Silverton Air Field

Located at First and High Streets, this mural depicts the celebration of National Airmail Week back in 1938, commemorating the 20^th Anniversary of the very beginning of scheduled airmail service. During this celebration every citizen was encouraged to send or receive an airmail letter. More than 10,000 cities across the United States participated by preparing a special cachet for their airmail letters, Silverton among them. The cachet – picturing Silver Falls, an airplane, and wording – was stamped on all the airmail envelopes used on that day. The city paid for a special one day-only-pick up of the airmail letters. On May 19^th of that year, 1700 special flights picked up the airmail letters from across the country. Of those flights, 47 of them were piloted by women. Pictured in the mural is local Bessie Halladay, the aviatrix who stopped for mail pickup in Silverton.

Artist Kelly Farrah created this commemorative piece in 2011.

Note: (excerpt from the mural text)

The Silverton Airfield was the first airport to be registered in Oregon, making its debut in 1915. The 1920s and 30s saw the airport as a hub of activity, between barnstorming, air circuses, crop-dusting and crashes.