Evergreen Aviation Museum

When I saw the movie, "The Aviator", I was momentarily enthralled with the bizarre life and work of Howard Hughes. Even more intriguing was the massive plane nick named, "The Spruce Goose". This all sounded very familiar to me for some reason, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. A little internet investigation revealed that the Spruce Goose was housed just over an hour from where I live in McMinnville, Oregon at the Evergreen Aviation Museum! I remember when they brought the Spruce Goose up here because it was on the news, and honestly, I thought the giant aircraft would be the only thing the Evergreen Aviation Museum would have on display. I was VERY wrong. There are a lot of amazing aircraft housed in this beautiful and sparkling clean facility. They have cargo planes, commercial passenger planes, a replica of the Wright Flyer, trainers, bombers, spacecraft, homebuilt, observation and reconnaissance and general aviation airplanes. There are also lots of artifacts, a wonderful cafe and a nice gift shop with plenty of items in all price ranges. But of course I was there to see the Spruce Goose. Driving up to the museum, you can see the Spruce Goose taking up the expansive museum from the giant glass windows in the front of the building http://www.sprucegoose.org/index.html . It looks grand, but nothing can prepare you for coming face to face with it. It truly is massive and seems to be an engineering wonder. There is a guided tour provided by museum docents at 11am and 2pm daily. Plan for at least an hour for the tour which ends with the Spruce Goose. They have the actual model set that was used on the Movie, "The Aviator" when they showed the building of the Spruce Goose. The detail is amazing. Youth 6-18 are $8 for admission, while adults are $12. Veterans are $10 and those on Active Duty or in the Reserves are $8 with ID. This museum was so much more than I expected and if you are ever in the area, I highly recommend a visit. You will NOT be disappointed. more

My husband works in the airline industry and is a huge airplane enthusiast. We stopped at the museum on one of our trips to the coast. I'd been in a closet all my life and have never even heard of the Spruce Goose until my visit. It is an amazing site because you can see if from the highway as you are driving in. My husband actually knows some Evergreen employees so we were able to take a private tour of the inside of the Spruce Goose and sit in the cock pit. It was amazing. We also loved many of the other airplanes. There is some amazing history stored inside that hangar. The volunteers who work at the museum have all worked on or flown many of the different planes and can tell you amazing stories about their experiences. Its definitely worth the stop next time you are driving through McMinnville. more

The Evergreen Aviation Museum is somewhere that we had driven by many times before we finally decided to make it the destination and we were very glad we did. It has some very cool things to see if you are at all interested in aviation, which both my husband and young son are. Of course, the most famous aircraft housed here is the famous Spruce Goose, the airplane that belonged to eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes. Seeing this much-celebrated plane up close was very interesting. In addition, they also have impressive collection of other aircraft- you should try to get on one of the tours that are conducted by volunteers that used to fly the actual planes on display. The museum is a little off the beaten parth, but it makes a nice and enjoyable day trip from Portland. more

The star attraction at the Evergreen Aviation Museum is definitely the Spruce Goose, Howard Hughes' famous jumbo airplane. Being able to get up close to such a pivotal piece of aviation history is exciting, but I was pleased to realize that the Evergreen Aviation Museum is so much more than just the Spruce Goose. They have a great collection of aircraft, and if you time your visit right, you can get a guided tour by volunteers that used to fly the historical aircraft on display. Visiting this museum makes a great day trip from Portland, and will be enjoyed by the whole family. more