Plans are in motion for an 80- to 90-room resort lodge and separate indoor water park at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum near McMinnville, Oregon, according to an April 21 piece in the Portland Oregonian newspaper.
Brian Bauer, a museum board member and president of Evergreen International Aviation, said the lodge and 50,000-square-foot water park will follow the museum’s aviation theme, which currently attracts 425,000 visitors annually.
A Boeing 747 on the water park’s roof could become a significant landmark. “Visitors will be able to slide out of a real 747 aircraft into the pool,” Bauer said. “Other than that, it will be similar to other large water parks across the country.”
Located just east of McMinnville on Oregon Route 18, the museum campus already includes twin 120,000-square-foot display facilities and a mirror-image 55,000-square-foot IMAX theater, not to mention Howard Hughes’ mammoth H-4 Hercules flying boat, featured in the 2004 Martin Scorsese film “The Aviator.” (The H-4 has become known as the “Spruce Goose,” a name Hughes despised, not only because the wood used in the Duramold process was birch but because the derisive term was applied by his political enemies.)
Because the museum is a destination location, the lodge will offer “higher-end” accommodations, Bauer said, featuring a rustic lobby with a lodge-type feel. Compared to most overnight offerings in the area, rates will be higher priced, but specific rates haven’t been calculated, he said.
“A place to stay is one of the top requests we get from visitors,” Bauer said. “The lodge will fill a niche.”
For information: www.sprucegoose.org.
To read the full story: http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2009/04/air_museum_plan_resort_lodge_a.html
