may be looking dicey. Apparently Del Smiths empire is crumbling; Evergreen EAGLE closes as Delford Smith's aviation group hits tarmac | OregonLive.com Last payments on the 'Goose have been missed, cash-cow EAGLE closed last night, no ones talking . Feeling sorry now that I haven't made it back to see the 'Goose again recently. Also brings up questions about the planes being bought from the east coast; what will become of them?
If you havent seen it yet it really is a great museum. I have spent many days there as my inlaws live just outside of portland so i usually take a day and go hang out with the spruce goose. I know a couple of the planes are for sale the ford tri motor and the avenger. Hopefully everything works out the goose stays where it is.
My guess is that the city of McMinnville may get further involved at some point. It's pretty much the only major tourist attraction and helps bring people in to smaller stuff like the wineries. It's along one of the primary routes from Portland to the Oregon coast so having the museum helps bring more traffic through. When I was a kid it was a much more agriculturally based city and stuff like Evergreen has helped them branch out. I'm sure they are gonna fight hard to keep it open in some fashion. There have been issues for a long time with the way the buildings were built and zoning type stuff, it's been a few years since I read about it. There have been other clues that the empire was falling apart. Companies that did work getting the Evergreen vineyards up and running had problems getting paid in recent years.
Interesting... It's been a year or so since I was there and I don't remember any planes for sale at that time. My guess is that the Goose is probably gonna be there for a while. It was a hugely expensive undertaking bringing it up from Long Beach and I'm not sure they could do it again quite the same. It was barged up the coast and then the Columbia and Willamette rivers. It was a relatively short road journey as they were able to barge it almost the whole way. A major choke point was fitting through the locks to get it above the falls in Oregon City. I think there has been some changes done at the locks in recent years and they might not still be able to manage the Goose.
Wow... that would be sad indeed! I have cockpit photos of both myself and my son at the wheel of the Goose at the end of the overpriced $50 a person private tour of the plane. http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/138937901-post1.html FANTASTIC museum... would hate to see it close Jedi
Did Evergreen buy some airplanes from the east coast recently? I think you are confusing them with Tillamook (soon to be Madras), who bought a B-17 and an Fw190 from the east coast. As for the Evergreen thing, yes it's sad. I was there recently, and they've really done a nice job of filling up the space building. I hope they can pull through, or find a new benefactor, or something.
+1 I can't see how the city wouldn't get involved and as someone else pointed out moving the Spruce Goose is insane. Who's going to take it at this point? Belongs in the Smithsonian but the expense required is nuts to get it there.
You may be right Don; i tried to find the thread discussing same, no luck, as I don't remember the name of the east coast org. Was a photo-rich fly-in thread in the summer, maybe from Virginia?
Interesting read here Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum's future in doubt as creditors claim Spruce Goose, other planes | OregonLive.com. An avenger for 250,000 if only i had the room
Yup, that was my thread! https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/aviatorchat-com/407562-warbirds-over-beach.html
Thank you! Now, was I wrong about Evergreen buying some of the planes from that museum? Tillamook as Donv suggested?
Sounds like quite a mess that is unlikely to get better before it gets a lot worse. Glad we made our visit. We happened to be there just after Neil Armstrong died. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Yes, that was Tillamook. To complicate things further, many of the airplanes at Tillamook (including, I believe but could be wrong, the ones just purchased) actually belong to an individual, and he is moving his collection to Madras. I don't know what is going to happen in Tillamook in the end.
I'm glad I was able to visit the Spruce Goose in 2010. I only had about 40 minutes before the museum closed and they kindly let me in for free. Beautiful facility and of course the Goose is amazing. I'll be interested to see what happens from here.
Any creditor that tries to take ownership of the Spruce Goose should take to heart the old adage of "being careful what he wishes for". It's much like a dog chasing a car, ok, you've caught it, what are you going to do with it??? If you take title to the airplane you end up with the cost of keeping it sheltered and secure and that could be a lot of money over time... Can you say "money pit"??? I knew you could.... If I were a creditor I for sure wouldn't want that airplane, I'd be looking for anything I could sell off, but I wouldn't take the Goose..
The problem is that there is one creditor who has a claim on only the Spruce Goose-- that would be the Aero Club of Southern California. They don't have a claim on anything else. However, they said they don't want to foreclose, for obvious reasons.
I inferred from the original article the ACSC was only $50K from paid off .except they want their share of 'the gate' for sometime past. Maybe they should take the 50 and walk ..
.OR is suffering an embarrassment of riches in the old plane biz; hard to keep 3 different, somewhat scattered facilities going .plus Seattle . Theres's also the AACA (?) in Hood River . Lots of opportunities to ogle old airplanes...
If you are talking about the WAAAM in Hood River they have mucho money and mucho space and they like to buy things...except art.
Looks like things are starting to fall apart-- if you want to go, I'd go sooner than later... Evergreen Vintage Aircraft bankruptcy filing says it owes IMAX, other creditors | OregonLive.com
I was just there the weekend before Thanksgiving last month, and here's what changed in the two years I was there originally (2012): - Waterpark, quite busy for a winter weekend, and for what they charge, I can't imagine they're losing money on this venture at all. - 2nd Evergreen 747 is now in front of the museum (sans engines unlike the one on the roof) on a makeshift tarmac. - The museum was generally devoid of people on a Saturday (again, November). The prices to get into the museum are not cheap, that's for sure and probably one of the factors keeping people away. - Operating an IMAX theater with so few attendees seems like a money loser. 8 people total on a Saturday afternoon. And the film print quality had deteriorated as well. - Quite a few warbirds are gone - I was told they "had been sold" but nothing more was discussed other than there are still other great exhibits. Now, this information wasn't asked for, it was volunteered by a volunteer (pun intended). A lot of WW2 vets still hang out and volunteer there. God bless 'em. I'll stick by my original post: I don't see this place shutting down, because it's a tourist attraction for the area, and second because moving the Spruce Goose wouldn't be economically viable. It's the smaller aircraft that are vulnerable, because they can be towed across the street to the airfield and flown away or dismantled and trucked away.
