WLM
| history
beacons placed every three miles across
the country,” the family shares via Mr.
Wolff. “By completing the transcontinental route, it allows pilots to fly at
night and in bad weather. They did this
by listening to a succession of coded signals that were transmitted from each radio range.” The role of ‘Airway Keepers’
was crucial. In emergencies, Keepers
provided assistance, from gassing the
plane to feeding and lodging pilots and
passengers as needed. “They {Keepers}
had an extremely important job as many
{pilots’ lives} depended upon accurate
and timely information made available
by the Keepers.” The ranges were later
replaced by Flight Service Stations.
Growing up, my parents owned Snowy
Range Ski Area outside of Centennial.
This brought our young family to Wyoming from Kearney, Nebraska days short
of my sixth birthday, where we moved
into what I affectionately refer to as the
‘Cardboard Shack’ of a trailer along a
back side of the ski area. We spent two
years up there, where I attended a rural
elementary school as the only student in
kindergarten & first grade. Even though
many say ‘Where is the punch line?’, the
following did truly happen: people accidentally target shot through the walls of
the trailer one Saturday; we had a rather
large and hungry rock chuck move in
that had curious cravings; and the heavy
snows of the 1980s caused massive roof
leaks and middle-of-the-night surprises when trash bags taped to the ceiling
gave way over your bed. I believe, however, that it was the surprise burning of
our Jeep Waggoner along Highway 130
one cold winter night in 1986, while it
held ten people packed like sardines
on the way to watch a Pokes basketball
game, that finally pushed my mother to
the point of ultimatums – and we were
in Laramie by that summer. We continued to grow up watching our parents as
entrepreneurs, and apparently because
I didn’t learn their lesson, I have decided to continue the pattern with my own
children. When I heard my children in
their playroom quoting ad rates to imaginary clients and interviewing stuffed
animals, I realized how fully the circle
had come around.
Knowing this (now comical) nugget of
background history on my family (for
which I’m sure I’ll receive endless grief
for sharing), I was instantly drawn to the
story of the Cruickshank family and the
Medicine Bow airport. Gwen Cruickshank was my business teacher and Future Business Leaders of America advisor at Laramie High School, and when
she contacted me to share the family’s
story, I was intrigued. When I met with
the Cruickshanks and read the family’s
account, written by Betty Cruickshank
Cole-Keller, I was hooked.
Betty, the eldest of the five Cruickshank
children, shares the story of her father
Edwin Cruickshank’s work as Airways
Keeper at Site 32 in Medicine Bow in
the 1930s. The story is part aviation and
Wyoming history…but more than that,
it’s the story of a young family growing alongside an all-encompassing profession set in small town Wyoming. I
immediately found myself smiling and
nodding my head in understanding – it
was quite familiar.
Historian Steve Wolff contacted the
Cruickshank family in 2006, with a special interest in preserving Site 32 and
historical information that he shared
with the family that they, in turn, passed
along to me. The Radio Range at Medicine Bow’s Site 32 was the last to enter
service, and therefore comp