Two airships visited Vancouver during the 1905 Lewis and Clark Exposition, and an 18-year-old flew them both. On Aug. 3, Lincoln Beachey made the first controlled flight into Washington, piloting the City of Portland. On his more memorable second voyage, he carted the first airmail on the Gelatine, although unsanctioned by the postal service. The airship was named for its sponsor, the Knox Gelatine Company.
Lifting off the Portland fairgrounds at the Lewis and Clark exposition on Sept. 19, 1905, the sky boy flew his second trip over the Columbia River, setting the bulbous ship down on the Vancouver Barracks parade ground as awed city residents watched. The teenager held several letters inside his jacket for the postal clerk, Win Carson, who lugged the mail to the post office on Fourth and Washington streets. Beachey also carried a message addressed to Gen. Constant Williams, commander of the Department of the Columbia from Theodore Hardee, assistant to the exposition president.
Hardee’s message conveyed the president’s compliments to the general and expressed “the hope that this uniquely transmitted message will be delivered to you promptly and safely.” He flattered the commander as having “the distinction of being the first one to have ever received [such] a document.”
Returning, Beachey hit a harsh northeast wind that drove the blimp in the wrong direction. Eventually, Beachey landed on A. B. Gilmore’s farm near Orchards. After a struggle to lash the ship down, it was deflated and carted back to Portland on a farm wagon, along with a tired aeronaut.
