Pearson Air Museum
Below are some of the documents that make up a timeline of sorts about the 2013 developments at the Pearson Air Museum. Along with these links are brief summaries of the articles or documents from late 2011 to early 2013. To some, it might look like a deliberate plan on the part of one party or another to beat up on the others. Or it could be a series of miscommunications between all parties, which escalated to the present situation. Or anything in between. We encourage everyone to download and read the complete documents to form his or her own opinions.
It is sometimes difficult to follow the flow of discussion, information and contradiction in this matter. Readers may know of other documents from this same period, which we have not found to post. If any reader has documentation of the time between December 2011 and the present day, please forward them to us and we will post them below.
In December 2011, the National Park Service published their draft environmental assessment plan for the future use of the Vancouver Barracks. It would be several months before the final report was published. At that time, the National Park Service planned to share some office space with the Fort Vancouver National Trust in what they called the East Barracks. The West Barracks included land owned by the City of Vancouver. The Fort Vancouver National Trust had managed historic properties at the Vancouver Barracks for the City of Vancouver for many years.
December 2011 National Park Service Plan for Vancouver Barracks, summary and contents
One of these properties included the Pearson Air Museum. In this case, the Air Museum was located on land owned by the National Park Service. Although the Trust managed the museum, the master permit/agreement dating to 1995, was between the National Park Service and the City of Vancouver.
On Memorial Day 2012, the National Park Service and United States Army had a formal ceremony to acknowledge the final transfer of ownership of all US Army properties to the National Park Service.
28 May 2012 A bittersweet day at Vancouver Barracks
In June 2012, the National Park Service (at the request of the City of Vancouver) took a greater role in overseeing management of the Pearson Air Museum. Some months earlier, the city informed the NPS that they (the city) could not fully support the museum, as they had in the past.
13 June 2012 Letter from the NPS to the Historic Trust
Later in the month, the Park Service denied several permits and permit requests by groups wanting to hold events at the Pearson Air Museum. According to their statements, the events were not in keeping with Park Service rules or were inappropriate. In some cases, the Park Service stated that they did not deny permits, but the applicants could not or would not comply with some of the conditions of the permits. Congresswoman Jamie Herrera Buetler complained publicly.
20 June 2012 Herrera Buetler says Fort Vancouver restricting the public
21 June 2012 In our view, harmony needed at fort
12 July 2012 Park service says no to church picnic
In November and December 2012 and January 2013, the National Park Service and Historic Trust met to discuss the new permit.
7 November 2012 NPS Letter to Historic Trust
7 December 2012 NPS Letter to Historic Trust
10 January 2013 Letter from Historic Trust to NPS
Early in 2013, the Columbian described ongoing work at the Pearson Air Museum. Not mentioned in this article was the fact that the City of Vancouver was phasing out its use agreement with the National Park Service. The Fort Vancouver National Trust continued managing the museum while negotiating a new partnership agreement with the Park Service.
21 January 201 Pearson Air Museum offers outreach program
In early February 2013, the Trust and National Park Service could not form a new use agreement. The Park Service terminated the negotiations of an overall agreement and informed the City of Vancouver and Trust that they would assume management of the Pearson Air Museum over a 45 day period. The Trust would also have 180 days to relocate its museum collection and displays. Based on a combination of newspaper articles and other documents (below), the Park Service may have envisioned a gradual transition, where they would at first observe activities by the Trust and staff and gradually take over. Instead of this, citing security for artifacts, both owned by the City of Vancouver and Trust, as well as loaned artifacts; the Trust vacated the Pearson Air Museum building and turned over the nearly empty facility to the Park Service. As news of this grew, there was an outpouring of anti-Park Service sentiment, which resulted in public protests. There is a gap of several days between the announced end of the agreement and a formal Park Service response. This may be due to delays in clearing any public communication through higher Park Service headquarters.
