The Society thanks Diane Summerhays at the Port of Seattle for sharing this excellent history of Bow Lake Airport. - Ed.

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport History, 1942-1975

The History of Bow Lake Airport

by Chet Clausen and Ray O. Bishop

 Opening Day at Seattle-Tacoma Airport
 Photo courtesy Museum of History and Industry

The first part of this article was furnished me by Chet Clausen, Port of Seattle (retired) Office Engineer who recorded the information of the beginning of Bow Lake Airport in February, 1962-63. –Ray O. Bishop

In the early forties, Seattle, like most of the nation’s air-minded communities, was suffering from an acute case of "Airportitis." Airlines carrying passengers and cargo eased carefully into Boeing Field, a landing strip built by King County in 1928 on drained land, close to sea level, where the Duwamish River flows into Puget Sound. If fog settled anywhere in the area, it could be counted on to sulk at the crowded Boeing Field. At that time, the airport was not considered adaptable for instrument landings because of meteorological conditions and surrounding natural and man-made hazards.

The volume of commercial air traffic was increasing. As airplanes grew faster, larger areas were needed to accommodate them.

In view of the growing world tension, the Boeing Aircraft Factory was expanding rapidlyand needed the adjoining Boeing Field facilities for its own use and for Army Air Force experimental and technical purposes.

As early as January, 1941, the aviation committee of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce conceived the idea of another major airport for Seattle and immediately started surveying possible sites. The community efforts to secure a new airport for Seattle received a substantial boost when, a year later, the Civil Aeronautics Administration, partly at the instigation of the military, announced that it had one million dollars available for such an airport, provided some public agency would come forward with enough land in a good location, erect an administration building and be ready to run the airport upon its completion.

It should be stressed at this point that the Civil Aeronautics Administration previously had made similar offers, limited in time, to the cities of Tacoma and Vancouver, Washington. These cities delayed decision and forfeited the grant.

King County, which operated Boeing Field, had had its fill by this time of the moneylosing airport business; its airport had shown a $2,500,000 net loss during 14 years of operation.

The City of Seattle, which had operated the first Seattle aviation field from 1920 to 1930 at Sand Point Naval Station, was no more eager to pick up the chips, and found itself conveniently counted out by a provision of the City Charter, preventing municipality investment in a project outside the city limits.

Under these circumstances, the Port of Seattle Commission was requested to assume the sponsorship in 1942.

After three decades of waterfront development and operation, the Port’s business position was enviable. It had acquired about half of the berthing space on Elliott Bay. The authority owned property valued in excess of $30,000,000 and grossed about $2,500,000 a year in revenue. The Navy had just condemned the Smith Cove Terminal, two half-mile long piers developed by the Authority, and paid the Port more than $4,000,000 indemnity.

The Port Commission was ready to sponsor the new airport even though it knew that the project would mean a financial burden. Since none of the major airports in the nation were operating in the black at that time, the Commission wanted to be certain that such a move was what the residents of the Port District wished. This assurance was given to the Port at a mass meeting of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce on March 2, 1942, attended by about 100 representatives of business, labor, service and community clubs. Five days later, in a formal meeting, the Commission unanimously voted to assume responsibility for the construction of the new airport.

At the time of the Commission decision, the search for the new airport location had been narrowed down to two sites.

One site was located west of Lake Sammamish and north of U. S. Highway 10 approximately in the area of the present Lake Hills residential development. There were seven buildings on the site and it was estimated that roughly 2,000,000 cubic yards of earth would have to be moved to grade the terrain.

The other site stretched west of Bow Lake on a cluster of wooded hills situated 15 miles south of Seattle City Center and 17 miles north of Tacoma. The terrain was rather rugged. There were 55 buildings in the area, which had to be acquired and a movement of 4,000,000 cubic yards of earth was expected.

Even though the Lake Sammamish site offered time and money saving advantages, by March 30, 1942 the Port of Seattle had already decided in favor of the Bow Lake site. Principal reasons for this decision were:

Bow Lake was situated 400 feet above sea level and offered maximum clear weather in the area.

About 10 miles southeast of Lake Sammamish, Squak Mountain rises sharply to 1,930 feet. This mountain would have presented a hazard during instrument weather when low flying was necessitated and it also caused a deflection in the leg of the Seattle Radio range, which would have to be used for instrument let down and approaches to the site.

Two major airlines, United Air Lines and Northwest Air Lines, strongly favored the Bow Lake site, mainly from the passenger generating point of view. They were counting on the flow of passengers from the southern Puget Sound counties. The Bow Lake site was 20 miles closer to these counties than the Lake Sammamish area. The two airlines offered to advance $25,000 yearly in rent until the completion of the airport if the Bow Lake site was chosen.

