The Marquette County History Museum has invited the K.I. Sawyer Heritage Air Museum to join in the planning of a new museum display highlighting how Marquette County has supported the war efforts throughout our history. Even though the construction of the new museum is down the road a little, work has already begun planning all the new display areas. The K.I. Sawyer Museum will loan pictures and some artifacts to the museum for display. Vice-president and museum board member Sam Elder, pictured above restoring a F-106A aircraft for the Sawyer museum, has been selected to represent the K.I. Sawyer Heritage Air Museum for this planning stage.

Members, officers and volunteers of the K.I. Sawyer Heritage Air Museum have a busy spring summer of projects planned and we can use more help and support. Topping the list of projects will be the completion of the “Redoo the Voodoo” project. Work will resume on May 1^st and should be complete by the 4^th of July. This will be just in time for the 62^nd and 87^th Fighter Interceptor Squadrons Joint Reunion to be held on July 12^th.

Another priority this spring and summer will be the movement of the T-33A jet trainer static display from its current location on the hill just outside the former base hospital to the Upper Peninsula Memorial Retreat Center where all the rest of the base aircraft are displayed. This will be interesting.

Other spring and summer projects will consist of the continuing repair and up keep of the B-52D bomber, replacing the F-101B “Voodoo” back on static display, the up keep of the grass and trees around the aircraft and the continuing discussion about a possible new home that will allow the museum to display the aircraft inside a building plus have the museum in the same place.

If you are interested in helping us with any of the projects, please call museum president Bob Vick at 362-3531.

The "Tailwinds" Bar and Grill located on K.I. Sawyer, has once again supported a museum restoration project by donating one dollar from each "Voodoo Burger" sold. Proceeds from the dollar donation during the "Delta Dart Burger" sales netted that project over $1500 dollars. The museum thanks everyone at the "Tailwinds" for their continued support of these projects.

K.I. Sawyer Heritage Air Museum volunteer John Stevens along with other members of the local museum have begun the long process of inventorying all the artifacts owned or controlled by the museum. This long over due process was started recently and is expected to be completed by this coming spring. Every article in the museum, or stored in other areas or loaned out to other locations, will be inspected, cataloged and marked. All the information on the artifacts will be upload in a computer program so it can be tracked by location, where it came from, and who donated or loaned it to the museum. This process will help control and identify all items preserved by the museum.

H&R Block has teamed up with the K.I. Sawyer Heritage Air Museum to help save new customers money on the preparation of their 2007 income taxes plus make a donation to the museum for every new customer signed up under a special program. If your 2006 income taxes were not prepared by H&R Block, the museum can provide you with coupons that will save you $25.00 on your 2007 preparation fee. When you use this coupon, H&R Block will donate another $25.00 to the museum.

What a great way to start off the 2007 income tax season, save you some money plus help get a donation made to the K.I. Sawyer Heritage Air Museum.

Shown above are several board of director members and volunteers of the K.I. Sawyer Heritage Air Museum who recently spent two evenings answering the phones and taking pledges for WNMU Public TV-13 “Go Public 2007” fundraising campaign. The phone volunteers helped kick off the premiere showing of a locally produced documentary titled “The Upper Penninsula Recalls the War.” Volunteers answered the phones, spoke with several local WWII veterans who wanted to pledge support to public television and took pledges two nights during the campaign. Manning the phones for the museum were Bob Vick, Lee Nellist, John Stevens, Sam Elder, Terry Pihlainen, Geoff Smith and Lani Duquette. The K.I. Sawyer Heritage Air Museum along with everyone involved with the production of this historical film and the entire staff at WNMU TV-13, would like to thank everyone who made a pledge of support for public television during this campaign. The museum hopes to assist with more of these fundraising campaigns in the future.

Several K.I. Sawyer Heritage Air Museum volunteer’s including museum curator Dan Benstrom, along with board volunteer’s Don Poe, Sam Elder and Geoff Smith assisted the Telkite Corporation in promoting doing business at K.I. Sawyer. The Telkite booth was located at the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) Convention in Oshkosh, WI in the early part of August. The volunteers were able to talk to a lot of people and tell them about the good things going on at K.I. sawyer and why they should look into bringing their business to “da” U.P.! The museum volunteers were also able to showcase and promote the museum and static displays on K.I. Sawyer. All in all it was a great week for showing off K.I. Sawyer and Telkite plans to follow up and attend it again next year.

Search To House Cold War Aircraft Continues

Shown below discussing possible building locations to house the military static display aircraft that are currently out in the elements year around, are members of the K.I. Sawyer Heritage Air Museum Building Committee and officials with the Sawyer International Airport.

Leading the discussion are Keith Kaspari, Airport Manager, standing left and standing right, Scott Erbisch, Sawyer Development Manager. Seated left is Building Committee members Sam Elder, across the table Bob Vick and Lee Nellist. Not shown but also attending was Building Committee member Lani Duquette. Sam, Bob and Lee are members of the board of directors of the K.I. Sawyer Heritage Air Museum.

With the harsh weather conditions here in the Central Upper Peninsula and with the continued detereation of aircraft that have been on display for over fifteen years, the museum has felt the need to get these historical and “Cold War” artifacts under shelter and in doors.

Museum officials have received permission from the Marquette County Board of Commissioners to meet with airport staff to explore possible facilities on Sawyer that would meet their needs. The Building Committee recently received the support of the Sawyer International Airport’s Advisory Committee chaired by commission member Bob Struck.

Current discussions are in the early stages and no decisions have been made. Co-chairmen Bob Vick and Sam Elder feel that combining all the K.I. Sawyer historical artifacts and museum in one location would make Sawyer an additional “must see” tourist destination of Marquette County.

Michigan Technological University (MTU) Air Force ROTC helps with spring cleanup of U.P. Memorial Retreat Center