As we continue to work our way through our archive of photos, we run across some that are a bit out of the ordinary.  They may be humorous or unique but they stand out from the other photos. We will post new photos here monthly with the previous photos in the slideshow.

Our January Photo of the Month is the earliest aerial photo the museum has of the Sunset Plant, looking west along Highway 26, as seen from over the wing of Jack Murdock’s dual-engine plane. Move-in from Hawthorne began in late summer 1951 so we estimate this was taken later in 1951 or perhaps early in 1952. Building 86, which was to be the home of the CRT operation, is on the right and is still under construction. It appears every available parking spot is occupied.

The roof of the main building (Building 81) has been painted with so-called “air marking” as an aid to aircraft navigation. This was probably suggested by Jack Murdock and typically included the town name, an arrow pointing to the north and an arrow directing the pilot to the nearest airport, in this case at Hillsboro, two miles away. Latitude and longitude were often included, as here.

The sign to the left of the highway announces the unpopulated field to be “Cedar Hills.” Note the site of the future shopping center toward the top-left corner is also empty. There would a grocery store there by September of 1954. It now contains an Oregon DMV office. The newly-built Highway 217 would join HW 26 approximately at the lighter colored overpass in December 1971.

Previous Photos of the Month