On November 2, 1947, the world's
largest aircraft defied expectations when it lifted off for its first
and only flight. In the pilot's seat was aviator
Howard Hughes, who had personally overseen the development of the wooden plane
for the last five years. The gigantic H-4 Hercules
had been called a boondoggle. A flying lumberyard. A spruce goose. While it had missed its opportunity
to play a role in World War II, Hughes had pressed on
to finish the plane's construction. Now in the harbor
of Long Beach, California, he was proving to the world
that the aircraft could indeed fly. After shocking the world
with this historic achievement, the eccentric Hughes had the plane
secluded in a climate-controlled hangar. Here it would be hidden away from public
view for over 30 years. In 1980, a few years after Hughes' passing, the Spruce Goose finally saw
the light of day once again. It was soon given a new home in Long Beach, put on public display for the very first time. Unfortunately, less than 10 years later, the Spruce Goose
would be evicted from its nest. A new home was soon found. But getting it there would become the longest
and most complex journey in the plane's history. From 1983 to 1992, visitors to Long Beach could enjoy a pair
of unique tourist attractions. One of these was the historic ocean
liner, the Queen Mary. The ship had been an icon of Long Beach
since the early 70s, but it would soon be joined
by a new neighbor, the Spruce Goose. The plane was housed
in a specially built geodesic dome, made of aluminum and standing
12 stories tall. Both attractions were operated by the
Wrather Corporation for a few years, until the company was acquired by Disney in 1988. Rather had originally built
the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim in 1955, and they had refused to sell it
to Disney for over 30 years. So Disney eventually just bought
out the company entirely. Not only did this give them
full ownership of the hotel, but they now owned Wrather's
extensive land plot in Long Beach. Disney wasted no time
in developing a plan for the area, and in July of 1990, they announced a
massive new development called Port Disney. This called for hotels, shopping and
a whole new theme park called DisneySea. But while the Queen Mary
was included in these plans, the Spruce Goose was conspicuously missing. Disney admitted that they had no certain
plans for the plane's future, and fans were worried about
what might happen to it. However, due to a mix of financial
concerns and political hurdles, the plans for Port Disney were
canceled just a year and a half later. As a result, Disney would pull out
of Long Beach entirely. They soon announced that they
were ending their contracts to manage the Spruce Goose
and Queen Mary attractions. The Spruce Goose itself was owned by
the Aero Club of Southern California, a non-profit group that had helped save the
plane and move it here in the first place. With their lease now expiring in six months, they had to find a new home
for the massive aircraft, and fast. Within a couple of months,
the Aero Club had narrowed down six potential locations
to send the Spruce Goose. There were interested parties in
Oceanside, California, Las Vegas, Nevada, Tampa, Florida, Miami, Florida, Tillamook, Oregon, and McMinnville, Oregon. Each of these offered a very different
future for the Spruce Goose. But the rural town in Oregon's
wine country stood out among the rest. McMinnville was the headquarters
of Evergreen International Aviation, one of the largest air
freight operators in the world. Heading the company was Del Smith,
a self-made millionaire who had built his success
on managing fleets of commercial aircraft. He had been a big fan of the
Spruce Goose his whole life, and as an entrepreneur,
he had taken inspiration from Howard Hughes while
building up his own business. Del's son, Captain Michael King Smith, shared his father's love of aviation. He was determined to save the Spruce Goose, not only because it was a historic icon, but because it had special
meaning to his family. Captain Smith worked up
a proposal for Evergreen to acquire the plane and make it
the centerpiece of a new museum. On July 9, 1992, the Aero Club voted unanimously to
send the Spruce Goose to McMinnville. Their group's president said: "We felt the most substantial proposal
was from Evergreen, "which operates aircraft and helicopters
worldwide, and already "has a large collection
of historic aircraft." In a way, the Spruce Goose
would also be returning to its roots. The plane was actually made of birch wood,
and this birch had originally come from a mill
in Toledo, Oregon, in the 1940s. The plane's new home would be just an
hour and a half away from where it all began. Some of McMinnville's residents
were nervous about bringing a big tourist attraction
to their small town, but others saw it as an opportunity
to boost their local economy. Either way, there was little doubt
the Evergreen would give the historic plane the
care and respect it deserved. Evergreen was thrilled to secure the
Spruce Goose for their new museum, but this now meant they were
faced with a daunting task. The plane was nearly half a century old,
weighed 200 tons, had a wingspan longer than a football field,
