Tillamook (Land of Many Waters), September 15

Day-2:  Today we went as a group to the Tillamook Air Museum, housed in the world's largest open-spanned wooden structure (steel and aluminum were scarce in WW II).  It was built in the early '40s to house blimps (up to 8) for Japanese submarine scouting.  The museum has 20-25 WW II and later aircraft, most of which are flyable today.  After watching a 15-minute movie about the construction, we walked among the air planes learning about their size and uses.

                                       Giant Mini-Guppie

Giant wood trusses to hold up the roof, 192 feet high.  The building is 1,072 feet long by 296 feet wide.

German Me-109 Messerschmitt

Russian Mig

Following the air museum, some of us drove to the Tillamook Forest Center to see exhibits of the four consecutive six-year forest burns beginning in 1933. 

We watched another 15-minute video with actual footage of the burns - how freightening!

Steam Donkeys were developed in the late 1800s to pull fallen trees from forests to be taken to sawmills for cutting into smaller sizes for transporting and building.

Our next stop (after lunch) was the Tillamook Cheese factory where they produce 27,000,000 pounds of cheese annually, shipped to all 50 states.  Samples were delicious as well as their ice cream.

Cheese cutting (into slabs) "assembly line" and packaging.

Tomorrow we drive our first leg of the tour, making an intermediate stop at McMinnville for a tour of the Spruce Goose Museum.