other cities and towns across the nation, Medford had seen its fair share of itinerant daredevil balloonists, but it was not until 1908 that southern Oregon residents first heard the roar of an airplane engine. Eugene Ely, who would later gain fame as the first man to land and fly from the deck of a naval vessel, set up his aircraft on the Cox ranch west of Medford. Ely’s intention was to carry passengers, but the combination of an underpowered engine and the relatively high altitude prevented him from becoming airborne. When Ely returned to southern Oregon in 1911, flying for the Curtiss Aircraft Company, he successfully carried passengers from the city baseball field. Two years later, Medford played host to the region’s first Fourth of July air meet.

      In 1919, the first locally owned aircraft made its appearance over the skies of Medford. Floyd Hart and Seely Hall had purchased a surplus Curtiss JN-4 Jenny, which they operated from the Gore Ranch. According to the Medford Mail Tribune, for five and ten dollars a head passengers were treated to a short 10-minute flight around the valley. Operating out of a stubble field, however, took a toll on the Jenny’s large wooden propeller; a new site was found on the south-side end of Fir Street in Medford. Hall and Hart named their aircraft the Mayfly one cold morning when it seemed doubtful that the plane would fly.

      The Mayfly had the distinction of being the first plane to carry a passenger from Medford to another destination. In August 1919, the Elks held a convention in Klamath Falls. Since both Hall and Hart were Elks, they hit upon the idea of flying the exalted ruler, George Collins, to the convention with Hart at the controls. It was hoped that the Mayfly could offer rides while in Klamath Falls, but the altitude made it difficult to take off with the added weight of a passenger, so Hart returned to Medford alone.

      As the 1920s dawned, the U.S. Forest Service began contemplating the use of aircraft to patrol the region’s forests for early fire detection. With the U.S. Army Air Service facing draconian cuts in their operating budgets, they quickly agreed to supply the planes and pilots for such a venture to keep their men trained. When the forest service selected Medford as a base of operations, the City of Medford purchased a tract of land south of town adjacent to the county fairgrounds to accommodate them. The new airfield was named Newell Barber field in honor of a young Medford man who lost his life on his first flight during World War I in Europe. Newell Barber Field became the first public airfield in the state of Oregon.

      It was with the assistance and support of the federal government, in particular the U.S. Post Office, that commercial aviation was able to take firm root across the country. Post office officials had become convinced of the usefulness of a series of airmail routes across the country to facilitate rapid delivery of the mail. In 1925, Congress passed the Kelly Act, authorizing private carriers to bid on airmail routes. Among those was Contract Airmail Route (CAM) 8. CAM 8 was the longest of the proposed routes, running the length of the Pacific coast, from Los Angeles to Seattle.

      Vern Gorst, a former Medford resident who had established automobile stage services in Medford and Coos Bay, recognized the potential of the fledgling airmail service. He organized the Pacific Air Transport Company (PAT) and bid on the West Coast route. To raise the necessary capital, Gorst sold shares in his company to anyone willing to invest $100 per share. In addition to acquiring the backing of financial heavyweights such as Julius Meier of the Meier and Frank department stores, Gorst even had his taxi drivers solicit investments from passengers. Seely Hall of Medford recalled selling shares on the street.

      On December 31, 1925, Gorst’s Pacific Air Transport was awarded the CAM 8 contract. Gorst selected the Ryan M-1 mail plane as his primary aircraft, and he and Claude Ryan surveyed the 1,100-mile route. Stops would be made at Seattle, Portland, Medford, San

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