and was made out of wood and fabric, and it had to be moved over a thousand miles. Flying it was out of the question, and it was far too large to be moved over land. The only possible solution
was to break it up into pieces. Most of these would be small enough to
be trucked up to Oregon on Interstate 5. The difficult part would be the massive
wings, tail section and fuselage. These would be loaded
onto a barge in Long Beach and shipped up the Pacific
Coast to Oregon. They would navigate up two rivers
and then make the final few miles over land to McMinnville. Evergreen assembled a special team
for the plane's disassembly. This was no simple task,
as the gargantuan aircraft was fragile and never
designed to be taken apart. The process began on August 10, 1992. The team first removed
the plane's eight propellers, each measuring 17 feet long. Next were the eight Pratt & Whitney engines, weighing more than two and a half tons a piece. The crew had a tight
deadline to get the plane disassembled, but they had to be extremely careful
not to destroy it in the process. Consultant Stan Soderberg said: "The whole concept was a challenge to do it
without doing any damage to the aircraft." Likewise, consultant Mark Smith said: "Every step of the way, we've had
to design everything as we go." After six weeks of painstaking work, 38 separate pieces were
shrink-wrapped for transport. the Spruce Goose, was ready
for its long journey to Oregon. Moving the plane's oversized parts would
require a specialized logistics team. The water-based moves would be
managed by the Sause Bros. Ocean Towing Company
based out of Coos Bay, Oregon. The land-based moves would be
coordinated by Emmert International, based out of Clackamas, Oregon. Both companies were experts in moving
unusually large items, and they were certainly up to the task
of moving the Spruce Goose. In order to load the plane's pieces
onto the Sause Bros. barge, a massive 60-foot hole had to be made
in the site of the geodesic dome. Parts of the plane were hoisted
out starting on October 2, but the water was too choppy
to load them onto the barge. This ultimately delayed things for several days. But the fully loaded barge was
finally able to depart from Long Beach on October 13, 1992. Despite the delays, the 1,100-mile
voyage up the Pacific Coast went smoothly, and the crew was able to
make better time than expected. As they reached Astoria, Oregon,
on the evening of October 17, a big rainstorm was on the horizon. The crew wanted to get the plane across the So they made the unusual decision
to cross it in the middle of the night. The rain and high winds
had settled in by the next morning, but the barge continued safely
for another 100 miles upriver. That evening, it reached the
end of its five-day journey, docking at Terminal 2
in the Port of Portland. Four days later on October 22, the barge was towed a short distance
to Tom McCall Waterfront Park. The city of Portland had been awaiting
the Spruce Goose's arrival, and now it could give the plane
a proper welcoming ceremony. Fire boats spewed arcs of water,
and bands played music as the Spruce Goose was brought
to the Salmon Street dock. Thousands of people
turned out for the ceremony, and Mayor Bud Clark proclaimed
the day as Spruce Goose Day. After nightfall, the plane was towed up to
Columbia Industrial Park in Vancouver, Washington. Here it was unloaded on October 28,
and would remain in storage until it was ready
for the next portion of the journey. While the trip to Portland
went without a hitch, the crew had a much more complex
operation ahead of it. On the second leg of the journey,
the pieces of the Spruce Goose would be split up onto
three smaller river barges. They would travel 60 miles south
along the Willamette River, passing under 17 bridges and squeezing through
the Willamette Falls Locks in Oregon City. At the end, the barges would
unload at Weston Bar, a few miles east of McMinnville. Making the move even more complicated was
the fact that the river levels had to be just right. If the water was too high, the oversized loads
wouldn't be able to fit underneath the bridges. Too low, and the barges couldn't
be safely loaded and unloaded. The river was currently too
low for safe passage, so the team now had to wait for
seasonal rains to raise the water levels. This was only expected
to take a couple of weeks, but it would be almost two months
before the conditions were right. The barge carrying the tail section shoved off
from Vancouver on the morning of December 16. Throughout that day it navigated 34 miles, passing under 14 bridges and
through the Willamette Falls Locks. The next day on December 17, the fuselage departed from Vancouver
and began the same journey. A crowd gathered at Willamette Falls to
watch the iconic plane pass through the locks. At 180 feet long, it just barely had enough space to squeeze into the locks,
which were only 185 feet long. They set the record for the longest load
to ever pass through the locks. The next day, the two barges continued
the journey together for another 33 miles. When they reached Weston Bar,
the barges were soon unloaded. However, getting the wings up
the river would be a different story. While the river levels
had previously been too low, the recent rains had
now made them too high. The wings didn't have enough clearance to fit under
the Oregon Route 219 bridge near Newberg, so the crew had to play
