RIMROCK RANCH RESORT

RIMROCK RANCH MONTEZUMA WELL      COTTONWOOD, ARIZ. Collection of George C. "Professor" Hall, 4-7-05

 

MOVIE ACTOR via email from George C. "Professor" Hall, 4-6-05      Thanks so very much for getting back to me regarding Russell Boardman. Just to be clear, my book/DVD on early Arizona aviation is in the research stage & I am concentrating on the Verde Valley at the moment since it was a hotbed of activity. (I just found that Lieutenant J. L. Andrews made a forced landing in Cottonwood with a US Senator as passenger in 1920).      Back to Boardman, I have made a transfer of a short bit of film that shows Boardman wearing cowboy chaps, hot boarding his Travel Aire and then taking off. The film was made in 1926 and Mr. Boardman was doubtlessly planning to attend the inauguration of Love Field in Prescott in 1928 but wrecked the Travel Aire the day before and wound up in the hospital. I have access to a rich amount of material about the resort Mr. Boardman was involved with and the film I mentioned points to an important plan for air-tourism in Arizona.      I have co-produced several DVD's about Arizona air shows and am working on a "then & now" project based on a 1929 film about Prescott I restored and own. There are any number of ways I could participate in a project about Mr. Boardman from being a research consultant as I have in the past, to being involved with the shooting of a segment about Boardman's Arizona activities.      At any rate, I thank you both for your interest in aviation history and look forward to honoring a true pioneer. Regards from Arizona, Prof Hall

RIMROCK RANCH via email from George C. "Professor" Hall, 4-7-05 Dear Stuart, Clark and Ralph,      Thanks for the info - photos from Stuart and contact info for Joanna McCurdy Brusno from Clark. Attached is a pic of the Travel Aire that is in the film I have a VHS print of.      Russell Boardman was involved in promoting aviation tourism in Northern AZ, especially at the Rimrock Ranch Resort he was part owner of. That was located near Montezuma Well which is indeed between Phoenix and Flagstaff.      One of Mr. Boardman's associations was with the Fred Harvey Company and that is how I became aware of the Travel Aire biplane and the movie I know about. Mr. Boardman crashed the Travel Aire the day before Love Field in Prescott (home field of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University) was dedicated, or would surely have attended.      I live in Jerome, which overlooks the Verde Valley and I can just imagine Mr. Boardman flying by sometimes when we get a fly-by of one of the Waco's that give tours in Sedona.      Anyway, if you folks will send me your mailing addresses - I have Ralph Cooper's, I will send a souvenir tee shirt of the Rimrock biplane with Mr. Boardman. I made these up for the Prescott Air Fair a couple of years ago.      In closing, the airstrip Mr. Boardman flew out of at Montezuma Well is still in service so it would be easy to film a re-enactment of the 1926 film if we can locate a restored Travel Aire. Regards from Jerome, AZ. Prof H

 

ONLINE RESOURCES      If you search for "Rimrock Ranch", using the Google search engine, (4-15-04), you will find about 18 links. Perhaps the most helpful is the following.

 

Exhibits of Arizona      "Exhibits of Arizona brings the rich archival collections of the Arizona State University Libraries to the door steps of Arizona communities."      Included on this website of the Department of Archives and Manuscripts is a beautiful photograph of the Rimrock Ranch Aeroplane. You can enjoy it by clicking on the title above and then searching for "Rimrock Ranch". If you prefer, you can simply enter "13" at the center bottom of the Adobe Reader panel and then click on "Enter".

 

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