Richland, Pasco and Kennewick enjoyed a sky-high celebration 100 years ago that was considered so historical that representatives, officials and public figures from throughout the Pacific Northwest showed up to participate. 

For the Tri-Cities, the three fledgling communities which today are a cosmopolitan region of more than 300,000, that spring day a century ago was likely their first combined recognition beyond the borders of their tiny confines. 

Thousands arrived on April 6, 1926, to join in celebrating the Tri-Cities’ ascension to national aviation history. 

The first contracted air mail flight ever in the United States flew out of Pasco for Elko, Nevada, described as being a scheduled contract route that helped form “the foundation of the modern air travel system.” 

The route was officially designated as Contract Air Mail Flight 5.

The flight was out of Pasco Airport on a Varney Airlines plane. Varney was the forerunner of United Airlines, one of the nation’s most historical and leading domestic and international carriers.

The historic flight was under the auspices of the Kelly Act which passed Congress on Feb. 2, 1925, authorizing the U.S. Postal Department to contract with private carriers to send mail over designated routes. The U.S. government had an existing transcontinental mail route linking San Francisco and New York, and the designated routes connected to it. 

On that spring morning Pasco had about 3,000 residents, Kennewick about half that, and Richland’s population was even smaller, but an estimated 6,000 were on hand to see pilot Leon Cuddeback at 6:20 a.m. lift his single seat Swallow biplane off the ground. The plane’s 150-horsepower Curtis C6 water-cooled engine carried with it not only Cuddeback but 207 pounds of mail comprising 9,285 individual pieces. 

Plane cargo on the flight to Elko also included bottles of grape juice destined for President Calvin Coolidge and a box of asparagus for U.S. Postmaster Gen. Harry New. 

Although the Postal Service originated its own airmail service on May 15, 1918, the Pasco-to-Elko was the first commercial airmail flight by a contracted private carrier. 

Pre-flight activities swarmed around the Pasco Airport and town, beginning with a 5:30 a.m. gathering at the post office. When Cuddeback took off for what would be a 6-hour 18-minute journey, including 4 hours and 28 minutes of flying time, the celebration did not dispense in the Tri-Cities.  

It was just beginning. 

Pasco celebrated the first air mail delivery when pilot Leon Cuddeback took off from Pasco Airport bound for Elko, Nevada, on April 6, 1926.

| Courtesy Franklin County Historical Museum

Cuddeback had a refueling stop in Boise, Idaho, where he picked up another 150 pounds of mail. 

The all-day planned celebration included a parade, speeches and other activities listed in a special program printed “to outline the events of the day.” 

Formal festivities began at 11 a.m. with J.M. Jones, Washington state postmaster, placing a granite slab near the hangar commemorating the historic air mail flight that left Pasco that morning. Arranged near the granite marker were roses from Portland’s International Rose Test Gardens. 

At a pavilion built on Clark Street, Walla Walla Mayor Ben Hill gave a welcome address to visitors of the historic occasion. He was followed by speeches from: 

• Frank M. Louden, Walla Walla Chamber of Commerce 
• Seattle Postmaster C.M. Perkins  
• J.W. Spangle, president of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce 
• C.W. Culbertson of Portland 
• J.M. Jones, Portland postmaster 

Entertaining during the day’s celebration were marching bands from White Bluffs, Walla Walla, Prosser, Sunnyside and Milton-Freewater, Oregon. Queen Pauline of the Wenatchee Apple Blossom Festival and her entourage circulated among guests, and county commissioners and postmasters from throughout the Pacific Northwest were present. One even came from as far away as Plummer, Idaho. 

An 18-hole golf tournament for the occasion was won by Johnny Wall of Spokane, while baseball teams fielded by Pasco and Kennewick met on Gray-McFarland Field. The outcome was not announced. Overhead, five planes from the National Guard’s 116th Observation Squadron entertained crowds.

Anticipated to be part of concluding the day’s festivities was a return air mail flight from Elko, scheduled as the first incoming air mail flight on a designated route, although a plane from Seattle carrying a pouch of mail for local Postmaster W.R. Cox arrived in Pasco earlier in the day. The Elko flight was due to arrive about 6 p.m.  

To greet its arrival, marching bands and floats marched to the airport, led by Dr. S. Limpus of Pasco, and C.R. Brownville, mayor of Umatilla, Oregon. At the airport, the disappointed crowd learned a Nevada storm prevented the plane’s arrival.  

It was later learned the pilot of the return mail flight, Franklin Rose, crossing the mountains just north of the Nevada-Idaho border, was forced to crash land in a grain field. Rose was not hurt but had to wait 24 hours for rescue. His Swallow biplane was heavily damaged and stuck in a mudbank. 

Another plane with the salvaged mail arrived in Pasco 24 hours after originally scheduled. 

While some, unaware of the forced downing of Rose’s plane, waited to see if it might arrive late, many dispersed to attend an American Legion dance at 8:30 p.m. 

Varney Airlines, founded in Pasco by Walter T. Varney in 1926, once delivered more mail city-to-city on a designated route than any other carrier on other designated routes. 

In 1931, it was part of a group of airline companies that became United Airlines. Because Varney was the oldest of the group, founded in 1926, United Airlines is listed as being founded that year as America’s oldest commercial airline carrier. 

Accordingly, Pasco became recognized by many in the aviation industry as the birthplace of commercial airline service in the United States. 

Gale Metcalf of Kennewick is a lifelong Tri-Citian, retired Tri-City Herald employee and volunteer for the East Benton County Historical Museum. He writes the monthly history column.