April 30, 2006—Evergreen Aviation Museum

Marc and new buddy Glen road their bikes Saturday, while I spent the day with my daughter in Portland getting into trouble shopping. They encountered all types of weather, including rain for a couple hours, as they visited one of Oregon’s covered bridges, the Ritner Creek Bridge, built in 1926 at an original cost of $6900. Getting there was half the fun, as evidenced by this short ferry crossing where the Road Gnome takes to the water!

The primary highlight of this trip was their visit to the Evergreen Aviation Museum, which is located in McMinnville, a short distance from Salem. In addition to many fine examples of helicopters and fixed wing aircraft, this museum is most noted for housing the infamous Spruce Goose, the world’s largest wooden airplane with the longest wingspan ever constructed, produced by legendary Howard Hughes.  

The history of this plane is quite a fascinating story, including the fact that it cost a whopping $26,000,000 in the 1940’s with the idea that it would become a prototype for massive flying transports. Most of the plane is made out of birch, with small amounts of maple, poplar, balsa and spruce since the government didn’t want any metals critical to the war effort to be used. Sadly, she languished in a special hangar away from the public’s laughing eyes for thirty-three years after her one flying debut of a little over a mile at an altitude of only 70 feet. She was kept ever ready to go again however; at a cost of over a million dollars a year should Mr. Hughes have chosen to do so. Eventually she ended up being owned by the Walt Disney Company who lost interest in keeping her displayed next to the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA. She was disassembled and transported by barge to Portland in 1992 to this final resting place where she was reassembled in 2001.

These are some additional photos of what you will find at the museum, which is open daily 9-5 with an admission fee of $11.