Pioneer Air Museum

In 1913 some merchants in Fairbanks decided that a demonstration flight there could pay for itself. They arranged for James V. and Lilly Martin to bring their airplane from Seattle for such a flight on July 4, 1913. The Martins shipped their crated airplane from Seattle to Skagway by ocean steamer and from Skagway to Whitehorse to Fairbanks by steamboat. Once at Fairbanks , Martin and his wife, who was England's first aviatrix, assembled their airplane. On the evening of July 3, Martin took off from a ball park and flew the plane over Fairbanks at an altitude of 200 feet and speeds of up to 45 miles per hour. Later the Martins lectured on flying at the Fairbanks opera house. In all, the couple made five flights in three days at Fairbanks. During that time they tried unsuccessfully to sell their airplane. Since it could not be sold, they crated it up again and shipped it via St. Michael to their home in San Francisco.

In 1979 Randy Acord, Corky Corkran, Dr. William Wood, Evertt Long, and a few others, felt that there was something important being lost to time, and that was the material things that told the story of aviation in the Interior of Alaska. Many books had been written that told of the exploits of Carl Ben Eielson, Harold Gillam, Joe Crosson, the Wien's, in a little later years Jorgy Jorgensen, and many more. Even the mechanics of the time such as Jim Hutchison were told of, but the airplanes and their parts-n-pieces were being forgotten. The floats, engines, pistons, log books, wings, and all the rest that make up the story of Aviation would be gone. The Interior and Arctic Alaska Aeronautical Foundation was organized to promote the preservation of Interior Alaska's aviation heritage and it's home was to be under the Gold Dome in Alaskaland, renamed Pioneer Park. The museum opened its doors in 1992.

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