Tacoma offered a contribution of $100,000 if the Bow Lake site was selected and the field called "Seattle-Tacoma Airport." At first the Port was planning on calling the site "Johnson Field" in honor of Philip G. Johnson, President of Boeing Airplane Company who had died recently.

Of the $100,000, Port of Tacoma allotted $70,000; the City of Tacoma and Pierce County, $15,000 each. No strings were attached to the offer and the Port of Seattle was to maintain full managerial authority over the airport. Thus "Seattle-Tacoma."

The acquisition of land from 260 individual owners proceeded smoothly. The settlements made by the Port of Seattle were so reasonable that only four property owners contested the action. Altogether 906 acres were acquired in the first land purchase at a total cost of $660,000.

The first CAA engineers moved out to the field the first part of April, 1942. They used a house for the field office that stood at the corner of 24th Avenue South and South 170th Street. The Port of Seattle moved out a watchman’s shack, and Mr. Ryrie was the first airport watchman.

I (Ray Bishop) started to work on the Bow Lake Airport site April 18, 1942, the day General Jimmie Doolittle’s planes dropped their bombs on Tokyo, Japan.

I operated a surveyor’s transit for the Civil Aeronautics Administration. I had a crew of five men. We were laying out the grid system and getting ready for the taking of elevations over the entire field area. I didn’t set the first stake, but I replaced it É so to speak. Another crew had already run about two or three lines through the brush when I started to work. A Mr. Gaebe was Resident Engineer and Fred Tice was his assistant.

My CAA Survey Crew and I caught a young fellow and a girl having sex on a motorcycle that was parked on one of the riding academy’s horse trails back in the brush when we were doing the original survey.

We finished the topog May 27th and the boss, Fred Tice, put me in charge of making a drawing (to scale) of the entire airport. I took one of my crew, a man by the name of Forrest Farris, and we finished it in a very short time. I then worked on local projects for the CAA including some office work in (the Smith Tower Annex) Seattle.

During the war, in the northwest corner of the original field area, along the east side of 16th Avenue South was a squad of Army soldiers in the scotch broom. They had a machine gun nest in there, but no one could see them, so we didn’t know they were there. My head chainman was crawling through the thick scotch broom to set a picket for a target, and lo and behold he crawled right into that machine gun nest. He must have cleared about an acre of ground getting out of there.

July 8, 1943, I returned to the airport for the grading and paving of the runways. The CAA had built a new shiplap shack for a field office just south of where the Northwest Air Lines hangar now stands, and on the west side of 28th Avenue South.

The contract had been let to a combine of California contractors that called themselves Johnson, Minnis and Moody. The sub-contractors were É Clearing and Grubbing: Wixen and Crow; Grading: by the private contractor; Storm Sewers: Werner and Webb; Electrical: Campbell Electric; Concrete Paving: Fiorito Brothers; Seeding: A.A. Price; and Fencing: Cyclone Fence Company. A well was drilled by Jantzen in 1943. A 12’ casing, Pamona Rotary Pump. They tried to pump the well dry in 24 hours. They didn’t do it.

Doyle P. Affleck, was the Resident Engineer for the CAA; Lester G. Hall was the assistant resident; N. O. Davies, Claude Hansen, Ed Koesner and a fellow named Volney Fleishman, all office and field engineers. E. W. Anderson, office engineer. Dick Woodcock, draftsman, who drew all of the original (hardcopy) drawings of the airport.

Arlene Neely was Affleck's secretary. Milt Hoidal was chief of parties, Art (Doc) Moen was level man, Ray Bishop was field engineer with a party of three some of the time, and two all of the time It was hard to get good men during that time. My head chainman was Frank Coggins, my rear chainman was Russell Austin, two of the better men. Another good man was Chino Quillico. Some other of the crew members were a man by the name of Martin, Mr. Schuelke, Rodman; Bob Babbs, soils engineer, Mr. Ritchie, Chief Inspector; Mr. Atwood, Horton Sumner and Daley were all inspectors. There was an engineer who surveyed the boundaries of Bow Lake Airport for the Port of Seattle. His name was Clyde Pike. One of the inspectors (I’ve forgotten his name) died of a heart attack one day just after eating lunch.

With my crew we laid out all of the drainage lines (over 17 miles) of pipe and set all of the cut stakes, top elevations on all of the catch basins, manholes and inlets. We laid out all of the electrical ducts, set the top elevations on all of the electric manholes, some paving grades, some finish field grades, plus all of the boundary fencing.

