01/12/2006: "Roy Franklin Aviation Museum Moving Forward"

After the swearing in ceremony of newly elected Friday Harbor Port Commissioner Barbara Marrett, the Port Commissioners discussed the progress of the creation of the "Roy Franklin Aviation Museum " in the Friday Harbor Airport Terminal Building.

The Port Commissioners discussed with several of the original citizens committee members; Dr. John Geyman, John Volk and Ray Bigler, how they were going to proceed toward the completion of the museum; which is phase 2 of the project that was started early last year, when the Port had signs installed naming the airport the "Roy Franklin Airport": Previous Story

The Historical Museum has agreed to join with the Port and the Committee to work on the project; a portion of which has already been completed. Newly elected Marrett will be the Port Commission's representative, partly because of her strong background in both Fine and graphic arts. The citizens committee has acquired hundreds of photos which they have compiled to show early aviation in the San Juan Islands. Memorabilia has also been collected for display cases and a method of presenting this history has been presented and discussed with the Port, including a possible location in the terminal building for the display. The committee has raised money to fund the project and the hope is to have the Aviation Historical Museum completed by Spring.

The Original Proposal:

1. Placing signage/lettering on the facia board on both sides of the terminal building stating "WELCOME TO ROY FRANKLIN TERMINAL". This is not a name change. but a naming of the terminal at Friday Harbor Airport.

2. Creating inside the terminal building on the South and the adjoining West walls an historical presentation tracing the beginning of air service on San Juan Island up to today. This will be done with pictures and text showing the beginning, evolution and current facilities and also showing the benefits that our airport and aviation have to our community and the jobs that are created. In addition, a map showing the original air service routes and what those routes are today will be part of the display.

3. Along with the story board style presentation, there will be a display case showing aviation artifacts and memorabilia that tie in with the story board and our aviation history.

4. Suspended from the ceiling will be one or more model airplanes that also tie in with the story board and on the walls additional pictures of our communities' aviation history. Our intent is to have a model built of Roy's original Stinson airplane for this display.
5. The funding for this will come from many sources. A committee has been formed with Dr. John Geyman as chairman to address this project and associated funding. Some of our sources will be: individual contributions, group contributions, volunteers, corporate donations and the Port of Friday Harbor. We will coordinate a funding drive with a target of about $3000.00 to fund the initial development of the museum displays, which should require little maintenance after it is established.

6. Craig Garcia has agreed to help this group with setting up the historical presentation and has a degree as a museum curator. In addition the Historical Museum has agreed to help in any way they can.