An agreement for museum operations between NPS and the city was executed in December 1995, and was to remain in effect until 2025. Since 2005, the Museum has been operated by the Fort Vancouver National Trust on behalf of the city. All of the exhibits and collections, including aircraft, are either owned by the Trust or are on loan to the Trust by private donors. In total, there has been a community investment in the museum of at least an estimated $8 million, while NPS has made no material contributions.
While the partnership between NPS, the city and Trust was successful for many years, the relationship between the Park Service and the Trust began to inexplicably deteriorate. After a statement in the Fort Vancouver 2011 Annual Report that there would be a “transition to NPS management of Pearson Air Museum,” the Trust’s executive committee flew to San Francisco to meet with the Park Service’s regional director to seek clarification, and to try and re-establish a positive relationship. Unfortunately, it was not a successful effort. The regional director stated that NPS regulations are the same for all NPS parks, and that this site is no different than Yellowstone. The director also stated that the Trust was not a partner as defined by regulation, and the superintendent was to have unilateral control. This is in stark contrast to the 1996 historic site enabling legislation that, according to its authors, intended the site to be collaboratively managed without the singular application of NPS regulations.
NPS then indicated that the agreement which was to remain in effect until 2025 was going to be cancelled, and that the Park Service wanted the Trust to sign a new agreement. After much negotiation, it became clear that the proposed new agreement was unacceptable to the Trust. NPS then terminated the agreement and announced that it would be taking over operational control of the Museum.
A primary justification by NPS for the termination of the current agreement was an assertion that the Trust was not acting in accordance with NPS laws and regulations because we had approved an All Church Picnic, a USO benefit concert and benefit concert for veterans. NPS prohibited these outdoor events by imposing so many restrictions that they were no longer feasible to produce as planned, effectively becoming a denial.
The determination by the NPS that these events were unsuitable for the site was perplexing, as the church picnic had occurred in the two prior summers without complaint, and events comparable to those being denied have been held since the museum opened in 1995. These events certainly would have had less impact than the more than 35,000 Independence Day attendees who have come to celebrate July 4 at the site for the past 50 years, and there are many other examples that highlight the contradictory and subjective application of NPS regulations for approving events.
The recent NPS objection and denial of Trust approved events, coupled with the fact that the community built the Museum on seven acres of NPS property, really served as a thinly veiled excuse by NPS to terminate the Trust’s operating agreement in order to achieve their real objective: to appropriate the community funded Museum.
The Trust will continue to advocate for the reinstatement of its museum operations. Meanwhile, we have moved the museum’s assets to hangars on Pearson Field and will continue to operate its educational programs out of those hangars.
The Trust has been heartened by the overwhelming community support. Apparently, the only way to return the museum to the community is to have museum oversight vested in the city, which would continue to partner with the Trust. This must be facilitated by our congressional delegation. Please contact the district directors for senators Murray and Cantwell at: Katie_Whittier@murray.senate.gov and Kimberly_Pincheira@cantwell.senate.gov; and Representative Herrera Beutler’s district director, Ryan.L.Hart@mail.house.gov.
For more information, visit the Pearson Air Museum website.
Elson Strahan is the president and CEO of the Fort Vancouver National Trust. He can be reached at 360.992.1835.
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