The field was constructed of four runways. The North-South, 6100 feet, the East-West 5000 feet, Northeast-Southwest 5611.08 feet, and the Northwest-Southeast 5091.60 feet. They were built 150 feet wide, and the taxiways were 50 feet wide. The taxiways were later widened to 75 feet.

The airport originally contained a riding academy, two rabbitries, a frog farm, a mushroom farm, a dog kennel and 55 buildings. It also contained a gravel runway strip approximately 1500 feet long, a windsock, a gas pump and a small shiplap nose hangar. This strip was located just west of 16th Avenue South from North 20 to North 35, and had the access road to it on 16th Avenue South. Looking at that strip, one would never believe it would someday be the airport it is today (May, 1975). Now that all of the paving is complete, we find there is just over 100 acres of concrete, and there have been over 4,000,000 cubic yards of earth moved and the field contains just under 1,000 acres.

We were supposed to lay out the runways so the north-south runway would be true north, but Fred Tice, the CAA engineer, didnt want to take time to shoot Polaris so after the runways were complete Les Hall had us take sun shots. We found the center line of the north-south runway was headed North 0 degrees -21'-07' East, which made it a little confusing to transpose our CAA grid to the Lambert grid, the system the Washington State Highway and King County engineers use.

When the contract with Johnson, Minnis and Moody was just about complete, the boss, D. P. Affleck, told the crew, "I think before the crew breaks up and goes their different ways, we ought to get together for a farewell party." So it was planned for a Friday evening in the not too distant future. Someone brought a radio for music to dance and a butcher knife and a cake of paraffin wax to shave to put on the shiplap floor to make the dancing smoother.

We also had plenty of refreshments, both liquid and otherwise. After a couple of drinks the bartender, Norm Davies, mixed me another, and I was feeling very little pain. I looked for my wife to dance with. I didn’t immediately locate her, when she came dancing by with my head chainman, Frank Coggins. I said, in fun, “So, that’s who you’ve been dancing with,” and I picked up the butcher knife from the small table near where I was standing and I whetted it back and forth a couple of times over the cake of paraffin wax (to simulate a whetstone) and I then drew what I thought was the back of the blade across my throat, but I had the sharp edge. It was a good thing it struck my voice box or else I probably wouldn’t be writing about it today.

The blood ran down my white shirt, the dancing stopped, several people came to my rescue, but it was not serious, and I survived. Today when we visit my ex-boss, they always mention, “You haven’t cut your throat lately, have you?” That is one experience I probably won’t ever forget.

Pat Duby, electrical contractor, bid on four check dams on the south drainage ditch from Bow Lake Creek to South 200th Street. Pat bid the whole job for approximately the amount the FAA engineers figured for each dam. That contract broke Pat. Several things happened while he was doing that job, like two cranes upsetting. One boom was bent to the tune of $1,500 the last day of the job.

After the field was completed, I was still with the CAA and I was transferred August 14, 1945, to Idaho Falls, Idaho, and worked on the airport there under the supervision of D. P. Affleck (my old boss). I had a war appointment so I was laid off with eight other engineers. On November 19, 1945, I came to Seattle and found a card from Les Hall who wanted me to go to work for the Port of Seattle for a couple of weeks. George Treadwell, Port of Seattle Chief Engineer, told me sometime later, “Bish, you’re the slowest man I ever saw. I hired you for two weeks and you have been here 15 years.” Good ole George. He is one swell guy. I went to work for the Port of Seattle on November 20, 1945 and I stayed until I retired April 30, 1969.

The first landing of a transport plane was made October 31, 1944, in a UAL Mainliner with Port of Seattle and other officials. The VIP party (besides the crew) were E. H. Savage, Port Commissioner; H. P. Chapman, Port Commissioner secretary; Col. W. C. Bickford, Port General Manager and Chief Engineer; George Treadwell, Assistant Chief Engineer for the Port; Daniel Wilson, Acting District Manager of the Civil Aeronautics Administration; L. W Willcox, CAA District Supervisor; Joseph Ables, District Operations Manager for United Air Lines; Willis Camp, District Traffic Manager for UAL; H. J. Marke, President of the Municipal League of Seattle; Clarence Carlander, Chairman of the League's Port Committee; Christy T. Boeing (blurred), Vice President and General Manager of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce; Col. A. H. Harold, Manager of the Chamber’s Aviation Department, and representatives of the Seattle newspapers. Also, Ed Savage; H. P. Chapman and J. A. Early (President), Port Commissioners. The Port Commission had only three persons at this time. Later a Captain Tom McManus, a NWA pilot, was elected Port Commissioner and he got the five commissioners and $1.00 per year salary. They had been paid $3,600 per year.

