17 Aug
Maine Solar System Model
Today we headed down US Route 1, towards Houlton Maine to visit the 'Maine Solar System Model', one of the world's largest scale models of our solar system built by the people of Aroostook County. It is a 40 mile long scale model of our solar system, 1:93,000,000. The project was started in 2000 as a community project in conjunction with the Northern Maine Museum of Science at the University of Maine at Presque Isle. It is built along US Route 1, where you can stop and visit each one. We found all but two. One of them (Ceres) we simply could not locate. The other (our sun) is located inside the college and we did not go there. Here are a couple of them:
Air Museum
We then headed to the Presque Isle Air Museum which is located inside the Presque Isle Airport.
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| The terminal is small but very important for the area. We flew out of here a few times. |
This is just a short distance from where we lived at 12 Twilight Drive. Back in the early 1930's a group of Presque Isle merchants explored the possibility of establishing air service to the region. Between then and 1937 they bought land, built the first hangar, and constructed an air strip. Later that year the town bought the air field and commercial air service and air mail was started. This was obviously a game changer for Presque Isle.
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| 1938 |
Because Northern Maine was the closest US land mass to Europe, Presque was selected as a hub for arrivals and departures of equipment and personnel going overseas. In 1941 the Presque Isle Army Air Field was established and they say more combat aircraft left from here to fight in Europe than any other base. They apparently moth-balled the base after WWII.
In 1950 the Presque Isle Air Force Base was activated as an air defense base to support the Korean War and protect Loring Air Force Base, just a few miles north.
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| 1955 |
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| Control Tower and Crash Fire Rescue - 1954 |
In 1959 the air defense mission ended and the base was equipped with SNARK missles. In 1961 that mission, the base was deactivated and the area was transformed into an industrial park. The aviation activities of course continue today. The base housing remained and that is where we lived from 1976-1977!
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| Where our base housing was located |
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| This shows the 'Historic Presque Isle Army Air Field Elm Tree' which stood from 1848 to 1985 when it succumb to Dutch Elm Disease |
The museum is located down the hallway in the terminal building and contains historic artifacts and photos of the era. If you Google Map the area today you can still see the missile pads today.
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| A current Google Map view from above shows the missile launch pads. |
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| A 1960 view of the missile launch pads and hangars |
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| A SNARK missle |
I had always heard there had been an Air Force Base at Presque Isle, but I never really knew anything about it, except we were the beneficiaries of the left over base housing! So now I know "the rest of the story"!! It was nice to bring closure to that. An interesting visit, for sure.
Sally and Curtis Lewin
Tonight we met an old friend for dinner tonight, Sally Lewin and her husband Curtis. Sally was then married to Jasper Lee, one of the guys I worked with at our Receiver Site. It was great to meet Curtis and see Sally again. We reminisced for a while then went over to their house to continue the conversations. We had not seen Sally since 1977 when we left Loring and returned to Iowa.
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| Sally and Curtis |
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| Sally and Doreen |
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