Frank Barr: Alaskan Pioneer Bush Pilot and One-Man Airline

Frank Barr was one of the most interesting of the early aviation pioneers in Alaska. At age 28, the former calvalryman, parachute jumper and test pilot, signed on to a Yukon gold expedition in 1932 as a back up pilot. After the expedition failed to find enough gold, Frank Barr stayed in the north country and spent the rest of his career as a bush pilot. He flew every early plane from the Jenny to the Super Cub, carrying passengers and freight to remote villages in Alaska and the Yukon. In 1948 Barr was elected to the Territorial Senate, and held that seat when in 1955 he one of the 55 Alaskans chosen by the people to write a state constitution. Today Alaska's state constitution is considered one of the best state constitutions ever written. Alaska was admitted to the union in 1959. In his later years he flew bush routes for Alaska Airlines and became manager of the northern division. Even in retirement down in the lower forty-eight states, he conducted tours to Alaska and Mexico until he finally retired for good in 1974.


About the Author

Dermot Cole has been writing about Alaska for over a quarter of a century as a newspaper columnist in Fairbanks, Alaska. He interviewed Frank Barr after Frank retired, and used Barr's log books, scrapbooks, and information from Barr's contemporaries to write this compelling biography of one of Alaska's pioneer bush pilots.