This week in Maps & Cityscapes we have pulled together some resources for you to reference the post-war aluminum and aircraft industries in the northwest.
Sea-Tac
[note the Boeing Stratocruiser flying over airport]
Back of this ca 1950 postcard reads:
SEATTLE-TACOMA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
This International Airport is one of the finest in the entire United States.
Seattle being the northernmost city of importance on the Pacific Coast is the
natural gateway for air travel to Alaska, the Orient and Europe.
Ektachrome by Max R. Jensen
Seattle-Tacoma Airport was constructed in 1944 to serve civilians of the region, after the U.S. military took control of Boeing Field for use in World War II. Building the airport was a joint effort between the Civil Aeronautics Administration and the City of Tacoma. Commercial use of the airport began after the war ended, with the first scheduled flights occurring in 1947. Two years later, the word International was added to the airport's name as Northwest Airlines began direct service to Tokyo.
Resources:
Guide to the Boeing Airplane Company Photograph Collection 1927-ca.1965, UW Libraries Special Collections
http://www.lib.washington.edu/specialcoll/findaids/docs/photosgraphics/BoeingAirplaneCoPHColl594.xml
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Part 1 - Founding, HistoryLink.org
http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=1004
Guide to the Boeing Airplane Company Photograph Collection 1927-ca.1965, UW Libraries Special Collections
http://www.lib.washington.edu/specialcoll/findaids/docs/photosgraphics/BoeingAirplaneCoPHColl594.xml
Boeing 377 Stratocruiser, with post cards, photos, articles, brochures and more.
http://www.ovi.ch/b377/index.html
Post-War Developments: 1946-1956, Boeing History
http://www.boeing.com/history/narrative/n033boe.html
Post-War Aluminum Industry
This view shows the pouring of molten iron around a steel slab
in the carbon anodes used in the smelting of aluminum at an
Alcoa Aluminum plant, near Wenatchee.
(Alcoa Aluminum plant, near Wenatchee. Photograph courtesy
Aluminum Company of America, Wenatchee. University of
Washington Libraries, Special Collections, UW16866.)
Among the many industries drawn to the Pacific Northwest by the abundance of hydroelectricity was the production of aluminum.
Federally owned aluminum plants at Mead (smelter) and Trentwood (rolling mill) produced for the war. Immediately following the war, Henry J. Kaiser took over the plants in 1946 and expanded Spokanešs manufacturing base. Kaiser also ran a smaller smelter in Tacoma.
The Aluminum Corporation of America (Alcoa) opened the Wenatchee, Washington aluminum plant in 1952. Washington produces more aluminum than any other state, a situation which started in World War Two. Aircraft companies like Boeing required the material for aircraft production, and the government supported the construction of massive hydroelectric plants along the Columbia, providing ample electricity for this tremendously power-consumptive industry. This plant is located next to its Columbia River power source, the Rock Island Dam.
Sources:
Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest, University of Washington.
www.washington.edu/../Course%20Index/Lessons/20/20.html
The Center for Land Use Interpretation
http://ludb.clui.org/ex/i/WA3235/
Resources:
Background article:
The Pacific Northwest Light Metals Industry, by Nathanael H. Engle, Journal of Marketing © 1944
http://www.jstor.org/view/00222429/ap040033/04a00050/0
Modern Society in the Pacific Northwest: The Second World War as Turning Point, Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest, University of Washington.
http://www.washington.edu/uwired/outreach/cspn/Website/Course%20Index/Lessons/20/20.html
Spokane - Thumbnail History, HistoryLink.org
http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=7462