4 February 2013 NPS Letter to Historic Trust
5 February 2013 In Our View Don't Tread on Pearson
5 February 2013 Park Service Ends deal with Vancouver
5 February 2013 Pearson Air Museum packs up exhibits
5 February 2013 Vancouver City Manager letter to Tracy Fortmann
7 February 2013 Pearson Air Museum over and out
8 February 2013 Picketers show Pearson support
13 February 2013 Vancouver, lawmakers pursue fix
13
February 2013 FAQ answers from National Park Service website on Pearson
Air Museum
People visiting the National Park Service website today will find this FAQ
document slightly altered since the VBMA copied it and posted it to this website
in mid-February. It also includes links to two documents of record, signed
by Park Superintendent. They are
4 February 2013 National Park Service Statement of Record
6 February 2013 National Park Service Statement of Record
The
document below was a copy of text from the National Park Service website.
The first two pages are identical to the FAQ above, but there is more information and links after the first
two pages
13
February 2013 Park assumes direct operational control of Pearson Air
Museum
Within a week of the official announcement, representatives of the City of Vancouver traveled to Washington DC, where they asked congressional representatives to intervene with the Park Service upper echelons. One of the representatives was Congresswoman Jamie Herrera Beutler. Before a hiatus in Congress, she introduced a bill to transfer ownership of the land around the Pearson Air Museum to the City of Vancouver.
14 February 2013 Update Herrera Beutler introduces bill to transfer Pearson
14 February 2013 Copy of Herrera Beutler proposed bill
On 19 February 2013, the National Park Service sent out two press releases about the Pearson Air Museum. In these releases they stated that they would have the museum open by the final week in February. They also asked anyone who had objects for loan, to contact them (the NPS) directly. They also stated that they Air Museum would also be available for public events.
19 February 2013 National Park Service Press Release 1
19 February 2013 National Park Service Press Release 2
Later that day, the Columbian Carried an article summarizing the Park Service press releases and request for artifacts. It also included interviews with several members of the public who had loaned artifacts to the Pearson Air Museum in the past. This lengthy article included a summary of past news reports on the situation at the Pearson Air Museum.
19 February 2013 Park Service to go it alone at Pearson
On 27 February 2013, the National Park Service reopened the Pearson Air Museum. In addition to the original aviation theme, they included other displays.
27 February 2013 Update: Museum to reopen on Wednesday
27 February 2013 Pearson Air Museum Reopens
27 February 2013 Update: Air Museum reopens under new management
27 February 2013 Pearson Air Museum reopening draws ire
Several days earlier, a Park Service representative sent Mr. Jeff Davis, President of the VBMA a proposal for the VBMA and NPS to work together to set up temporary displays in the Pearson Air Museum. The proposal mentioned a possibility that large amounts of space would be devoted to other military history at the Barracks. Mr. Davis held two meetings with members of the VBMA, discussing this proposal. On February 27th, Jeff Davis, President of the VBMA sent a response to the National Park Service.
27 February 2013, VBMA response to NPS proposal
4 March 2013, Group declines to help stock Pearson
Jamie Herera Beutler announced her proposed congressional bill to give the land around the Air Museum and museum building itself to the City of Vancouver would be debated on 14 March 2013.
7 March 2013, Pearson Air Museum bill set for March 14
In 8 March 2013, the Columbian published an article after reading several NPS memorandum about NPS activity surrounding the Pearson Air Museum. One document or series of documents relates to the NPS staff cataloging artifacts belonging to the Pearson Air Museum. According to one interpretation, it appeared that the NPS planned to assume ownership of many artifacts. The article included links to several supporting documents. A pdf version of the article and copies of these supporting documents are included below:
8 March 2013, Pearson Air Museum takeover hinted at in 2009
National Park Service Pearson Air Museum cataloging document
National Park Service Annual Report for 2011
National Park Service Response (letter 1) to Columbian
National Park Service Response (letter 2) to Columbian
On 13 March 2013, the National Parks Traveler organization published an article summarizing events surrounding the Herrera Beutler bill.
13 March 2013 Congresswoman wants to slice off seven acres of land
On 12 March 2013, the National Park Service updated the website they manage for the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, about the Pearson Air Museum. This is an FAQ page, where older posts are not removed, but new ones are added. Question 8 - 10 seem to be the ones added on 12 March. The entire page is copied and on this website. Please click on the link below to see it as an Adobe Acrobat document. Questions 8 - 10 are highlighted in yellow and pertain to Ms. Herrera Buetler's bill.
