A Tiny Slice of History

I don't remember ever meeting my Great Uncle Al. I may have, but I don't
remember it. My Uncle John has collected a bunch of family history stuff
and this letter is in the collection. Al was born in 1899 and this was
written late in his life. I thought that some here might find it
interesting.

One note - I transcribed this as it was without correcting the spelling.

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Autobiography of Alfred R. Lyle [originally spelled Lisle -
RWI]


1907 or 8 at the age of eight or nine I became interested in aviation. I
was spending a vacation with some friends of the family by the name of Moore
who had a boy about my age. The Moores lived in South Tacoma which was a
prairie where a fellow was trying to fly an airplane he had built. I was
the only kid he would allow around his plane. He would ask me to hold the
tail or cut a cord to release the plane when he he had the engine nerved up.
Then I would run after him and replace any lot of stakes he would knock out.
From then on I would read about the ballon flights in France and anything
pertaining to flying. Later I got interested enough to take flying lessons
in an OX5 Waco 9 biplane out of a cow pasture in Albany Oregon in 1927.
Later I went to Oakland Calif. took up flying again in 1929, where I met Ed
Dorrance and formed a partnership. We went to Baltimore Md. bought a J6-7
Wright powered Cessna [I believe this is a Cessna DC-6. A six passenger
cabin monoplane. - RWI] which we flew down the East Coast to Georgia and
across Missisippi,Lousiana, Texas, Arizona and landed in Oakland on
Thanksgiving night. We used a Rand & Mc Nalley road map.

We based our plane at the old San Francisco Bay Airdrome in Alemeda taking
sightseera out over San Francisco and the Golden Gate. Later Ed and I
bought a J5 Fokker 6 place plane and he would fly the Fokker and I the
Cessna. In those days the Cessna was considered a fairly fast plane at a
one hundred miles per hour. In 1934 we decided to move our planes to
Alaska. Ed and I flew to Seattle where we crated the Fokker and shipped it
and Ed to Alaska. This was in April. I flew the Cessna to Seattle and
crated the plane, came to Valdez in June and met Ed there. We decided to
make our base in the interior, at Copper Center where there was a good
opportunity to fly freight and passingers to the miners.

We built a small log cabin and cooked on a stove we made out of a fifty
gallon oil barrel. While at Copper Certer we purchased a 6 place J6-9
Fokker a 6 place J6-9 Travelair, and a couple more small plane which we soon
disposed of.

In 1936 Ed and I disolved our partnership. We had spread our operation to
the Tannana Valley, as a result we decided that I would operate out of the
Copper River Valley serving Valdez, Cordova, Anchorage, and Fairbanks along
with the regular mining camps. He would serve the upper Tanana Valley along
with the Forty Mile and Dawson Districts. Soon after Ed lost his life in a
crackup at Walkers Fork in the Forty Mile District. At about that time I
was moving my base from Copper Center to Gakona which was a more central
location to serve the Copper river District. There I built a hanger and
installed a Radio Station also a station at Valdez.

At Gakona I operated three 6 place Travelairs, hauling freight passinger and
mail service until 1944. When I disposed of my airoplanes and bought a
fleet of Ford trucks. Later I moved to Fairbanks and purchased a C47 from
the War Assets Adm. and started a nonschedule flight to Seattle.

Later I leased the 47 to Weins to fly freight and personel to the Arctic Oil
Fields, then being developed by the Navy. They wrecked the plane at Point
Barrow and I was out of business until I could get another plane. I
purchased another 47 at Ontario Calif. and flew it back to Alaska. Tried
the Fairbanks Seattle run again, but I couldn't see any future wealth in it
so I sold the plane before I would go broke. I then went down the Alaska
Highway and secured a piece of land at the Junction of the Alaska Highway
and the Highway to Anchorage, called Tok Junction where I built a house,
garage, and service station which I sold in 1953.

Now after all this time has passed, after trying retirement in the south,
Santa Rosa Calif. have returned to Alaska with my wife, Madaline, where we
are, or should I say, have built an "A" frame house, which is very
comfortable, with hot water heat, good plumbing every convenience you would
find in a city. We are now operating a lumber and Building Supply Yard and
store. A one man operation and doing a very good business in down town
Glennallen Alaska. Don't know how long I can do this maybe try to retire in
a couple year, maybe?

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Al Lisle died in 1977

Rich