The Grand Tour 02: Kodachrome Slides from the Pacific, 1947-1950

Guam

My dad worked for PIE engineering company on Guam for two assignments, 1947-1949 and 1949-1950. In mid-1949, he had returned to Massachusetts but was unable to find a suitable job there, so off he went to Guam again. There, he lived in a Quonset hut on the US Navy base in Agaña, now called Hagåtña.  

In those days, flying from Honolulu to Guam was a long trip, requiring two stops for refueling.

It is a long way to anywhere from Guam (note the New England road map)

Honolulu to Guam route

Ready to fly at NAS Hagåtña (Agana), now the A.B. Won Pat International Airport

I am not sure if my dad flew with these people of if he was just wishing them goodbye. The massive airplane in the background is a Pan American Boeing 377 Stratocruiser. It was luxurious and comfortable but suffered from two major flaws: high fuel use and propellers that tended to crack and disintegrate in flight. 

The PIE Camp was rather basic. The engineers had their own living quarters, consisting of half of a Quonset hut. They had no air conditioning, but the mess hall and cinema were cooled. When it rained, there was mud. The jeeps were mostly wrecks that broke regularly. 

 

Minor hole in the road

 

My dad told me that when he and other engineers went up-country to look at watersheds or survey, two armed soldiers accompanied them because there were still Japanese soldiers living in the forest. 

Yap Island

Yap is an island group that is part of the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific. Now it is a state within the Federated States of Micronesia. In 1948, the US held the Caroline Islands as the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.

My dad flew there in January 1948 on a PBY Catalina flying boat to do a quick inspection of water sources and aquifers. He saw the round stone money disks, used as a symbol of wealth by local families. From Wikipedia, "... stone money, known as Rai, or Fei: large doughnut-shaped, carved disks of (usually) calcite, up to 4 m (13 ft) in diameter (most are much smaller). The smallest can be as little as 3.5 centimetres (1.4 in) in diameter. Many of them were brought from other islands, as far as New Guinea, but most came in ancient times from Palau."

 

Oops, a bit of mud. Local gents are helping.

Stone money lining a path

Impressive stone money samples

This ends this short look at the Pacific in the 1940s. We will continue on to Hong Kong when my dad finished his one-year contract and headed west.

I think he used an American Perfex camera for these Kodachrome slides. I scanned them with a Nikon Coolscan 5000ED scanner. Considering their age, the slides were in remarkable condition. He bought his Leica IIIC at the post exchange in early 1950. I do not know what happened to the Perfex. 

The Grand Tour 01: Kodachrome Slides from North America, 1949

 

Background

One of my New Year's resolutions (every year!) is to clear out more old photographs, files, and papers from the house. We have an overwhelming amount of stuff (junk) that has followed us around the world. After retiring, I donated, sold on eBay, and sold via a New Orleans auction house family souvenirs that we had accumulated over the decades. It felt good to lighten the load. The worst thing you can do to your children is leave a mess for them to clean up. They end up resenting you. 

Over the 2025 Christmas-New Year holiday, my wife and I spent many evenings looking at my dad's slides. He was a prolific photographer. Oddly, he did not record dates and places on most of the cardboard slide mounts. We had a general idea where most were taken, and his diaries sometimes provided a date. But some of his photos remained a mystery.

We discarded "pretty" pictures. No one cares about a colorful flower, sunset, Old Faithful, or a garden. The exception is if the subject covers a topic that no longer exists. (Following this subject line, I no longer take "pretty" photographs.)

Most of the slides from 1947 to about 1960 were Kodachrome film. Many from before 1950 were marginal technical quality, possibly taken with a Perfex camera. I think he did not buy a light meter until 1950. For the older photos, he may have used the Kodak printed exposure recommendations. 

In 1950, he bought a Leica IIIC camera with a 5cm ƒ/2 Summitar lens at the Post Exchange on Guam (Marina Islands). This was a major upgrade in optical quality. I still occasionally use this camera and lens. 

Here is a short collection of some of my dad's more interesting Kodachrome slides. We will start in North America in 1949, when he flew to Guam for his second contact there. When the contract ended in late-1950, he returned to Massachusetts the long way, moving west across Asia, Africa, and Europe. I will approximately follow his 1950 trip west around the world. His travel book was very handy to check dates and locations (see scans below).

The earlier article shows Celilo Falls (now underwater) of the Columbia River in 1949. My dad took those pictures on the return from his first Guam contract. 

