OCR Text |
Show 4C - Lakeside Review, Wednesday, October 30, 1985 Layton park offers quiet beauty Hill AF museum restores dignity to vintage aircraft HILL AIR FORCE BASE The Heritage Museum at Hill Air Force Base will top its own goal of 20 aircraft for display. The museum now has 13 aircraft.Five are being restored and five more on are their way from other states. The museum has everything vandalized at a from an Midvale Park to a Minuteman Missile at one time destined to become fruit juice cans. Museum curator, Larry Yanotti, has set another goal to acquire aircraft previously stationed. at Hill Air Force Base. We try to get the Yanotti aircraft, said. Were going to check through the books to see if they were stationed here. Efforts to obtain the planes are strictly volunteer. Funds come from donations. Yanotti receives comments about the museums speed of progress. It began searching for airplanes nine months ago. He gives credit to good community support and to the good volunteer response for the rapid acquisition of aircraft. Thats what is going to make this thing. It will either make it or break it. Yanotti, who used to procure museum artifacts as a hobby in New York, spends hours on the phone trying to find unwanted Air Force aircraft or artifacts. A deal is made to either buy the planes or accept them as donations. Then some of the aircraft are completely stripped down for shipping by truck or rail to Hill Air Force Base. Others are in condition to be G ed flown in. An 6 F-8- was taken from its pedestal in Albany, Ore. They said, we cant keep it up any longer, Yanotti said. The Air Force disapproves of its display aircraft being neglected, and puts pressure on cities to maintain them. So some cities are happy to give deteriorated 1 planes to the museum. on display in The Midvale had been stripped by vandals of everything that could be removed and the paint was wearing off. It is now being restored at Hill Air Force Base. The planes shape is typical of planes that are brought in to the museum. A from Grounds is Dugway Proving another example. A sister ship to the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima, the bomber was exposed to harsh desert winds and freezing snows. Vandals pilfered whatever would come lose. Chemicals were applied to the exterior to see how the aluminum would hold up under certain conditions. Hill Air Force Base volunteers in the Restoration Club are treating and painting the plane and replacing broken windows. Even the engines will be replaced. Yanotti would like to recover two and six feet of snow 40 under resting and ice in Greenland. In 1944 test pilot Ployer Hill, for which Hill Air Force Base was named, was killed in the first n at Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. Artifacts will be on display in a museum to be finished in two or site is three years. The on the northwest comer of the. base, just off G B-- P-3- 8s 7s B-- 17 Wright-Patterso- 50,000-square-fo- ot 36-ac- re Base named for pilot of experimental plane HILL AFB Fifty years ago today -- Oct. 30, 1935 -- - an K airplane crashed near Dayton, Ohio. The plane, from Wright Field, was the first experimental model of the B-Flying Fortress. And the pilot, Maj. Ployer P. Hill, was killed. It is in his honor Hill Air Force Base was named. ! A . '' DARLENE MIX Special to the Lakeside Review LAYTON The citys completed park known as the Layton Commons Park, was developed with exquisite workman26-ac- re ship. According to Richard Hunt, director of parks and recreation for the city, much of the credit goes to Jim Woodward, park manager, and Dan Vincent, assistant park manger, who planned and designed the park. The landscaping of the park took three years to develop and is the third largest park in Utah. It was dedicated July 4, 1981. In the 1940s the park was known as Verdeland Park. It was owned and operated by the U.S. Air Force and was the site of government housing for military per- vSv, ; V There were 400 rental units, 398 were rented and two used for day care. The units rented for $21.50 one bedroom; $24.50 two bedrooms and $31.50 for three bedrooms. The Verdeland Park School was built on the property and dedicated Dec. 20, 1943. Today the school still stands and is used as offices and as a senior citizens center. :v;,t Workmen settle huge bridge across stream during early development of the Layton Commons Park. The waterway now is home to several varieties of birds. $175,000 with the Bureau of Outof all types and sizes and 15,000 door Recreation matching that perennials used