Wagon Fest: Great Falls’ First Air Mail Delivery, 73 Years Later
On August 1, 1928, Great Falls received its first air mail delivery. The city was excited to enter this new era of transportation and ceremoniously transported the mail from Vance Air Field to downtown using stagecoaches – commemorating the progress from land to air delivery.
Crowd gathered around biplane and stagecoach during 1928 air mail delivery to Great Falls, MT. [1989.137.0264]
Air mail was first introduced in 1918, but had been solely managed by the U.S. Post Office Department. The Air Mail Act of 1925 allowed the Postmaster General to contract private companies to deliver air mail, thereby increasing efficiency and service quality. These were known as Contract Air Mail routes, or CAMs for short. It also stimulated the growth of the aviation industry as a whole and led to advancements in technology and design, shaping the future of commercial aviation. The city of Great Falls tried to complete a municipal airport in time for the 1928 air mail delivery, but it was made at Vance Air Field because the Great Falls Municipal Airport didn’t become operational until the fall of 1929.
Prior to airplanes and cars being used to deliver mail, the US Postal Service relied on trains to get mail across large distances. Postal workers then took the mail off the train and delivered it by wagon or on foot to individual residences. Wagons and stagecoaches were especially important for rural areas where people lived further apart. The long history of wagons and stagecoaches being used to deliver mail made their presence at the first air mail delivery in 1928 especially significant.
Wagon Fest was a month-long event commemorating the first air mail delivery to Great Falls. It ran from July 1 to August 4, 2001. Jon Rein and Vernon Seidl were the primary organizers and got the idea for Wagon Fest when they were doing family research and discovered that Anton Seidl, Vernon’s father, drove one of the stagecoaches during the original 1928 event. During their research, they found numerous wagons from that time period that had been restored, indicating that there was an interest in the topic. There were 12 wagons featured during Wagon Fest, including the Jerky and Concord coaches that were used in 1928 to transport the mail from Vance Air Field to the post office. Spurred on by this discovery, Rein and Seidl decided to organize Wagon Fest and enlisted the help of Cindy Kittredge and the staff of the Cascade County Historical Society, the Montana State Fair, the Great Falls Post Office, and the Great Falls International Airport Authority.
Restored Concord stagecoach, owned by Gordon Rock, during the 2001 Wagon Fest reenactment. [2001.069.0013]
The celebration had a wide array of activities going through the month of July leading up to the reenactment on July 30. From July 1-28 there was an exhibit of antique wagons held at the High Plains Heritage Center (later renamed to The History Museum & Research Center) and a Studebaker mail wagon displayed at the Great Falls International Airport. The Heritage Center ran events each weekend in July, including a book fair, a “Picture This” Activity Day where people could learn about historic photos, a demonstration of wagon power basics, and a chuckwagon barbecue. On July 29 a restored vintage Fokker Super Universal CF-AAM plane, the same kind of plane used in the original delivery, performed a flyover and demonstrations. The tailpiece used on the restored airplane came from the plane that made the airmail delivery in 1928, truly making it a full circle moment.
Fokker Super Universal CF-AAM airplane doing a flyover during the 2001 Wagon Fest celebration. [2001.071.0001]
During the original 1928 air mail delivery, Bill Tonkovich and Joe Muretta, along with 5 or 6 other boys, illegally hitched a ride on one of the mail wagons. The first wagon was carrying mail, but the second was empty. The boys jumped on the second wagon and rode all the way from Vance Air Field to the post office with the sheriff’s posse right behind them on horseback snapping their whips at the boys, though not with any intention of causing harm. In memory of this, Bill and Joe legally rode on one of the wagons during the reenactment.
Bill Tonkovich standing next to a restored wagon used in the 2001 Wagon Fest reenactment. [2001.069.0056]
July 30th was the day of the reenactment. At 11:30, the horse-drawn wagons traveled from High Plains Heritage Center down to River Drive, past Elks Riverside Park, over Park Drive, and onto 1st Ave. N., ending at the downtown post office where there was a ceremony and a fly by. Speeches were presented by Randy Gray, Mayor of Great Falls at the time, and Jackie Stingley, public relations coordinator for the Great Falls Post Office, among others. Afterwards, the wagons traveled to the fairgrounds to be put on display in the Beef Barn at the Montana State Fair, concluding the month-long event.
Jackie Stingley giving a speech in front of the Downtown Post Office during the 2001 Wagon Fest reenactment. [2001.071.0034]
-Sarah Gundersen, Collections Assistant