The front development was contracted by N. Fiorito. Ernie Nielson was their superintendent (1945-46). Bob McDonald, Al Kreie and myself were the Port’s engineers crew at that time.

The airlines’ hangars were built from #1 through #6. First NWA Hangar #1 - 1945-47 by the Austin Company; Flr. Elev. 379.00; #2 - UAL - 1948-49 by the Austin Company; Flr. Elev. 393.00; #3 WAL (north end) September 1952 by the Austin Company; #4 PanAm October 1952-53, by Tueffel Construction Company; Flr. Elev. 380.30; #5 - PNA 1963-64, by Barrett Construction; Flr. Elev. 371.00 (WAL consolidated with PNA in 1967.); #6 - Alaska Airlines, 1966-67, by the Austin Company; Flr. Elev. 367.00.

In 1945 the Port moved a temporary engineers’ office out to the airport and they built a temporary Administration Building. They piped water from the drilled well on the median between the entrance and exit roads from U. S. 99. They built a Quonset hut restaurant just east of the temporary terminal and named it “The Pantry”. It was operated by a Mr. Peffley who operated the Crabapple Restaurant in Bellevue.

In about 1946 or Ô47, George Early (Port Superintendent of the Maintenance Shop) used to send Ed Burke (Track Foreman) out to the airport with a flatbed truck full of freshly dipped fish nets from Salmon Bay. They were dipped in a creosote solution and then they would drape them around the scotch broom for about a week and take them back to Salmon Bay. They did that until the field started to be used by Northwest Air Lines.

John Kuni was one of the first grass mowers. He would mow the whole field, and he kept the mower in a little garage on the west side of U.S. 99 just south of the airport entrance on the west side of the highway.

The sanitary and storm sewers were installed by Valley Construction Company in 1947. John Kuni (a Port employee) and one of Valley’s men and myself put out a fire in Valley's field office. We had the old hose cart. There were about six inches of snow on the ground and some of the help rolled a couple of pipe layers in the snow to put out the fire in their clothing. I suppose one could say that Bishop and Kuni were the first Fire Department at Sea-Tac.

The 12’ water supply system was installed by Macri Bros., better known as Statement Construction Company in 1948-49.

The Port selected Col. Earl S. Bigler for the Manager of Sea-Tac. He took over his position October 1, 1947. Later that year Don Shay was chosen as Assistant Manager.

The footings for the new Administration Building were constructed by Sound Construction in 1947. The Administration Building was started the last part of October, 1947, by Lease-Leigland, The building was dedicated July 9, 1949, after surviving an earthquake on Friday, April 13, 1949. The subcontractors for the building were Aguter Electric and Navarre Plumbing. The earthquake really shook things up, and yet, very few cracks developed in the building. The new Administration Building cost $3,200,000. Lease and Leagland built the Waste Disposal Plant for the Port in 1949.

In the early part of the field grading I was working in the north end of the field, and a couple of twin brothers would always cut through the field near where we were working on their way home from school. They would go out in front of the transit and hold their books up so I couldn’t give the crew line. I tried every way to appease them, but to no avail. So one afternoon when they came through there and started to pester me, I took after them. I accidentally stepped in a hole and fell on my face. Boy, did they laugh, but they never pestered us again.

About seven or eight years afterward, we were surveying on 14th Avenue South near South 160th Street and a nice looking young man came up with an Air Force uniform on and stood around for a couple of minutes and he finally said, “You don’t remember me, do you?” I said, “Should I?” He said, “Do you remember those two boys that used to show you a bad time? You ought to have kicked our rear ends.” I sized up his six feet six frame, and I said, “Well, it’s a little too late now.” He had grown into a real nice lad.

A 300,000 gallon covered concrete reservoir was constructed by Carl Anderson in 1947, Flr. Elev. 431.00Õ, High Water 441.00Õ, roof elev. 445.00Õ. The pump house was constructed by Aguter Electric in 1950. The elevated steel water tank holding 300,000 gallons was erected in 1950 on September 11, by a Portland firm. Top Elev. 528.20Õ O.D. of tank was 58.84Õ The tank was moved in an upright position by Shaughnessy Movers, 1967.

The original field grades were 0.80% running north and south, and 0 running East and West. The NE-SW runway was the only one with crown.

Les Hall killed a coyote on the north end of the N-S runway. A short time later one of the CAA control tower operators had his German Shepherd with him on his night shift, and while returning home at the southeast corner of the field the dog got into a terrible fight with something, and after it was over, there was a dead coyote in the grass. The Port sold the old wooden control tower to Renton Airport, where it still stands today. (May 10, 1975).

