This month marks the 80th anniversary of the Tillamook Air Museum’s Hangar B, the World War II blimp hangar believed to be the largest clear span wood structure in the world and the only one of its kind open to the public. Now, as the Port of Tillamook and the nonprofit Friends of Tillamook Air Museum celebrate this milestone, they will also measure the community’s willingness to support the continued maintenance of the building. The choice is simple: Repair it or let it rot — neither will be cheap.

“The quote to tear it down costs more than the rehabbing,” said Rita Welch, museum director. “In southern California, they had a quote in 2019 of $20 to $30 million. The structures like this one that are condemned are just sitting empty waiting for Mother Nature to run its course. If we can’t afford to tear it down, we can’t afford to fix it either. We’re just going to have to wait for Mother Nature to do its work.”

The Port of Tillamook Bay has struggled over the fate of the building for some years. At 1,072 feet by 296 feet, with a roof spanning 11 acres if laid flat, it’s a massive building with a massive need for maintenance and repairs. The Port’s efforts — or lack of — to manage those repairs has caused some friction in the community. In 2007, FEMA gave the Port $44.5 million after a storm damaged the area. Of those funds, $4 million was earmarked for repairs to the museum roof, 192-feet tall at its pinnacle. But an engineering report indicated the repairs were far more involved than originally thought and would cost more than three times as much as was budgeted.

“They decided to build real roads and storage instead of rehabbing the museum,” Welch said. “That has helped make the Port successful.”

At the time Erickson Aero Tanker was the tenant in the building, housing its vintage plane collection there.

“The Port couldn’t justify spending that much money without a return on its investment,” Welch said. “A lot of the community has a bad taste in their mouth. There’s that sour note.”

But that may be changing. In 2013, Erickson announced it was pulling its collection from the hangar and moving it to Madras. Four years later, the Port recognized it couldn’t manage the Museum alone and formed the nonprofit Friends of Tillamook Air Museum (FOTAM) to handle community outreach and fundraising. The 80th birthday event — “Hangar Days” — on Aug. 19 is both a party and a kickoff to raise funds and booster community support for a list of long-terms goals critical to maintaining the hangar. Funding those repairs will likely require voter approval of a bond, said Gene Kyniston, president of FOTAM.

“Our original role was to do the repairs,” Kyniston said. “But I’ve been with the board a couple of years, and I don’t see us raising the funds to do the repairs. If Hangar B does go away, it will never come back. We want to see it preserved for more generations.”

The long-term list includes raising $2 million for phase one of an upper crown roofing project and $500,000 for phase one of a project to restore the building’s ventilation system. But while the repairs are substantial, the building’s condition is not as dire as originally believed.

“In 2011 they did a structural analysis and that report said what the problems were, what needed addressed,” Welch said. “They didn’t do an in-depth analysis of the wood, but said it was past its prime. We recently had an engineering group that specializes in wood structures come and test the wood. We are actually in a lot better shape. We’re still at critical point, but the 2022 study found the wood is in good shape and still salvageable if action is taken sooner than later.”

Although the hangar tends to attract more tourists than locals, it is an integral piece of the fabric that is Tillamook. In addition to the museum, gift shop and restaurant, it has also housed numerous other tenants. Julie Hurliman, born and raised in the community and the events planner for “Hangar Days,” recalls when AeroLift, Inc. worked in the hangar building the CycloCrane, a hybrid aircraft capable of heavy lifting.

“My dad had a Cessna when I was growing up and we spent a lot of time at the airport (also on Port property),” Hurliman said. “He was always interested in what was going on at Hangar B. AeroLift had about 50 people working there. All those guys were from the east coast and not able to get home every holiday. They all had an open invitation at our house. We would have 30-40 people there. A lot of those AeroLift guys parachuted. I’d sit in the back. My dad would take out the seats and those guys would jump out of the plane.”

She also remembers when David Copperfield came to town in 1990.

“He had a field crew here,” Hurliman said. “He got some local community members to be extras, and he made the Orient Expressway train disappear. There is so much history here. Everybody has some sort of connection to the hangar. Monetarily, it’s cost prohibitive to tear it down, but the social and historical value is even greater. How do you replace something like this?”

Blimp trivia

• There is enough lumber in the hangar to build about 180 three-bedroom homes;
• If you were to take it all and turn it into 2-by-4s and stretch them end to end, you would have close to 1,000 miles in 2-by-4s — basically from Tillamook to Los Angeles
• The floor spans about 7 to 7.5 acres; the roof would be about 11 acres if you laid it out flat.
• The hangar was built in nine months and is known as Hangar B, though it was built first. Hangar A burned in August 1992
• The letters on the side are 100 feet tall and 30 feet wide each. It took workers two weeks to paint them.

— Tillamook Air Museum