The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1940-07-18
Alabama Man Coming Here
for Vacation Asks if City
Has Qualified Field.

Proof that flying tourists are in
terested in Ely and that an adequate
airport is an important part OF
modern resort city was received here
Saturday in a communication from
Birmingham, Alabama, department
store executive.
Milton Yielding, secretary and treas
urer of Yielding Brothers Department
Store. Inc, of Birmingham, asked for
information concerning Ely'S flying
field in a letter to the Ely Commercial
club.
Yielding said that he intended to fly
to Ely for his vacation, and he wanted
to know the length of the runWayS,
services available at the airport,
whether there was hanger, and
WindSock.
At the present time the Ely field is
listed on airmapS as landing field ana
not as an airport. If it were approved
as an airport by the Civil AeronautlcS
Board. all questions asked by the Ala
bama man would have been supplied
in map books available to plane OPP
orators.
The Birmingham business man, how
ever, has not been the only vacationer
interested in the airport Last week
five Chicago men flew here in Spar
tan Executive five-place cabin plane.
Leaving the ship at the airport, they
spent two days on Eastwood lake.
Early in the spring, two U. S. army
officers flew a North American obser-
walton plane here from Cincinnati for
a stay at the Canadian Border Lodge.
Through the initiative of local people
interested in aviation, considerable work
has been done on the flying field this
summer which will go a long way to
qualifying the filed as an airport.
Border Lakes Anyways, operated by
William Morse, Bernard Slogan and
Raymond Slogan, has erected a two
plane hangar on the field, and has
gasoline and oil service available.
The field, however, is not properly
and will be graveled within a short
time. There is also mechanical service
available, which is another item that
would be taken into consideration by
the CAB in improving the field.
The filed, however, is not properly
marked, although markers for it, pro-
yided by the federal government and
to be installed through federal pro-
iect, were sent here several years age
and have since been stored in the city
garage.
While the land plane facilities may
have been somewhat neglected, the sea-
plane service has not. Under the pro-
motion of William Leithold it has grown
to considerable proportions and now
occupies a definite place in the SER
vices available to visitors to this area
Working in cooperation with resort
owners, Leithold has furnished rapid
means of transportation for them ane
their guests, besides accommodating
many people who came here solely fol
seaplane fishing.
People who are here only for short
time or who want to make a trip tt
distant lakes, in a few minutes reach
choice fishing waters that require day:
to travel to overland. Many lake:
which for all intents and purposes fal
in the inaccessible class are being fishec
for the first time.
William Zupancich, who opened &
fishing camp on Curtain Falls thi.
spring, provides his own seaplane ser
vice. zup's camp is one of the mos
remotely located in the Ely area. 1t i
but 20 minutes from this city by air
but it would take a big day of boil
land and canoe travel to reach by thi
mode of travel.
The u S. forest service has made FL.
it's base for operating its seaplane il
the Superior National Forest. The Shil
works out of Shagawa lake and thu
forest service is considering approach
ing the city on securing land west o
the pumping plant for the erection o
a hangar When this move is com
pleted, it will permanently locate tn,
plane here.
According to information coming
from Victor A. Johnston, director of thu
Minnesota Tourist Bureau, flying tt
Minnesota for vacation is growing b!
leaps and bounds. 1t goes withou
saying that the resort cities with the
qualified airports are getting most O
those tourists.
johnson says that publicity giver
seaplane fishing has resulted in hi.