There were several deer living up in the northwest corner of the field in the scotch broom. Expansion and poachers finally chased them out.

1. 1945 - a small plane, single engine, nosed over on landing and folded a wheel. This happened on the N-S runway. No casualties.
2. A small single engine plane nosed over and broke a prop. N-S runway. No casualties. 1945.
3. PAA DC-3, January 9, 1947, crashed at the south end of the N-S runway while attempting to land in the fog and the dusk of evening. There were 13 people aboard, including three children, and a crew of four. None were injured. The plane had just returned from Alaska.
4. An Alaska Air LinesÕ DC-4 crashed in the intersection of Des Moines Way and 12th Place South while attempting a landing on the NE-SW runway. It was late P.M., November 30, 1947, with fog and rain. The plane disintegrated and burned. Eight persons died, including a blind woman who was a passenger in an automobile in the intersection.
5. An Army F-94 Jet from McChord Field had a real hot tailpipe and belly landed on the NW-SE runway and skidded the length of the runway and came to rest off the northwest end of the runway on the grassed area. No casualties.
6. A NWA Boeing Stratocruiser crashed just after take-off and landed in Puget Sound near Maury Island on April 2, 1956. Three lives lost.
7. Thursday, December 23, 1965, s Navy HU-16 Gruman Albatros crashed from 50’ altitude on take-off. It crashed on the west side of the N-S runway from snow on the wings. Seven men aboard, no casualties.
8. UAL DC-10 evacuated nearly 200 passengers on the main taxiway as a fire broke out in the tail section, October 16. 107?
9. December 29, 1975, a Harbor Airlines’ twin engine Britten Norman Islander crashed on take-off in front of 13334 Military Road South. Three killed, three hurt. Snow on the wings.

On May 23, 1970, foam was spread for WAL Flight #606 at 6:30 P.M. when the nose wheel was reported stuck in an “up” position. Captain C. “Butch” Armstrong, of San Francisco, made a good landing amid cheers from 26 passengers and Pam Monroe, 22, of Bellevue, Chief Stewardess.

A car crashed through the roof of a house in 1967, just south of NWW hangar on the east side of 28th Avenue South. No casualties.

A contractor for the FAA dug up the bones of a three-toed sloth in February, 1961 while excavating for a tower footing at N-121+60 and E-38+85. The FAA work was under the supervision of Virden Vick. The bones were found approximately 20’ below the surface and were turned over to a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Washington. They found all of the skeleton except the head and one front leg. The sloth was estimated to have died approximately 10,000 years ago and measured 12’ long and 11’ high.

Keith Allen Oberly, 20, was found shot to death April 20, 1970, just north of South 154th Street on the west side of the light lane. Johnny A. Chambers was charged with the murder.

Thomas E. Cooper, 22, was found shot to death by his own hand, June, 1974, just north of Sea-Tac Airport. He was one of the two men who had just robbed a Burien restaurant.

Timothy Russell, 25, was shot to death on the 4th floor of the Sea-Tac parking garage, August 12, 1972, by two Sea-Tac Airport Police. He was an escaped mental patient from Pueblo, Colorado.

On December 22, 1969, Carlyle Aicher, 51, an R.E.A. Express Driver, was robbed of $250,000 (300 lbs.) of pearls and shot to death. His truck with the body was found on the Hyatt House north parking lot. Henry Emory was charged and held on $50,000 bail, February 22, 1971.

The Port of Seattle started cutting trees in the glide angles of each of the four runways in March, 1946. The crews consisted of Lou Engbrecht, John Kuni, Art Rudes, Dewey Brown, Bob Hamblin and a friend.

After the tree cutting was completed in two years, my survey crew consisted of Lou Engbrecht, Art Rudes, and at times John Kuni and Dewey Brown. During school vacations, as extra help, I had Bill Howard, Bob Martin, John Foley and Dr. Tom Ables of West Seattle and Sartaj Siddiqui.

The first attempt to hijack a plane at Sea-Tac was July 15, 1954, when Eddie "Tarzan" Marmurs, a young man who lived in a tree-house on his grandmother’s dairy farm near Puyallup and would climb hand-over-hand to and from it on a rope. He was a physical culture nut. He came to Sea-Tac and climbed aboard a Trans-Canada DC-3 parked on the apron, with the pilot, J. R. Davidson, in the cockpit alone checking things before starting his return trip to Vancouver, B. C. "Tarzan" shoved a .45 caliber automatic against Davidson’s neck and said ÒI want you to fly me to Africa; I want to live in the jungle like Tarzan.” Thus the reporters nicknamed him "Tarzan." While the pilot was trying to explain to him that he didn’t have enough fuel on board to fly to Africa, and besides the plane would not hold enough fuel to take them to Africa. Just then the stewardess, Isabel Abrahams, came aboard, unaware that anything was wrong. Tarzan heard her and whirled around and blasted a hole through the side of the plane just missing Miss Abrahams.

