Del Mar Legacy
Museum · Spruce Goose · Community

The Legacy

Del and Michael Smith started with a small collection of vintage aircraft in a company hangar. It grew into one of the Northwest’s best-known aerospace museums.[11]

The museum

The Evergreen Museum opened in 1991 in a hangar at Evergreen’s McMinnville headquarters. It was renamed the Evergreen AirVenture Museum in 1994. In 1997 it became the Captain Michael King Smith Evergreen Aviation Educational Center.[11] The new aviation museum building opened on June 6, 2001, and the Space Museum opened on June 6, 2008. In 2009 the museum became a Smithsonian Affiliate.[11]

After the Evergreen companies went bankrupt, the museum went through years of financial difficulty.[11] In 2020 the Stoller Group bought land that included part of the museum and the waterpark, and the museum became financially stable again.[11]

In August 2026 the museum changed its name to the North American Aerospace Museum. It remains at 500 NE Captain Michael King Smith Way in McMinnville.[12][13] In announcing the change, CEO Scot Laney wrote:

“We respect and recognize the history represented by the Evergreen name, particularly the important roles of Del and Michael King Smith in establishing this remarkable institution.”North American Aerospace Museum, CEO letter, August 2026[13]
Hughes H-4 Hercules in the museum
The H-4 Hercules on display in McMinnville. Photo: Daderot, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Historic photograph of the Hughes H-4 Hercules
The Hughes H-4 Hercules in the 1940s. SDASM Archives, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Spruce Goose

Howard Hughes’ giant wooden flying boat, built mostly of birch, flew only once. On November 2, 1947, it flew about a mile at 70 feet over Long Beach Harbor, with Hughes at the controls.[3] By 1992 it was a struggling Disney attraction in Long Beach.[3] That year the Evergreen Museum won the bid to give it a new home.[11]

Disassembly began in August 1992. The fuselage, wings, and tail traveled by barge up the Pacific coast and the Columbia and Willamette rivers, then by truck to McMinnville, where they arrived in February 1993.[3][11] Volunteers spent eight years restoring the aircraft. It was assembled in the new museum in time for the opening on June 6, 2001, and its last piece was installed on December 7, 2001.[11]

Evergreen Wings & Waves Waterpark

The waterpark opened on June 6, 2011. A retired Boeing 747 sits on its roof, and its four big slides start inside the plane, 62 feet above the splash landing.[3][11] According to museum director Larry A. Wood, when Smith pitched the idea, the room laughed at his suggestion to put a plane on the roof. He answered, “Let’s make it a 747.”[3] The waterpark now operates separately from the museum.[11]

Education & community

The family obituary describes the Michael King Smith educational institution, including a program for high-school students in math, science, physics, and engineering.[1] The Space Museum was also built with classrooms for McMinnville High School’s Engineering and Science Academy.[24] Michael himself founded the Evergreen-Doe Humane Society.[7]

Boeing 747 mounted on the roof of the Wings and Waves waterpark
The Boeing 747 atop Wings & Waves. Photo: Clemens Vasters, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Visit

North American Aerospace Museum, 500 NE Captain Michael King Smith Way, McMinnville, OR 97128 · noramaerospace.org[13]