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About The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972 | View Entire Issue (March 21, 1920)
Seeing Portland and Environs From the Air an Outdoor Sport for the ! 1 Visitors of Tomorrow By Henrietta L. McKaughan rpAKE in the Guardians of the . Columbia! Mount Hood, Mount Adams and Mount St. Hel ena! Sightseeing car of the Tour- ' 1st Aero service leaves In five min utes! Come and frolic on the gla ciers of three mountain peaks and be back in time for dinner!" Thus shouted the hoarse voiced airplane man through his mega phone. The plane rapidly fills with tourists, garbed in complete aviation uniform rented at the sup ply building for the trip. "Tickets, tickets," said the guide. "Everybody ready?" asked the pilot, corkscrewing his neck around. "All ready!" shouted the guide who had just inspected the strap ping process. The plane ran crazily over the field and rose majestically ovfer the city of roses. "These beautiful illustrated booklets I have for sale at $1 each," said the guide, producing an armload of them. "They show each point of interest over which we will "traverse on this after noon's journey. By following the book carefully, , you can see for yourself each picture that it con tains." The tourists were ready to be interested. Oh-h!' exclaimed a sweet young creature as she got her book. "Aren't the pictures pret ty?" "Below you," yells the husky guide, "lies the city- of Portland. Tou will find it on page 7. Half the party craned their necks over the side ot the car. the other half fumbled in their books for page 7. That silvery thread Is the Willamette river. The wider streak is the Columbia." "Where?" queried a freckled faced lad to a stoutish red headed woman at his side. "I don't see any thread." "Be Btill!" commands the R. H. W. "There It is," as she pointed to Terwilliger boulevard. t "Still looking below you," bel lows the guide, his voice sounding above the whir of the engine, "you will see the ..winding' highway of the Columbia river, once far famed t as the . most scenio ; ride In the ; Northwest, until airplane came In- . to use. In your books you will find it on page 16." "John," protests a firm-jawed woman of a meek faced man by her side. "We're in the wrong end of the car. I can't hear a word that guide says and I won't know what to look at." "Straight before us," yells the guide, "you will see Mount Hood." Every tourist looked. "Until the development- of the airplane," cried the guide, "nobody reached ft icy summit except by climbing by foot with most painstaking ef? fort. As a result, but few Mazamas ever set foot upon the snow fields and glaciers of the far famed mountain that lies so close to Portland's door. Through the vastly expensive engineering feat of our company the up-to-date landing field was constructed on its summit. You shall all be able to walk about on Mount Hood, 11,225 feet above sea level, by he real de luxe method of mountain climb ing. Blankety blank million dol lars were spent on leveling off the summit of the mountain, which was heretofore too rocky to per mit an airplane landing. The feat was one of the biggest engineering projects in the country. Having leveled the,, mountain, our next problem was ' to make the terra firma solid enough to land. We at first considered skids. So as to enable us to land in the snow, but later developments developed a floor, which our regularly em ployed workmen keep swept clear of snow during the summer months. "Off to the south you will see Mount Jefferson, and beyond, the Sisters. We will now land. Ve will spend 15 minutes on Hood, so that aa many of you as wish may get out and walk around. This is the place to send your post cards home. There is a wonder ful selection over in that building, and a postoffice branch, so that you can mail them right at the 'top of the world!' '"See that dilapidated looking shack over there. That was erect ed by the forest service in lilt for the purpose of watching for forest fires before airplane patrols came into . use. ' They, packed all their materials up on their backs. and for many summers Elijah Coalman lived there all alone. It was a lonesome place then, and cold, too. He hadn't the heat piped up from Crater Rock then as we do now. They say Coalman had nothing but an old coal osl stove. He would be somewhat surprised at the buildings and facilities of all kinds we have up here now. "Here we are. Now everybody get out and buy their postcards." "Ma, are we going to get out?" asked the freckled faced boy. "No," declared the red headed woman. "We're only here for a little while and we'll just keep our seats. You must not exercise in a high altitude, anyway. You might get the nosebleed." "Ah, now," begged the f. f. b. "Everybody else's getting out." "You'll stay right here," de clared the r. h. w. "See, this pic ture shows us just where we are." "I simply must get out," said the sweet faced thing. "I must be able to tell my friends I walked around on Mount Hood." "Now's our chance,' whispered the firm-jawed woman to John. "We'll get a seat nearer the guide while everybody is out. I don't enjoy things unless I can hear the guide tell what they are." The tourists bought, addressed and mailed their postcards, posed for an official photographer with each of them holding a snowball, and then took their places in the plane. The plane ran off the mountain top. "Ahead of us in Mount Adams." yelled the guide. "Which one?" queried the freck led faced boy. "Shut up," commanded the red headed woman. "Can't you see, that round topped one there?" pointing to St. Helens "Upon the summit of Adams you' will find equally modern facilities as you have found on Hood. Through the airplane have our Northwest mountain peaks under gone a development never dreamed of in the early history of the re gion. ' We will -spend a few min - utes upon Adams as well as St. Helens.';. At each place you will have opportunity- to buy - souvenir postcards of the mountain's most noted glaciers and. other scenic features. , "Do you see that monument there? That is te mark the ar rival of Dee Wright, who per formed the then-supposed wonder ful feat of riding up Adams on horseback in the year 1918." The plane settled down on Adams and the passengers clam bered out and purchased some more postcards. "Isn't this just too cunning for anything," cooed the fairer half of the newlyweds, clinging to the arm of her stalwart companion. "Just look at that halo over Mount Shasta," pointing the while, at Mount Rainier. "Doesn't that look just like a lovely new hat?" It was time to be off for Mount St. Helens. The tourists settled comfortably back in their seats. "Where are we now, John?" asked the firm-jawed woman, turning the pages of her book frantically. "I don't know. I can't seem to find it in here," said John. "Oh, yes, we must be about here," point ing on a map which the book con tained. "Because Adams was the mountain we Just left, you know." Within a few minutes the plane v nosed down over St. Helens,, and again the passengers flocked out to buy souvenir postcards. The guide nonchalantly smoked a cigar. His voice was getting tired. "Oh-h, wouldn't you Just love to live up here in the clouds?" sighed the newlywed. "Ma, where's that other plane going?" asked the freckle faced boy. "Gee, it's heading toward that other mountain. " Are "we go ing to that mountain, ma? Say, ma, why don't we go that moun tain?" . , ..' - That mountain 'Is Rainier, cald ' the guide, turning half around., We take it in on our longer ..trip, which costs just twice I as much and lasts all day. . On that trip, we l have lunch'at our-fine new Top-ol - .... ' " - ' s ''il ; gr the World Inn' on Rainier, and then soar south and take in all the largest peak In Oregon." : 'Q. It was time to be off. "My. -but I'm hungry.' said. the weet young thing, as they headed .... Portlandward. ."Doesn't lt give 70U an appe- ' i tite to; fly though. I, hope they :-"''.:i.hav"-omethJng good to eat at, the hotel-tonight. '
