The airport located in Lake Clear is a living memorial to the men who had the foresight in the 1940s to imagine what that facility would mean to the economy of this Adirondack region in the years ahead.

I have a copy of a December 1947 weekly newspaper, the Adirondack Observer, published here and which lived for only a short time, with this headline on the lead story: “$40,000 Hangar to be Completed This Week at Harrietstown Airport.”

Well, folks, my friends at Google tell me that using an annual inflation rate of 3.54 percent, $40,000 in 2016 money would be approximately $440,000.

The names of those airport pioneers will be found in the dedication programs, or listed as town board members or as members of airport committees, but there are probably many more who worked on that project who are not named anywhere. The names will be listed here next week.

If those fellows could see the airport today, they would be amazed: the new terminal, a new hangar about to be completed, the New York State Police helicopter facility and the massive amount of equipment needed there to keep the extended runways clear. And could they ever imagine this? A plane lands there, the pilot taxis over and says, “Fill ‘er up,” and that highly trained crew at the airport goes out and pumps 5,000 gallons of jet fuel into the plane at a cost of $21,000.

Following is the complete story of the construction of the hangar in the 1947 newspaper:

“First of the voted improvements to Saranac Lake’s Airport is expected to come into being this week when the aircraft hangar built at a cost of $40,000, will be completed, weather permitting. Just a part of the extensive $290,000 improvement plan, the hangar is 100 feet long, and a hundred feet wide, is expected to be instrumental in bringing an airline to Saranac Lake on a full 12-month basis.

“The hangar is prefabricated, a product of the Star Manufacturing Company of Oklahoma. The foundation upon which the hangar was erected was constructed by the Town of Harrietstown, and the hangar erected by six employees of the Star Company and six men from Saranac Lake.

“Other improvements which include a spacious administration building and paved runways with drainage systems are expected to be completed by mid-July. The runway that was formerly a taxi strip is to be widened to a hundred and fifty feet, sufficient to allow all the large aircraft to use Saranac Lake as a terminal of operations.

“The administration building will be the last development constructed and as yet bids on the building have not been accepted by the planning committees. The runway will be graded and paved by the Marshall Construction Company of Poughkeepsie and Longi & Sons of Glens Falls.

“In the early part of the year, the tax payers of Harrietstown voted to start construction at the airport at a cost of $125,000 to the town with the agreement that the Federal government would contribute a like amount. The $40,000 spent on the hangar was an added expenditure that was not shared by the Federal government.”

Daily air service before the hangar was built

(From the Enterprise of June 20, 1946)

“Daily passenger service by air from New York City to Saranac Lake and Lake Placid via the Lake Clear airport will be started with an incoming passenger plane late Friday afternoon. The trip from New York to Lake Clear will be made in 90 minutes. The ships will be 21-passenger Douglas luxury liners.

“The first plane ever to be piloted from New York City to Lake Clear airport on a regular passenger schedule is expected to arrive at about 5 o’clock Friday afternoon. It will be met at the airport by County Supervisors Matthew M. Munn and Willis Wells and their official families and friends and the mayors of Saranac Lake and Lake Placid and by the officials of their communities and of other neighboring communities.

“Expected as an unofficial welcoming committee are several thousands of carloads of people from Saranac Lake, Lake Placid, Tupper Lake and from camps, hamlets and villages from many miles around. Special details of State Police from Troop B in Malone will be posted to handle traffic and parking regulations at the airport.

“The event will have an historical and commercial significance for Saranac Lake, Lake Placid and the surrounding area equivalent to that of the puffing appearance of the first locomotive to slide along the steel rails into Saranac Lake and Lake Placid fifty-nine years ago.

“The New York to Lake Clear trip is made at a cost of $20 plus Federal tax. John H. Gutshow has been appointed local passenger traffic manager, and reservations for the trip can be made any day through him by calling the Saranac Lake exchange, phone 163.

“Resort Airlines has the contract for the air service and it is planned to have a sustained daily passenger service. The company owns four Douglas DC-3, 21-passenger planes and two Douglas 44-passenger Skymasters and three five-passenger twin-engine Cessnas, one of the latter of which will be based at Saranac Lake for the summer for special and Charter trips.

“Resort Airlines have been careful to announce that the new passenger schedule is experimental but that it will be continued without interruption if justified by the volume of traffic.”

Other than my copy of the Observer, the information for this column came from the files of the Adirondack Room of the Saranac Lake Free Library.

(Continued next week)