GRANTS, N.M. - Cibola County Historical Society is happy to report we have finally finished painting the roof on the Western New Mexico Aviation Heritage Museum. The roof has needed painting for at least ten years.
The roof flexes and therefore needs a certain paint that is very expensive.
Cibola County Historical Society is steward to the Aviation Museum. Recently CCHS received a $10,000 anonymous donation, $2,000 from Barrick Gold and with $5,000 Cibola County Historical funds, we were finally able to paint the roof.
The building really belongs to the City of Grants, but CCHS feels a deep attachment to the Airways Museum as one of our members was the sparkplug that kept the project going.
Around 2009, two CCHS members, Steve Owen and Dick Cochran, airport devotees, were contemplating the terrible condition of the “flight services” building at the municipal airport-, “maybe it could be a coffee shop, maybe a museum, maybe….” Steve Owen liked the idea of a museum and went to work. The building at that time was being used for storage.
From 2012 to 2013, much work and many hours along with funds donated from states, our county, and local businesses ensued. The before and after is attached to this article. There are two plaques at the airport expressing appreciation for local volunteers and identifying some of the donors, more than likely not all of them.
The purpose of the Airways Museum was and is to preserve the history of the air highways that were blazed across the nation in the 1910s and 30s. The museum focuses on two areas – the airway beacon system enabling night flight across the rugged West, and the historic events that took place over western New Mexico. Sometimes the two merged, as crashes occurred along the line of beacons over many years – military, commercial and private aircraft.
CCHS won two State historic preservation grants: first, for an evaluation of the 1953 federal “flight services” building in 2012 and in 2014 for nominating the building to the National Register of Historic Places. The building is now on the National Register.
The Western New Mexico Aviation Heritage Museum has a website, www.westernnmairwaysmuseum. org. with great pictures. The museum, located at the local airport, is open Saturdays, 9AM to 1PM.
Special viewing may be arranged at the Cibola County History Museum, 525 West High St. open Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 10 am to 3 pm.