12 March 2013 NPS website update on Pearson Air Museum.
On 14 March 2013, Ms. Herrera Beutler described her bill to the Congressional Natural Resources Committee. In addition to her description of the bill, she and members of the committee questioned Dr. Herbert C. Frost, associate director of Natural Resource Stewardship and Science for the Park Service. Also present was Mr. Elson Strahan, of the Historic Trust. To see the actual hearing, please follow this link to Youtube. The meeting was split into five separate parts of each of which were between one and six minutes long.
Below is a digital copy of the Columbian newspaper article published on 14 March 2013.
14 March 2013 Congressional hearing on Pearson draws strong criticism of Park Service.
Below is a digital copy of Ms. Herrera Buetler's Bill, Dr. Frost's testimony and the testimony of Mr. Strahan.
14 March 2013 Dr. Frost Testimony
14 March 2013 Mr. Strahan Testimony
On 18 March 2013, the Columbian announced that Congresswoman Jamie Herrera Beutler's bill would move forward to the 'markup' phase of any bill before it would/might be passed on to the floor of Congress for consideration and a vote. Please read the article for more information.
19 March 2013 House Committee Schedules Pearson Bill
Officials in Russia were concerned with the situation at the Pearson Air Museum, where it might affect the Vlery Chkalov displays. Chkalov was the commander of the first transpolar airplane flight, which took off in the former Soviet Union and landed at Pearson Airfield in 1937.
20 March 2013 Russian delegation offers help in Pearson situation
On 20 March 2013, the the House Natural Resources Committee passed the Herrera Beutler bill through the add on phase and forwarded it through the administrative process. There was no word on when it would be debated and voted on in the House of Representatives.
21 March 2013 Herrera Beutler's Pearson bill passes to House floor
On 30 March 2013, the Columbian published an article summarizing the events of 2011 and 2012, which led to the breach between the City of Vancouver, Historic Trust, and the National Park Service.
30 March 2013 City of Vancouver asked for handover
On Sunday, 31 March 2013, the Columbian also had an article highlighting the new exhibits the National Park Service unveiled at the Pearson Air Museum.
31 March 2013 Army boots and Army wings
One of the events which the National Park Service denied a permit in 2012 was the All-Church Picnic. In early April, the Liberty Institute announced they would seek another venue besides the Pearson Air Museum for their 2013 event.
3 April 2013 All Church Picnic Moves To Alternate Site
A few weeks later, the Columbian announced the new location for the All Church Picnic would be at Vancouver's Esther Short Park.
15 April 2013 Church Picnic moving to Esther Short Park
The next week, the Oregonian published an article outlining the efforts the of the Fort Vancouver National Trust, to open a new exhibit location near the Pearson Air Museum to display their collection, as well as new National Park Service exhibits at the Pearson Air Museum. This PDF document includes several photographs and captions published as separate articles on the same day.
Two days later, the Columbian published two articles. One was on the status of Congresswoman Herrera Beutler bill, HR 716, which passed through the add on phase and forwarded to the House of Representatives. Where it still awaited debate and a vote. The other article was a profile of the Fort Vancouver National Historic Trust.
21 April 2013 Pearson solution still in a holding pattern
21 April 2013 Air Museum dispute not the Trusts first fight.
In early May, the National Park Service announced a live performance of the 1930s radio serial, Captain Midnight at the Pearson Air Museum
3 May 2013, Captain Midnight radio drama plays at museum
In late May 2013, the National Park Service announced a new set of displays on the Spruce Production Division of the United States Army, which supplied spruce boards to make airplanes for the Allies during World War I.
23 May 2013 Pearson Air Museum pays tribute to straight-grained soldiers
Shortly after the National Park Service displays opened, Oregon Public Broadcasting carried a story that mediation between the National Park Service and other parties had begun
30 May 2013 Parties in Pearson Field dispute agree to mediation
In mid-June 2013, the Trust announced the opening of the Pearson Field Education Center, near the site of the Pearson Air Museum, and published their education program
18 June 2013 Pearson Field Education Center rises from ashes
Pearson Field Education Center program
A few days later, the Columbian carried a story about the state of negotiations in the Pearson Air Museum dispute
20 June 2013 Mediation planned over Pearson Air Museum
On Saturday, 22 June 2013, the National Park Service hosted a dual language commemoration ceremony on the anniversary of the Chkalov flight
22 June 2013 Pearson hosts dual language tribute to Chkalov