After the Hurricane of 1938 destroyed the huge maple syrup enterprise of his family, the late
Ralph Merwin Horn asked his father if he could finally build an airport on their 100+ acres of Wolfeboro Neck property. With permission granted, Merwin (as he was known to us) pulled the stumps of hundreds of mangled maple trees.
Wolfeboro townspeople helped pull stumps too, with tractors and trucks. ('Can't just cut trees down for a runway -- the stumps have to go, too).
World War II intervened, and Merwin -- already well trained in flight -- trained many of this country's military aviators at a school in the Boston area. Shortly after his death, about 1996, a gift of a memorial headstone was made and stands today next to the runway. Someone always remembers to place a flag next to it every Memorial Day.
Merwin married Eleanor, and the two put in exhausting hours -- for four decades -- to make the airport the busy enterprise it finally became. Often there would be four floatplanes at the dock, dozens of aircraft at the tie-downs, three or four aircraft in the hanger for repairs/maintenance, and takeoffs and landings day and night.
It is my hope to have Forum members post their recollections of these remarkable people here. There are certainly many seaplane pilots who can relate
some tales of
"The Lakes Region Airpark".
I found one by accident while searching the Internet for
SeaBees, an amphibious aircraft manufacturer.
Quote:
"After receiving gasoline from the Horns' dock, we pushed away and started the engine. The engine coughed a few times and then refused to start.
The wind had allowed our craft to drift in the direction of deep water, and I had previously loaned my paddle to another pilot! With Eleanor looking on, she seemed to grasp the seriousness of the situation and did what any matronly and grandmotherly person in a print dress would do: She waded into the lake waist-deep, and pulled the SeaBee back to the dock!"
|
The airport/airpark is having a ten-year anniversary --of sorts -- this year, and I'd like collect memories from others who are familiar with the Horns and the evolution of a rural airport with an active floatplane port.
My main source of Wolfeboro's Airpark history is a former employee who I see from time to time. I'll endeavor to share stories from the airport's heydays...when I can get them.
Labor Day Edit:
I recalled today that Ralph (earlier,
Merwin) would get radio transmissions from pilots advising of their arrival after dark and, at dusk, would light fifty black "smudge pots" (possibly the "Dietz-torch" variety) around the runway by hand. (It's a 2500-foot runway).
The lighting was electrified later, but don't recall when. Later yet, the electric lighting could be triggered to light automatically by pilots' radios. The system was discontinued some time after Ralph's death in 1997. The airport beacon was discontinued about 2000.
Though Ralph appeared healthy as a New Hampshire ox in 1996, I conducted a videotaped interview of him that summer and will donate it to the Wolfeboro Library this week. (You wouldn't believe how often the word "oxen" appears in the building of towns around Winnipesaukee on this tape).
Aha!...A link, though sadly outdated:
http://www.brewsteracademy.org/Pages...y/airpark.html