Tillamook, Oregon

Blimp Hanger now used as Air Museum

Mini Guppy

P-51 Mustang

P-38 Lightening

PBY-5A Catalina

We visited Tillamook because according to the AAA book, there was a very good Air Museum (www.tillamookair.com). We were pleasantly surprised at finding such a large collection of aircraft in such an out of the way location. The reason for the air museum was that Tillamook had two wooden hangars built by the US Navy to house K-class blimps for anti-submarine coast patrol and to escort convoys during World War II. One of the hangars burned in 1992 while being used to store hay. This “sparked” an interest in saving the second hanger so the idea of an air museum was born.

The hangar used to house the museum itself is quite a site. The hangar is 1072 feet in length, 296 feet wide, and over 15 stories high. The hangar covers over 7 acres. In addition to the interesting planes, the hangar has also become home for some local owls.

Other than the air museum, Tillamook is known as a dairy town famous in Oregon for its cheese and ice cream. According to local sources, Oregon cows are much happier than California cows. No one could tell us how happy they were compared to Wisconsin cows.

When we got into the hotel, we could smell the dairies. Kevin was not convinced that that bad of smell could come from the cows we could see from our window so he went to ask the clerk about the smell. Her reply was “That’s Tillamook”. Still not satisfied, he googled it and found many references to the smells of Tillamook including comparisons to hippo pools in Africa. He also found out that farmers collected the manure from the dairy farms to spray on the fields as fertilizer. We are sure this is what enhanced the smell.

If you want to see a good air museum, go to Tillamook but stay somewhere else for the evening.