Tillamook Museum Saved in $1 Sale

The Tillamook Air Museum will reopen Oct. 29 thanks to a deal that saw the historic blimp hangar that houses it sold for $1 to a Utah museum that is going to fix it. The museum, which is housed in the massive Second World War hangar, closed when a winter storm ripped a 200-foot-long gash in the roof about 150 feet above the ground. There was talk of demolishing the structure but Sean O’Brien, a former Tillamook resident who volunteered at the museum, offered to buy it. The offer of $1 for the building and $20 for the collection went through last week. O’Brien is a contractor who is also president of the Vintage Aviation Museum in Spanish Fork, Utah. At least part of the Utah collection will reportedly be moved to Tillamook.

The roof can’t be fixed until a huge flap of roofing metal is safely removed from near the apex of the structure. The Port of Tillamook Bay is covering that cost. Early estimates pegged the cost of fixing the roof at as much as $6.5 million, which the local governments and the museum said they could not afford. O’Brien said he thinks it will cost much less than that at about $450,000. He expects the roof to be fixed by early in the New Year. He said he intends to make the museum better than ever. “Our goal is to not only preserve this remarkable piece of aviation history but also enhance the overall visitor experience, giving visitors new reasons to return time and time again,” he said in a news release.

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