Plane print benefits museum

CASEY RESSLER

Frontiersman Valley Life editor

The Museum of Alaska Transportation and Industry has turned to the air to help raise funds.

The museum is marketing a new aviation-themed print, painted by Wasilla High School graduate James Haven, as part of an annual fund-raising effort.

Each year, new prints will be released in a series.

"We didn't dare do a train theme, because we didn't want to step on the railroad's toes, and who is going to buy a tractor poster?" asked Phil Lockwood, who helped organize the project. "Aviation is a big thing in Alaska, so that's how we came up with that theme."

The print features Anchorage's first airplane, a float-equipped Boeing-model C3, which belonged to Charles Hammontree in the 1920s.

"I had one guy call and say we got it wrong, that there was another plane even earlier than that," Lockwood said. "But there wasn't even an Anchorage around the time he said."

The plane was nicknamed "The Mud Hen" because of its gray color and markings, and because Hammontree used the Knik Arm waters for an airstrip.

In the print, "The Mud Hen" is shown flying through the clouds over Cook Inlet and Ship Creek.

You can see Delaney Park Strip, Anchorage's only airstrip at the time, in the background, as well as a view of the Chugach Mountains.

Prints are available at the museum, or by calling Lockwood at 373-5030, for $145, with a limited edition of 750.

Each year, people will have the option to get the same number in the series.

"If someone wanted, say, No. 49, they would have the option to get No. 49 every year, until they dropped out of the program," Lockwood said.

Posters are available for $50.

Haven has designed numerous prints and posters that have become well known throughout the years, including several for the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, and three for the Alaska Railroad.