I heard the shot from Les Hall’s office and at first I thought it was a plane backfiring. Marvin Stansel, Chief of the Security Guards (as they were called then), called the State Patrol and the Sheriff’s Office and he went out on the apron and pushed a movable set of boarding steps up to the side of the plane, concealing himself behind it. He finally talked Tarzan into throwing out his gun and surrendering. He was sent to Steilacoom (Western State). Les and I watched the whole incident from his office window.

On November 22, 1955, a wealthy New Yorker’s son, Robert D. Clendenin, became very fond of a UAL stewardess, Sally Shedd, 25, and wanted to marry her. She told him she was not ready to marry. He followed her from New York to Sea-Tac and just before they disembarked he pulled a gun and shot her to death in the plane. An Army man sitting beside him tried to grab the gun but he was too late. Clendenin then committed suicide.

D. B . Cooper hijacked a NWA 727 from Sea-Tac November 24, 1971, and parachuted out the rear door with $200,000 ransom between Portland and Reno, Nevada. Neither Cooper nor the ransom have been seen since. There are some people who think he died when the chute failed to open or he froze to death, as after four years none of the marked bills have come to light.

On Saturday, August 18, 1972, Frank Markoe Sibley, Jr., 43, of Stateline, Nevada, hijacked a UAL 727 in Reno, Nevada. He demanded the stewardess and 52 passengers be removed from the plane and then had the pilot fly him to Vancouver, B. C. where they spent four hours; then he had them fly him to Sea-Tac where he was shot twice by an FBI Agent, once in the shoulder and once in the leg. He was taken into custody and to Burien Hospital. He was transferred to Harborview Medical Center. The crew members were Captain C. J. Lenaham, First Officer R. J. Harrison and Second Officer J. P. Vohs, all from the Denver area.

On February 25, 19??, a WAL 707 from Ontario, California, was enroute from its only stop, San Francisco, and was hijacked over Medford, Oregon, by Chappin Scott Paterson who forced the pilot to fly him to Vancouver, B. C. There were a crew of six and 92 passengers on board. He was taken into custody.

Army Master Sergeant Willard Frederick Burnett was arraigned on three counts of second degree assault in the shooting of Leonard Potocki, 44, and Richard Michaelson, 37, Sea-Tac Police, and Army Sergeant Richard Johannes of Fort Lewis. Bond was set at $3,000. (Date not known by me.)

An Airport Limousine driver, Terril Alan Wierson, 29, was traveling south on the perimeter road and was killed at 11:10 P.M., November 6, 1966, when the limousine crossed the center line and crashed head on into a WAL van at the curve just south of NWA hangar and 28th Avenue South.

After Geo. Treadwell retied as Chief Engineer, the Asst. Chief, S. Charles Dearstyne, took over as Chief, Charles retired a few years later and his assistant, Dennis B. Dahlgard took over as Chief. When Dennis retired, his Asst. Chief, Vern Ljungren, took over as Chief Engineer.

Hal Rucker was Assistant Chief Engineer for a few years under Dahlgard. He then resigned to take a job with Sea Land.

Sea-Tac Police Sergeant Edward M. Gray, 50, saw Stephen Crawford, 38, with a drawn pistol chasing a man. Gray mistook Crawford for a robber and shot him in the hip. Gray found, to his surprise, that Crawford, an Atlanta Probation Officer, was chasing an escaped prisoner, John Franklin Moore, 29, Friday, September 30, 19??. Crawford held no malice toward Gray and told him “I’d have done the same thing myself.

First 747 (NWA) touched down at Sea-Tac July 2, 1970 with 85 passengers and crew at 2:15 P.M.

First Boeing B-52 flight from Boeing Field April 15, 1952, 11:10 A.M.

The first Waste Disposal Plant Operator was Earl Snowdy. When he left the Port, his assistant, Mike Todorovitch (the mad Russian), took charge and was there until the Port hooked up with Des Moines Sewer District in about 1960.

The first Maintenance Engineer was Harold Babtie. The second Maintenance Engineer was Lester G. Hall. The third Maintenance Engineer was Jack McBride. The fourth Maintenance Engineer is Art Krause.