in paths and rock Existing on the premises was amount. the Verdeland Park AdministraPhase I includes the area north tion Building which housed ofthe High School and east of of fices of the U.S. government. The the pool area. It boasts of a large building was later remodeled and enclosed bowery with a fireplace, expanded and now serves as the playground equipment, covered Layton City Hall and police sta- picnic areas, as well as parking tion. On Aug. 27, 1957, the Layton Phase II, is the area west of and City Council approved purchase south of the city office building. for 72 acres from the of $580,000 to develop Phase II, a order In government. For a few years the city rented swamp ground had to be cleared the housing units. In 1962, the and drained. Workers hauled out 300 truck-loacity appointed a committee to of debris and moved in dispose of Verdeland Park. The housing had deteriorated and was more than 600 loads of topsoil. condemned. The residents had no Landscaping took form with the choice but to move. Twenty-eiggrading and digging of two lakes, acres was sold to the local school along with plumbing, electrical district for the Layton High wiring, sprinkling system and sidewalks. About 400 truckloads School. The Verdeland Park residents of large rocks were also hauled in. Some 340 tons of sand near the were instrumental in establishing the first Layton Public Library. Heritage Museum help form the Former residents of Verdeland playground. Specially selected Park gather together each year for playground equipment was in- -, stalled along with restrooms and a reunion. The Layton Commons Park was a large opened bowery. Some 80,000 trees and shrubs built in two phases at a cost of ds ht gardens adorn the park. There are 100 birds of 35 different breeds, two black swans and two baby mute swans living in the park. Most of the feed is donated by farmers and grocery stores. Students in the area schools have helped with feeding the birds and planting of trees. The park was built with seven e park employees, seven e Comprehensive Employment Training Act (CETA) employees paid by the federal full-timfull-tim- government and 10 part-tim- e summer employees. Visitors to the park feel the tranquility the setting offers. As a visitor walks the sidewalk paths along the fenced lake, stately shaped rocks of all sizes are displayed among pines and shrubs, with cut-orailroad ties as decor. Both edges are lined with rocks, pines and shrubs, with an occassional fallen tree over its path. Birdhouses, grace some of the trees, as swans swim the lake. ff Some parts of the opposite side of the lake have been left undev-- . eloped with- nature providing a decorations' of wildflowers and cattails. Three islands exist with some of the 100 birds nesting on them. Fall flowers can be seen in the background. Visitors can walk over the wooden bridge to see the dam d or picnic under one of the covered picnic areas. Several visitors asked their opinion of the park commented: Moist beautiful and kept up park I have ever seen, Peaceful and I quiet, even when its crowded, love it, its restful, I come two times a week. Visitors will see children feeding bread to the birds, lovers hand in hand, game playing, and pictures being taken in the scenic setting of the park. In the future workers will continue to improve and develop the park, but if the future development is anything like what now exists, residents will continue to n find more time to enjoy the Commons Park. - first-han- Lay-to- s&T ! 'VC Quality Security Doors red sandstone monument iwjwinfP Maj. Ployer P. Hill , Aircraft of years ' sonnel. just south of the south gate stands in the center of a large compass and heralds Maj. Hill and his life. It displays a bronze relief of the man and a miniature of the fated airplane. Quoting the bronze plaque, He dared to fly tomorrows airplane with a spirit that met all tests unafraid. 4t o' ago on display at - v Hill. See Us About Any Tefco Affordable Spas, 860 W. Riverdale Rd., Ogden Stic. B-- Product TEFCO OF UTAH 9th Street Ogden, Utah 84404 120 4 -- Phone: (801) Utohs only Tub and Spa Manufacturer. Fiberglass and acrylic. For one year only, buy direct from the manufacturer. Complete Spa with top of the line swimming pool equipment only 621-10- 10 WINDOW GUAROS I "Tefco does beautiful things for your No. 37 liome No. 40 BBSS a $ave $1,000.00 over closest comparable Spo. Many sizes, shapes, ond colors to choose from. BY APPOINTMENT ONLY 399-514- 2 No. 3S Curt Landes, 825-935- 4 V or Raymond Volpi, 731-657- 8 No. 38 No. 39 |