Mexico City to San Francisco

Mexico City

 

 

Self portrait at Teotihuacan, Aug. 2, 1949

Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary,  Zócalo

  

Monterrey, Mexico

American Airlines DC-4, Monterry, Mexico

The DC-4 was a robust and reliable airplane. But it was not pressurized, so the cruising altitude for passenger use was between 8,000 and 10,000 feet. Cargo versions of the DC-4 played a major role in the Berlin airlift.

Reno, Nevada

The flamboyant signs of Reno, Nevada. Recall, in the 1940s, gambling was illegal in most of the USA except Nevada. So Nevada was the destination for excitement and naughtiness, although easterners could also fly to Cuba for some Latin indulgence. 

San Francisco

Oakland Bridge, August 1949

Downtown San Francisco, August 1949

In the 1940s, San Francisco had a working waterfront with warehouses, railroad, and cargo docks.

Honolulu, Hawaii

In the era of propeller airplanes, it was a long flight from the mainland to Hawaii. The US Coast Guard stationed patrol ships along the route in case of emergencies. My dad wrote that he flew in a Mars flying boat! That was a monumental 4-engine flying boat of which only seven were ever made.

Honolulu and Waikiki Beach, Oahu, Hawaii. Where are the hotels and highrises? 

On the waterfront, Honolulu, August 1949

Hawaii was still a US Territory in 1949. It was an exotic tropical destination for mainland tourists in the post-war tourism boom.

I scanned these slides with a Nikon Super Coolscan 5000ED film scanner running Nikon Scan 4.03 on a Windows 7 32-bit computer. Many of the colors were off, and I made minor color corrections using Photoshop CS6. 

Lost: Celilo Falls, Columbia River Gorge, 1949

Dear Readers, this will be the start of a series based on my dad's Kodachrome slides from the 1940s and 1950s. 

In mid-1949, my dad completed a contract where he worked in Guam (Mariana Islands) and returned to mainland USA. He retrieved his car from a garage in San Francisco and headed back to Massachusetts via the northern route. He drove north to Oregon and turned east to follow the scenic highway on the south (Oregon) side of the Columbia River. 

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For millennia, Native Americans fished for salmon, sturgeon, and steelhead in the narrow rock channels near the base of Celilo Falls on the Columbia River. The Falls were a major trading and gathering point for Native Americans from around the western continent. Now underwater, the Long Narrows were located about 13 miles east of The Dalles. According to https://www.historylink.org/file/10010:

Indians fished along the entire stretch of the river from the falls to The Dalles, but were most active near the base of the falls and at the Long Narrows. In the narrows areas, basalt outcroppings provided places to stand along and in the river's flow, and the protruding rocks swirled the river into opaque turbulence that concealed the Indians' nets from the sharp-eyed salmon. Farther upstream, others fished with spear, hook, and net from perches on timber scaffolds cantilevered over the boiling water at the very base of the falls.

From Wikipedia: 

Celilo Falls itself was the first in a series of cascades and rapids known collectively as The Narrows or The Dalles, stretching for about 12 miles (19 km) downstream. Over that length, the river dropped 82 feet (25 m) at high water and 63 feet (19 m) at low water.

The Oregon Encyclopedia has an interesting article on the falls.

In 1957, engineers closed the gates on The Dalles Dam and flooded the river valley upstream. The falls are now underwater, and the historic fishing grounds are gone. (I was about to write forever, but one day, our descendants will be taking down these dams and letting the river flow free again.)

 

When I first saw these slides, I did not know where the falls were located. I would have liked to go and see them. But then I learned they were underwater. Drat, I missed them by 69 years......

The Native American fishermen built platforms that projected out over the water. In the upper picture, I see a small cable car box or platform. I am glad my dad had the chance to see this interesting geologic and cultural feature of our Pacific Northwest.

Columbia River view east from Vista House

This is the splendid view east along the Columbia River from the Vista House. The Vista House was built in 1916-1917 at Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area Crown Point (“Thor’s Heights”), part of the State Scenic Corridor. Note how in the 1949 photograph above, Interstate 84 has not yet been built. Today, it blights the view below. 

My dad took these photographs o June 16, 1949, with a Perfex 35mm camera using Kodachrome film. I do not know which model Perfex. These 75-year-old slides are in remarkable condition. I scanned them with a Nikon Coolscan 5000 operated by NikonScan software running on a Windows 7 computer and cleaned some scratches and blobs with the heal tool in Photoshop CS6.

(These are real Kodachrome slides, no Ai fraudulent manufactured crap here.)

My dad drove a Chrysler Windsor automobile. He modified the back seat so that it lay flat and he could camp in the car. He had many minor issues, like leaking brake cylinders and engine overheating.