The first Police Chief at Sea-Tac was Marvin Stansel. The second Police Chief at Sea-Tac was Dean Barker. The third Police Chief at Sea-Tac is Captain Neil Maloney - twenty year veteran of the Seattle Police Department (April 6, 1975).

The first Fire Chief was Bill Robertson. The second Fire Chief is Harry Burbridge.

The first Electrician was Jack McBride. The second Electrician is Jack Smith.

Concourse “B” was constructed by Braizier--1964-65. The new restaurant, “The Carvery”, and the Grill was constructed by John Sellen, 1964. The “D” Concourse was constructed by Barnes Construction, 1958-59. ÒDÓ Concourse extension was constructed by Donogh Construction, 1964. A.M.F. Building was constructed by John Sellen Construction Company, 1957. The Air Cargo Terminal was constructed by Dick Anderson Construction, 1953.

An 18 seat Sky Van Twin Engine Turbo Prop Airplane was stolen from the airport. It was valued at $500,000.

January, 1971, a NWA Crew Chief, Woodrow M. Lemenager, was killed at the Sea-Tac Airport when he fell 15’ while spraying de-icer on the tail section of a Boeing 727.

Wayne Herbert Poling, of Rising Sun, Ohio, was robbed of his wallet containing $50.00 cash and $450.00 in traveler’s checks in one of the men’s rooms at Sea-Tac Airport.

Mrs. Audrey Congor, 46, and daughter Clari, 3, were injured fatally and another woman (driver of the car), Mrs. June Brady, 41, was injured seriously when a dump truck driven by Larry Knox, 35, turned left in South 154th Street in front of the Brady car. Larry Knox was working for a contractor on the airport.

At noon, March 16, 1963, ….?.... was killed by the propeller of a PNA Constellation while operating a fork lift beneath the plane on the apron in front of the fire station. The accident was witnessed by Harold Noll, a Sea-Tac fireman.

Dave ...?... of Service Electric, got burned in Electric Manhole #13 near the UAL hangar September 19, 1959. He lost an arm and received several bad body burns. It cost the Port $70,000.

A young man, by the name of Barton, committed suicide by a hose from the exhaust pipe to the car. He parked his car just south and east of the intersection of South 160th Street and 16th Avenue South.

An elderly man died by carbon monoxide gas by the same method a short time later, on South 160th Street just north of the end of N-S runway.

A baby boy, 6 lbs. 10 oz., was born to Mrs. Un Suk Gramportone, 17, a Korean wife of an Air Force Sergeant, stationed in New Jersey. The plane, a NWA 747 with 129 other passengers aboard Flight #44 from Tokyo, was flying at 30,000Õ altitude. The baby was born at Lat. 54 degrees-57’ N., Long. 162 degrees – 26’ W. The attending physicians were Dr. Jong Wha Rok, of Seoul, Korea, a pediatrician, and Dr. Suk H. Yoon, a Korean of Canadian descent. The stewardesses were Marilyn Parish, Vancouver, B. C.; Nancy Dituch, Edmonton, Alberta, Monica Chung, Seoul, Korea, and Celeste Johnson, Head Stewardess, Avoca, Pennsylvania.

A Chinese lady hanged herself in one of the ladies’ rest rooms at Sea-Tac.

Some gal gave birth to a baby at the Sea-Tac Airport.

The F.A.A. 103’ A.S.D.E. Radar Tower was moved in its upright position by Shaughnesy’s movers. It took 64 wheels to move the one and one-half million dollar tower 1,000 ft. for $45,000, May 22, 1970.

Big protest by Tyree Scott, Black Military, at Sea-Tac Airport, Friday, November 7, 1969. Scott was arrested later with 47 militants.

The full time Sea-Tac Fire Department was formed July 5, 1955.

The first Crash Rescue Station was a wooden structure on the west side of the Air Cargo Building with two trucks. A new concrete block building was constructed south and east of the south end of the Air Cargo Terminal. The building is a modern fire house - five bays, dorm, kitchen and dining room. Also, TV room, radio room and the chief and the assistant chief’s office. It also has a full basement.

There once was a fire in a third floor storage area of the Administration Building. A young man working there jumped out of the window and escaped injury. The fire did minimal damage.

The Port started the expansion of Sea-Tac Airport April 17, 1966, the same week Boeing announced plans to go into production of the 490 passenger 747. When the Port started buying property for the expansion, they began to feel the wrath of the adjoining property owners, who did not take too kindly to the noise of the big jets.

Some of the incidents I recall while I was at Sea-Tac are:

Earl Bigler, Airport Manager, once got stuck in the liquor elevator when the bar was on the second floor at the south end of the Administration Building. He was stuck in the elevator between floors for over half an hour. He finally escaped through the ceiling panel.

