June 23, 2020 Happy Trails

The Liberty Gazette

June 23, 2020

Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely

Mike: When the Roy Rogers Museum in Branson, Missouri ceased to make a profit, the family closed it in 2009, auctioning the contents the following year. Branson was the third location for the museum. Its debut was made in the high desert of California called Apple Valley, where I have some great memories.

Pilots love any reason at all to fly some place. One of my favorite places to fly when I lived in California was the Apple Valley Inn, across the street from the Roy Rogers Museum. We would land at the Apple Valley Airport, call the inn’s hotline, and for a dollar, they would drive the five miles out to the airport, pick us up, and when we finished our meal, take us back to the airport.

But originally, Apple Valley Airport was located right at the inn. Having an airport on the property was a good way to attract prospects interested in purchasing lots at the Apple Valley Ranchos, of which the inn was a part. From that original airport, a pilot could practically taxi to the inn’s parking lot. They even had airline service from Las Vegas and Los Angeles. In its heyday, 200 airplanes landed at the airport each week. When Roy Rogers and Dale Evans built their museum in 1964, the couple leased the entire 25 acres of Apple Valley Ranch, and the inn became the Roy Rogers Apple Valley Inn.

Years before, when the airport was a gravel road, the TV character “Sky King” landed his T-50 Bobcat there and parked at a home next door, which was the iconic but fictitious Flying Crown Ranch. Nearby was where the Songbird buzzed over the cameras, and the mountains and desert-scapes were backdrops for the “Sky King” series. Later, Sky’s Bobcat was replaced with a Cessna 310B that looked fast even while parked. I grew up watching “Sky King” on Saturday mornings and loved knowing that “this was the place” where it was filmed. I was thrilled to learn that this was where Roy kept his airplane, also a Cessna T-50, and that Roy was a pilot. Like Sky, he parked his plane in front of his home.

A “new” Apple Valley Airport was built farther out from the growing population center and opened for operations in 1970. Throughout its history, Apple Valley, with its working and recreational ranches, offered a taste of the old west. The average Joe could mix and mingle with the “Who’s Who” while enjoying sunshine, airplanes, horses, and swimming pools. Because Roy and Dale were welcoming, it became a popular destination, and many flew their own airplanes into Apple Valley.

Roy had stopped flying and sold his airplane before I began making flights to the inn. He and Dale moved their museum to nearby Victorville, and eventually to Branson. You might remember watching Roy Rogers, that reel western movie hero in his sequined shirt, in the saddle atop Trigger, as he rode off slowly into the sunset.

Happy Trails…

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