BARNHILL & McGEE AIRWAYS
editHistory
editBarnhill & McGee Airways, one of the earliest air services in Alaska, was founded in Anchorage as a partnership between Harvey W. “Barney” Barnhill and Linious “Mac” McGee in 1931. Barnhill came to Alaska in 1929 and was part of Carl Ben Eielson’s team in Fairbanks transporting personnel and a fortune in furs from the trading ship Nanuck that was stranded in the ice off the coast of Siberia. He flew in the search for the Eielson wreck after his fatal crash in the winter of 1929-1930. “Mac” McGee came to Alaska in the fall of 1929 looking for business opportunities. He became a fur buyer using dog teams & chartered airplanes. He needed an airplane of his own to go to some of the remote areas of Alaska to buy furs. He teamed with “Barney” Barnhill in 1931, purchasing a three-seat Stinson aircraft NC216W from Varney Airlines in San Francisco. They shipped the plane to Alaska on a steamship, taking it off the ship in Valdez, where they reassembled the airplane on the beach and flew it to Anchorage and formed Barnhill & McGee Airways. For the first few months they used the Stinson only for McGee’s fur buying trips to remote villages, but by the middle of Jan 1932, they were running two display adds in the Anchorage Daily Times, one for McGee’s fur business and the other for Barnhill & McGee Airways charter business. Barnhill & McGee dissolved their partnership in about 1932 and McGee purchased an additional Stinson and founded McGee Airways flying out of Anchorage. Although Barnhill & McGee Airways lasted only a short time, it was the foundation for McGee Airways which was the forerunner of Alaska Airlines.
References
edit- Anchorage Centennial Commission Aviation Committee, “Honoring 100 ALASKA BUSH PILOTS”. Anchorage, Alaska, June 24, 1967
- Archie Satterfield, “The Alaska Airlines Story”. Alaska Northwest Publishing Company, Anchorage, Alaska, 1981. ISBN 0-88240-165-3
- John P. Bagoy, “Legends & Legacies, Anchorage 1910-1935”. 2001, ISBN 1-888125-91-8