Another time, UAL flew in a cage containing five monkeys. When one of the help squatted down in front of the cage door to feed and water the primates, one eager monkey jumped against the door and thus unbalanced the fellow feeding them and he fell on the floor on his back and all five monkeys escaped. They were in the basement and four of them were soon recaptured and returned to their cage. The fifth one climbed up into a baggage conveyor and disappeared. Meanwhile, up above at the ticket counter, a young gentleman had just sold a lady a ticket and took her bag from the scales and imagine his surprise when he set the bag down to find the monkey sitting there showing his teeth. He was startled to say the least.

An expensive dog escaped one day from his cage and the Airport Police chased it nearly all day. I never did hear of the outcome of the chase.

An expensive bird ordered for the Woodland Park Zoo Aviary escaped in the Sea-Tac basement and flew out through a vent.

Al Kreie, one of the Port engineers in 1946, shot eight geese when a flock landed to graze. He took the lid off of a manhole at the north end of the N-S runway and used the manhole for a blind. He got all eight at one sitting. He promised Les Hall and I a goose dinner but we never did see those geese after that.

In the latter part of 1959, I got Mert Williams to take my job as Field Engineer when I was put in charge of the 1960 earthmoving project at the south end of the field. Peter Kiewit Sons Co. was the prime contractor. I was also in charge of part of the South 188th Street Subway, with Ostruski and Murphy as prime contractors. The next year I was Resident Engineer on the 1961 earth moving and paving. Northwest Construction, Inc. was the prime contractor.

My eyes started going bad (cataracts) in 1965 and I went into the Port of Seattle main office at Pier 66 at the foot of Bell Street, where I retired April 30, 1969, after drawing over 100 Detail Record Drawings.

Les Hall was Resident Engineer on the Administration Building. Denny Dahlgard was Concrete Inspector; Jerry Moore was the Electrical and Plumbing Inspector; Herman Mouldenhauer was Chief Architect. My crew and I were kept plenty busy surveying for the underground utilities and setting paving grades.

The original building cost $3,200,000 to build and it cost the Port $175,000,000 to overhaul the airport for the 747s in the late 1960s and early 1970.

Al Kreie, one of the Port of Seattle Survey Crew had a cocker spaniel by the name of Judy. One day Al brought Judy along with him to the airport. Bob MacDonald, a Port Inspector, had the one and only blueprint of a small project we were supposed to lay out. We got out of the car for a few minutes and left Judy and the blueprint in the car. When we returned we found the blueprint in about 100 pieces. Lots of scotch tape was used to put the blueprint back together.

One day shortly afterwards Al said to me “Let’s take my DeSoto out on the runway and blow the dust out of it.” This was before commercial aircraft started using the field. Al drove out on the north end of the N-S runway and stepped on the throttle. We were doing 85 with the windows all open when the wind got under the ceiling upholstery and laid it neatly in the back seat. All that was left in the ceiling was just a lot of chicken wire.

During the winter of 1953 - 1954, we had quite a lot of snow. The flush lights on 4’ x 4’ concrete pads were always covered with snow. If not from the wind and the falling snow, it was from the blades leased by the Port, from contractors. While the blade operators were busy clearing snow from the runway proper, all of the Port help who were available were out in force shoveling snow, both day and night to keep the planes coming and going. As I remember it, George Treadwell came out one evening and he was shoveling right along with us. Snow removal was quite a problem in the early days at Sea-Tac.

One day while taking some topog near the Fire House, I noticed a fire hydrant near the edge of the apron. I was really baffled as I couldn’t remember installing one at that point and I couldn’t see a scar on the asphalt.

I looked over all of the drawings of that area and not a one showed a fire hydrant. Those humorist firemen let me look and sweat it out for a few days then they told me it was a dummy hydrant that they had set there for practice purposes.

I am sure Dice, their Dalmatian mascot, practiced on it more than they did.

The Sea-Tac Airport will always stand as a monument to good designing and engineering. I am proud to be able to say, “I had a chance to do my bit to help Sea-Tac be one of the most modern airports in the world.” I have to smile out loud sometimes when I think of some of the people (after the dedication of the building) who said “Us taxpayers have a white elephant out there at the airport as there never will be enough tenants to fill that large building.” All the rooms but one were filled the first year.

AND THAT’S THE WAY IT WAS.

Chief Sources

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport; Reports on operations, 1953-1960

Sundry newspapers and magazine reports and articles.

Donald G. Shay: Seattle-Tacoma International Airport