the waiting game yet again. Christmas and New Year's came and went. And in late January of 1993,
the barge carrying both wings was finally able
to make its way upriver. It set another record at the locks, this time as the tallest load
to ever pass through. When the barge reached
the Route 219 bridge, there was just one foot of clearance
for it to barely squeeze underneath. The barge reached Weston Bar
on January 27, reuniting the plane's parts
for the first time in over a month. Now the crews could prepare them for the
third and final leg of the journey to McMinnville. With the plane now safely back on land, Emmert International took the lead on the logistics. They were responsible for the shortest
and most delicate part of the journey, trekking the Spruce Goose seven
and a half miles to its final destination at Evergreen headquarters. This was easier said than done. The plane would need to be slowly
inched down country roads, carefully swinging around
numerous sharp corners. The company's president, Terry Emmert, said: "There are very tight tolerances, less
than a quarter of an inch in some places." "All traffic will be detoured. Power lines will have to be lowered. " By mid-February,
the four pieces of the plane had been loaded onto specialized
hydraulic dollies, forming a caravan
a quarter of a mile long. Once they set off, the crew
had to constantly make adjustments to keep the loads level over
the dips and bends in the road The caravan covered
four miles on February 25, reaching the end of Palmer Creek Road. The next day, they moved
another two miles to Cruickshank Road. Evergreen's headquarters was
now just a mile away. On the morning of February 27, 1993,
Highway 18 was shut down to traffic. About 10,000 people lined the road to
watch the caravan travel its final mile. A homecoming parade celebrated
the Spruce Goose's arrival with the military honor guard, school marching
bands, and vintage aircraft flying overhead. After four and a half months
and more than 1,200 miles, the Spruce Goose had finally landed in McMinnville. Evergreen's staff turned their attention to
building the museum to display the Spruce Goose. Temporary shelters were constructed behind their
headquarters to store all the pieces of the plane. These were essentially modified
greenhouses that kept the plane in a climate controlled state
until it could be reassembled. The museum was expected
to open in a few years. But as time went on, Evergreen struggled
to come up with the funding to build it. Then, in 1995, Captain Michael King Smith was tragically killed in an automobile
accident at the age of 29. The museum had lost its biggest advocate,
and progress came to a standstill. But Del Smith persevered, now determined to complete his son's vision
for a Spruce Goose museum. He said: "it doesn't have the glamor of the Lindbergh Ryan or the ship that took Neil Armstrong to the moon." "But it is special, and people
ought to be able to see it." It wouldn't be until August of 1999 that Evergreen was able to
break ground for the museum. The 180,000-square foot building
would be built just across the highway from the company's headquarters. Meanwhile, more than 70
volunteers started restoring the Spruce Goose's parts in
preparation for its reassembly. Old paint was carefully
scraped off by hand. Sheets of old cloth were torn off
and replaced on the wings and tail, and the whole plane was
carefully sanded and repainted in its original silver color. On September 16, 2000, the Spruce Goose made the fourth
and final move to its new home. Thousands of spectators watched
as the plane's parts were carefully moved across Highway 18 and around the back side
of the new museum building. The fuselage was secured in its
seven-foot pit later that month. and by November, the enormous wings
and tail section were reattached. In the spring of 2001,
the engines were reinstalled and the propellers
were repainted and reattached. At last, on June 6, 2001, the Evergreen
Aviation Museum opened to the public. The Spruce Goose was back on public display
alongside 24 other rare and vintage aircraft. While the plane had been mostly restored
in time for the museum's opening, it still needed some final work. Later in the year, volunteers reattached
the wing flaps, ailerons and rudder. The final piece, the tail cone,
was ceremoniously attached on December 7, 2001. Nearly a decade had passed since the plane
was taken apart in Long Beach, but with its restoration complete,
its journey to Oregon had come to an end. The Spruce Goose was finally home.
Nice…. I remember when I came off the bar and got moved behind the HQ… also I skipped school when it opened and ended up being seen in news footage …. Was really cool as a b17 flew super low over as part of the ceremony.
I toured it when it was in Long Beach and again a few years ago in McMinneville.
Holy shazit, eight (8) Pratt & Whitney 28 cylinder radials? Maintenance would be a nightmare.
I gotta stop in and see this brute. I've been meaning to for years, but every time I drive by the place is closed.
That was great. I saw pass by at Cathedral Park in St Johns when I was still in High School.
This creator (Peter Dibble) has made a few high-quality Oregon-related videos recently. This came out yesterday, and I'm looking forward to more.