Kenai Fjords A Stern and Rock-Bound Coast: Historic Resource Study

Aviation Facility Development

Aviation came of age in Alaska during the 1920s, an era dominated by bush pilots such as Noel Wien, Russell Merrill, and Carl Ben Eielson. Communities across the territory carved out airfields. Seward, which witnessed its first airplane landing in 1925, constructed an airfield between May 1927 and May 1928. Russell Merrill, who was based in Anchorage, took several passengers on a "short flight over the bay and mountains" during the summer of 1928; that same summer, he made several other flights in and out of town with trappers, game guides and their equipment. By the end of the decade, maintained and dedicated airfields had also been laid out at Kenai, Ninilchik, and Kasilof. [60]

During the 1930s, sporadic service in and out of Seward continued. Early in the decade, service was advertised between Seward and the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. In both 1933 and 1934, Art Woodley offered excursions over Seward, Resurrection Bay and the Harding Ice Field at $10 for short flights and $15 for longer ones. He charged fishermen $15 for round-trip flights to the Russian River; that flight probably ascended the Resurrection River valley. In 1937, and again in 1939, two different companies named Seward Airways set up shop. These firms lasted only a short time, however. The demand for air travel was so low that scheduled flights were not offered to or from the Kenai Peninsula until after World War II. [61]

Several civilian air carriers, serving both residents and tourists, sprang up during the postwar period. In May 1945, two area residents started the Kenai Air Service, which planned to connect Seward by air with Homer, Seldovia, Valdez, and Cordova. A year later, Safeway Airlines commenced service, offering to take passengers and freight to a variety of Kenai Peninsula and Prince William Sound points. And in 1949, Alaska Airlines began serving Seward as well. All three of these carriers offered flights between Seward and Homer and thus gave passengers the opportunity to view the Harding Icefield, the fjords southwest of Seward, and other areas within today's park boundaries. [62] These carriers, and others that replaced them, have continued to provide occasional service to the southern Kenai Peninsula since that time.

Two airfields have been built in the immediate vicinity of the park. In 1965, miner Don Glass constructed an airstrip along the beach at Beauty Bay and used it in conjunction with operations at the Glass and Heifner mine (see Chapter 7). The other airstrip was a small, ad hoc affair located on the right (southwest) bank of the Resurrection River approximately one-half mile below its confluence with Placer Creek. This so-called "T-grass strip" was bulldozed during the 1950s, probably by hunter Jon Andrews, Sr. By all accounts, the strip was seldom used; perhaps the only user was Mr. Andrews, who flew his Taylorcraft in and out of the area until it crash-landed at one end of the strip in 1978. Since that time, the Resurrection River has reclaimed most of the airstrip, and today most of it is no longer visible. [63]