Sisters Airport goes way back...

There's been a lot of talk about the Sisters Airport over the last few months, which got me to thinking that perhaps a lot of people don't know much about the history of the operation.

I doubt very much there's anyone in Sisters Country who remembers the 1950s, when the airport was a key location for reporting Russian bombers that Congress and the War Department knew would be coming over the North Pole some day to bomb us.

However, the airport had its beginning way back before that - as my old buckaroo pal from Ft. Rock, Reub Long would say, "When the Sun was a tiny thing, there weren't no Moon and the Big Dipper was a little tin drinkin' cup." Well, that's pushing it, but as far as some people can recollect, it was in 1935 that George Wakefield bought land from Vine Stidham and started the present airport.

But even before that, in the early '30s an airplane landed on the fairgrounds, just south of the present Sisters Eagle Airport of today. Children out on school recess watched it land. No one in Sisters had seen an airplane up until that auspicious event.

On the same day, they also watched the first airplane crash in Sisters. Density altitude (a factor affecting how long it takes for an airplane to become airborne) was an unknown factor in those days, and apparently that's what got in the way of a safe takeoff from the fairgrounds. The aircraft couldn't climb fast enough to clear the pines at the end of the fairgrounds, and it crashed in the tops of the trees. Pilot and passengers were not hurt - and there were no FAA officials breathing down the pilot's neck after the crash, either.

In 1933, Ted Barber, a veteran of World War I, operated from the fairgrounds, barnstorming and hopping rides for a buck a flight.

In the meantime, Sisters resident George Wakefield was serious about building an airport on the old Stidham holdings-which before that were part of the even-older Davis Ranch. With the help of U.S. Forest Service employees and Civilian Conservation Corps boys, Wakefield got his runway(s) put in, planted grass and called it good.

That's when people flying out of Sisters discovered the infamous crosswinds. To compensate, Wakefield cut two more runways out of the sagebrush, trying to aim them at the winds, and it worked ... sort of, once in a while.

After World War II, the big scare was Russia flying bombers over the Arctic Circle and bombing us. The Department of Defense asked for volunteers to man the Ground Observer Corps (GOC) watching our skies for Russian bombers from 1956 to 1958.

Sisters Airport became one of the hundreds of Oregon GOC observation sites. Bend had two such areas, one on the summit of Pilot Butte and another on the summit of Newberry Volcano.

Virginia Campbell, who lived on her Black Butte Ranch, was a member of the GOC team in those years, watching for and reporting any unknown aircraft she observed. That faithful woman was on duty 24/7, and as a result was issued an Honorary Life Membership of the United States Air Force Air Defense Team for her services.

In 1958, I was taking lessons from Pat Gibson, Fixed Base Operator (FBO) of the Bend Airport, working on my FAA private license rating. As part of the lessons, Pat would start out by having me shoot a few touch-and-gos in Bend and then he asked me to take us to Sisters airport to work on cross-wind landings.

"There's no airport in Oregon," he'd often say, "that'll teach you how to survive cross-wind landings like Sisters."

Gibson also came to Sisters to pick up Leonard Lundgren, who lived in Camp Sherman, with sawmills in Bend and Sisters. He also flew Lundgren out to the GI Ranch he owned, located on the Great Sandy Desert east of Hampton Station.

George Wakefield eventually got Harold Barclay and Maurice Hitchcock involved in his Sisters airport scheme. Together they purchased a four-place Fairchild. Barclay sold his half to Wakefield, then in 1951 Barclay bought the airport from Wakefield and Hitchcock's ranch. At that time the Indian Ford Land and Cattle Company (IFLC) was also involved.

In 1967 Barclay, along with the IFLC's agreement, gave the whole shebang to the State of Oregon Board of Aeronautics. At that time the main runway was extended to 3,700 feet, and the other two runways - put in as an attempt to counter the cross-winds, were closed.

On July 6, 1978, the airport was deleted from State ownership and control when it went into ownership and control of Brooks Resources Corporation and the name changed officially to "Sisters Airport."

Then, in 1982 our wonderful Sisters resident Cliff Clemens got into the picture by purchasing the airport, the Indian Ford runway easement from Brooks Resources, along with another portion of the runway easement from the Arpkes in 1985.

Over the years, home-owners adjacent to the runway have used the airport for their personal and business comings and goings. One of the homeowners, Vern Goodsell, aircraft builder and rebuilder, used the airport for his business. He built a replica World War II Spitfire from the ground up in his shop, and the aircraft is still thrilling spectators today in air shows around the U.S.

When Cliff went out among the stars in 2008, his sons Dave and Doug inherited the whole shebang, but not being aviators, they went looking for a buyer and guess what, the present owners, the Benson family, got into the picture.

But they weren't Eagle Air at the time, they were a growing environmental business, ENERGYneering Solutions, operating out of a spare bedroom of Julie and Benny Benson's home. It took some time, and a lot of: "You bet," and "Awh, I don't know," but in 2011 "You betcha!" came out on top and the Bensons became owners of the Sisters Airport.

In 2013, the Bensons repaved the runway and hosted a grand opening of the new runway, new hangars, offices and refueling equipment at their first July 4th Fly-in. At this time they announced the Flight Science program starting at Sisters High School. In 2014 the Bensons facilitated the annexation of the airport into the City of Sisters with unanimous county and city approval after 7 public hearings.

Dorro Sokol, who recently went out among the stars, flew her Twin Bonanza to and from the airport for many years. In the 1970s a glider operation was hopping rides and giving flight instruction at the airport. Dorro's daughter, Cris Converse, was a student at that time. One day she and her instructor took an aerial tow off the airport in a two-place sailplane, released from the tow plane and soared non-stop to Brothers and back in a 4-1/2 hour flight.

(The airport will host a memorial gathering for Dorro in July of this year; the date to be announced soon.)

Today, the Sisters Airport is the venue for flight instruction in conventional single-engine aircraft, tail-draggers, instrument training and helicopters. Sisters High School has the FAA-qualified Flight Science flying course going full-bore, and soon there will be a glider operating from Sisters as part of training the SHS flight students. There is a parachute jumping operation going in summer, and if we have any forest or range wildfires in the future we can expect the airport to be very busy with the aerial arm of firefighting.

In time, the only privately owned fixed-base operation in Oregon, Sisters Eagle Airport would like to see the airport become a leading center for all types of flight operations, and the facility to look like the artist's rendition of the future.