Papers of Sheldon B. Simmons, 1929-1996

Collection

Identifier: MS 144

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The papers reflect the life of Sheldon B. Simmons as an Alaska bush pilot and aviation enthusiast, and cover the period from circa 1929-1993. They consist of pilot log books from 1929-1958, correspondence sent and received, an examiner’s report including a list of applications by air carriers, membership and other certificates, passports, commercial licenses, brochures, and business records for Alaska Air Transport, Inc., Marine Airways, and Alaska Coastal Ellis Airlines which later became Alaska Coastal Airways.

Business records, which cover the bulk period from circa 1935-1968, include minutes, notices of meetings, articles of incorporation to stockholders, merger dockets and exhibits, memos, and correspondence. The collection also includes flight maps, articles on pilots and airplanes, and airlines memorabilia, such as Alaska Airlines napkins, Alaska Coastal Airways insignia patches, and an Alaska Airlines coin. A collection of publications about pilots, airlines, and airplanes also includes the bulletin, “Northern Light.” The two scrapbooks contain a chronological history of aviation in Alaska from the 1930’s to the 1980’s; they consist primarily of newspaper clippings, also photographs, certificates, magazine articles, and letters.

Simmons’ later years were replete with reunions, memorials, proclamations, profiles, and testimonials; evidence of these events is contained in several folders. The last item added to the collection by Simmons was probably a brochure from an Alaska Coastal Ellis Airlines reunion held in April 1993, a little over a year before Simmons’ death in 1994. A final tribute, “Honoring an Alaskan Legend,” is the Shell Simmons Memorial Exhibit, which opened May 15, 1996 at the Juneau International Airport.

Dates

1929-1996

Conditions Governing Access

The collection is unrestricted.

Biographical / Historical

Biographical Timeline

10/8/1908 Sheldon B. Simmons born to Benjamin Thomas and Edith Grant Simmons, Weippe, Clearwater County, Idaho.

1916 Moved with family to Richland, then Grandview, Washington.

1924-1925 Worked on freighter in Far East.

1926-1927 Worked way up to Ketchikan, Alaska, and worked for New England Fish Company, driving a delivery truck.

1927 In Los Angeles, enrolled in electrician courses.

1928 Employed as electrician at Alaska-Juneau Gold Mine.

1928-29 Quit mine and, with Russian co-worker Frank Zimniskey, took boat to Skagway, White Pass RR to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory and purchased a 14-foot rowboat with outboard, and went down Yukon River (28-day trip).

In Nome, worked for Lomen Commercial Reindeer Company as electrician and at odd jobs for other companies.

1929 Returned to Grandview, Washington, and began flying lessons in Yakima.

11/21/1929 First solo flight: five minutes. Subsequently, learns that person who had planned to hire him in Candle is now bankrupt because of stock market crash.

1930 Returns to Juneau, begins work in A-J Mine. Enters into partnership with Fred Soberg and Wallace Bergstrand to purchase an open-cockpit Curtiss JN4D (Jenny) bi-plane from Drs. H.C. DeVighne and Howe Vance. After a crash, Simmons reworks Jenny into floatplane.

1931-1932 Modified Jenny flies over 40 hours before being dismantled.

1933 Simmons earns commercial pilot's license in May. Purchases Aeromarine Klemm monoplane for pleasure and training.

1934 Panhandle Air Transport Company (PATCO) hires Simmons part-time and then full-time. Simmons quits job in mines. Flies Stinson on floats.

1935 PATCO's Stinson badly damaged during winter storm. Simmons purchases wreck for one dollar and, with investors in Juneau, inaugurates his first airline company -- Alaska Air Transport (AAT). The Stinson is repaired in Seattle and AAT begins operations.

1936-1938 Continues to use PATCO’s Stinson ATT adds Bellanca Skyrocket with floats; two Lockheed Vegas with floats; Fairchild 71 with floats.

Sept. 1938 Fairchild crashes off Chichagof Island; Simmons suffers severe facial lacerations and partial loss of his nose.

Dec. 1938 Motorship Patterson aground near Cape Fairweather. Simmons lands airplane in tidal stream to effect rescue of crew.

May 1939 Alaska Air Transport merges with Marine Airways owned by James V. Davis and Alex Holden, to form Alaska Coastal Airlines.

1940 Simmons marries Bernice "Bee" Riedle, December 23.

1943 Son, Shelby Lloyd Simmons, born, June 29.

1945 Purchased war-surplus Grumman Goose amphibians and converted them into nine-seat commercial airliners.

1949 Acquired three Navy-surplus Consolidated PBY Catalina twin-engined patrol bombers for conversion to 24-passenger airliners.

1962 Merger of Alaska Coastal Airlines of Juneau and Ellis Airlines of Ketchikan approved by Civil Aeronautics Board (April 1); Simmons becomes president and Robert E. Ellis named vice-president of Alaska Coastal-Ellis Airlines.

1966 Company name shortened to Alaska Coastal Airlines. Purchased twin-engined Convair 240 land plane for routes between Juneau, Sitka and Metlakatla. Company enjoys virtual monopoly in SE Alaska.

1967-1968 Alaska Coastal Airlines merges with Alaska Airlines. Regional float plane schedule continues through 1973. Simmons and Ellis on Board of Directors of Alaska Airlines.

1973 Alaska Airlines sells Grummans and Catalinas to concentrate on airport-to-airport schedules.

10/29/1981 Shell Simmons and Bob Ellis honored by being named lifetime directors emeritus on board of Alaska Airlines.

1983 Wife, Bernice “Bee” Simmons, dies, February 11.

1991 Son, Shelby L. Simmons, dies in Juneau.

1994 Sheldon B. Simmons dies in Juneau, November 16.

References for Biographical Timeline:

Dawson, Don, “Sheldon B. Simmons,” p. 423-428 from Encyclopedia of American Business History and Biography: The Airline Industry, edited by William M. Leary. New York: Facts on File and Bruccoli Clark Layman, Inc., 1992.

Satterfield, Archie and Jarman, Lloyd, “Shell Simmons, Panhandle Air Transport Co. (Patco), Alaska Air Transport, Alaska Coastal Airlines,” p. 50-67 from Alaska Bush Pilots in the Float Country. Seattle: Superior Publishing Co., 1969.

Satterfield, Archie, The Alaska Airlines Story, chapters 19-20. Anchorage: Alaska Northwest Pub. Co., 1981.

Extent

4 Linear Feet (4 boxes) : 4 linear feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Processing Information

No original order was apparent in these records. Some materials are arranged by type, e.g., correspondence, scrapbooks, publications and, some are arranged chronologically. The papers are primarily described to folder level but, in some cases, to item level. Scrapbook newspaper clippings, originally taped to pages, are now coming loose, clippings are yellowed and fragile; conservation work is recommended for scrapbooks. Scrapbook, 1930s-1950s in Box 3 Folder 4 was disassembled, aging tape removed as much as possible, and individual pages housed in mylar for protection. Photographs were separated to form another collection, PCA 356.

Finding Aid & Administrative Information

Title: Papers of Sheldon B. Simmons, 1929-1996
Status: In Progress
Author: Processed by: Kay Shelton & Gladi Kulp, July/August 1997. Revised: July 2001. ArchivesSpace Finding Aid by: Freya Anderson
Date: 2019 May
Description rules: Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description: Undetermined
Script of description: Code for undetermined script
Language of description note: English