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A Tiny Slice of History
I don't remember ever meeting my Great Uncle Al. I may have, but I don't
remember it. My Uncle John has collected a bunch of family history stuff and this letter is in the collection. Al was born in 1899 and this was written late in his life. I thought that some here might find it interesting. One note - I transcribed this as it was without correcting the spelling. -------------------------------------------------- Autobiography of Alfred R. Lyle [originally spelled Lisle - RWI] 1907 or 8 at the age of eight or nine I became interested in aviation. I was spending a vacation with some friends of the family by the name of Moore who had a boy about my age. The Moores lived in South Tacoma which was a prairie where a fellow was trying to fly an airplane he had built. I was the only kid he would allow around his plane. He would ask me to hold the tail or cut a cord to release the plane when he he had the engine nerved up. Then I would run after him and replace any lot of stakes he would knock out. From then on I would read about the ballon flights in France and anything pertaining to flying. Later I got interested enough to take flying lessons in an OX5 Waco 9 biplane out of a cow pasture in Albany Oregon in 1927. Later I went to Oakland Calif. took up flying again in 1929, where I met Ed Dorrance and formed a partnership. We went to Baltimore Md. bought a J6-7 Wright powered Cessna [I believe this is a Cessna DC-6. A six passenger cabin monoplane. - RWI] which we flew down the East Coast to Georgia and across Missisippi,Lousiana, Texas, Arizona and landed in Oakland on Thanksgiving night. We used a Rand & Mc Nalley road map. We based our plane at the old San Francisco Bay Airdrome in Alemeda taking sightseera out over San Francisco and the Golden Gate. Later Ed and I bought a J5 Fokker 6 place plane and he would fly the Fokker and I the Cessna. In those days the Cessna was considered a fairly fast plane at a one hundred miles per hour. In 1934 we decided to move our planes to Alaska. Ed and I flew to Seattle where we crated the Fokker and shipped it and Ed to Alaska. This was in April. I flew the Cessna to Seattle and crated the plane, came to Valdez in June and met Ed there. We decided to make our base in the interior, at Copper Center where there was a good opportunity to fly freight and passingers to the miners. We built a small log cabin and cooked on a stove we made out of a fifty gallon oil barrel. While at Copper Certer we purchased a 6 place J6-9 Fokker a 6 place J6-9 Travelair, and a couple more small plane which we soon disposed of. In 1936 Ed and I disolved our partnership. We had spread our operation to the Tannana Valley, as a result we decided that I would operate out of the Copper River Valley serving Valdez, Cordova, Anchorage, and Fairbanks along with the regular mining camps. He would serve the upper Tanana Valley along with the Forty Mile and Dawson Districts. Soon after Ed lost his life in a crackup at Walkers Fork in the Forty Mile District. At about that time I was moving my base from Copper Center to Gakona which was a more central location to serve the Copper river District. There I built a hanger and installed a Radio Station also a station at Valdez. At Gakona I operated three 6 place Travelairs, hauling freight passinger and mail service until 1944. When I disposed of my airoplanes and bought a fleet of Ford trucks. Later I moved to Fairbanks and purchased a C47 from the War Assets Adm. and started a nonschedule flight to Seattle. Later I leased the 47 to Weins to fly freight and personel to the Arctic Oil Fields, then being developed by the Navy. They wrecked the plane at Point Barrow and I was out of business until I could get another plane. I purchased another 47 at Ontario Calif. and flew it back to Alaska. Tried the Fairbanks Seattle run again, but I couldn't see any future wealth in it so I sold the plane before I would go broke. I then went down the Alaska Highway and secured a piece of land at the Junction of the Alaska Highway and the Highway to Anchorage, called Tok Junction where I built a house, garage, and service station which I sold in 1953. Now after all this time has passed, after trying retirement in the south, Santa Rosa Calif. have returned to Alaska with my wife, Madaline, where we are, or should I say, have built an "A" frame house, which is very comfortable, with hot water heat, good plumbing every convenience you would find in a city. We are now operating a lumber and Building Supply Yard and store. A one man operation and doing a very good business in down town Glennallen Alaska. Don't know how long I can do this maybe try to retire in a couple year, maybe? -------------------------------------------------- Al Lisle died in 1977 Rich |
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