Two men with ties to Wyoming made a name for themselves in Alaska in the late 1920s and early 1930s as pioneer bush pilots, aircraft mechanics and less fortunately crash victims.
One of them, who would be called the “mercy pilot,” survived several mishaps. The other did not.
Art Hines, born in Cody, Nebraska, in 1899, and Percy Hubbard, were both car mechanics. Hines reportedly worked as a mechanic in Lusk as did Hubbard. In the mid-1920s, both left for their own Alaskan adventure. It’s not known if they went together.
As headlines across the country in August 1935 reflected the Point Barrow, Alaska, airplane crash of aviator Wiley Post and famous humorist Will Rogers on Aug. 15, another crash grabbed headlines in the state a few days later.
On Aug. 19, a plane piloted by Hines with noted passengers failed to arrive at its destination.
Plane Missing
“Art Hines Plane Is Missing With Passengers For Five Days,” blared the headline in the Friday, Aug. 23, edition of The Nome Daily Nugget. The article went on to say that Hines had taken off from Dawson, Alaska, in bad weather with newly married Fairbanks businessman John Lonz, his wife, and Alton Nordale, the clerk of the U.S. District Court in Fairbanks, onboard.
“Art Hines’ vanished airplane is being sought by a growing swarm of other ships, which swept along the mountain sides and explored dark valleys between Dawson, Yukon Territory, and Fairbanks,” the newspaper reported.
Lonz and his wife had only been married for a month while Nordale, in addition to being the court clerk, had been a two-term member of the territory’s legislature.
Hubbard was among those flying search and rescue for his partner.
Hubbard born in 1898 and raised near Lusk on a ranch, graduated from high school there and attended an auto mechanics school in Kansas City in 1921. The Casper Tribune-Herald reported he have worked at a garage in Lusk and at Casper’s Crosby Motor Company before moving to Alaska.
One story found at the Fairbanks Alaska Pioneer Air Museum alleges that Hubbard arrived in Alaska in 1924 after having stowed away on the USS Yukon out of Seattle. When he was discovered by the crew, he washed dishes all the way to the territory.
After settling in Fairbanks, Hubbard started the Service Motor Company with another partner in 1926. Hines bought that partner’s interest in 1927. By 1930 the duo had an airline company as well called Service Airlines.
On March 30, 1930, the local Fairbanks newspaper reported that Hubbard was learning to fly and just soloed. “The big thrill, and a big one it was, is over,” Hubbard was quoted.
Exploits
Quickly, Hines and Hubbard’s names started appearing frequently in the Alaskan papers among the pilots and air service companies plying their trade across the state.
On Jan. 22, 1931, the pair became the first pilots to fly to Old Crow, Yukon Territory. A Fairbanks Daily News-Miner story reported they landed their open cockpit Eaglerock biplane completing a seven-day trip.
“It was the first time the local natives had seen an airplane and they called it the ‘flying ghost,’” the newspaper reported. On the way back, they flew into a storm and “it was necessary to set it down on the river and wait until the following morning before continuing the flight.”
On March 20, 1931, Hines was among pilots searching more than 3,000 miles across the territory trying to find the missing plane of pilot colleague Fred Moller and his passenger, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported.
Later that year in the cold Alaskan winter, Hines flew with a passenger seeking riches.
“Pilot Art Hines and A. A. Zimmerman, mining man, who flew to Seward Peninsula some time ago on a prospecting expedition, are expected to return soon,” the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported on Monday, Dec. 14 in 1931. “They have been out of communication.”
Hubbard also made a name for himself as a pilot flying mail and passengers all over the territory. He at least became acquainted with Wiley Post while flying escort with Post into Whitehorse, Alaska, as Post’s Lockheed Vega monoplane came down the home stretch of his round-the-world navigation feat, according to a Fairbanks Daily News-Miner story on June 30, 1931.
An airplane allegedly flown by Percy Hubbard is shown on its top. (Courtesy Alaska State Libary, Edna V. Tavlin Photograph Collection) 
Percy Hubbard’s headstone is shown at the cemetery in Lusk, Wyoming. (Cowboy State Daily Staff) 
Arthur Hines grave headstone in the cemetery in Fairbanks, Alaska. (Cowboy State Daily Staff)
‘Mercy Pilot’
Newspapers are full of various articles of Hubbard making trips from one point to another and letting readers know a seat is available. He also became known as the “mercy pilot.”
The Newcastle, Wyoming News Letter Journal reported on Dec. 13, 1934 that Hubbard, “a former Lusk boy” made a dangerous flight at night to bring two Alaska residents to medical facilities following an accident.
“Guided only by a flashlight, Hubbard took off from Fairbanks Field for a 500-mile flight to Ruby. He landed safely on the frozen river there, took two men aboard, and aided by bonfires rose from the river and landed again in Fairbanks.”
The article stated one of his passengers had lost an eye and the other was “seriously ill.”
Hubbard also was reported to have flown a mercy mission to Point Barrow, Alaska to deliver vaccine during an influenza outbreak.
Also in 1934, according to one newspaper account, Hubbard was involved in rescuing Russians from ice flows.
“The Russian government decorated him for his part in rescuing Soviet scientists stranded on northern ice floes last year,” the Brooklyn New York Times Union newspaper reported on Sept. 8, 1935.
Hubbard told a Casper reporter that he and Hines both had their own aircraft and would maintain their flying service even in the winter months when the temperatures hit 50-to-60 degrees below zero.
During their early operations, they understood the risks but enjoyed the profits. The business had already survived the loss of two planes previously and still made money.
Another Crash
So, on Aug. 19, when his friend’s plane vanished Hubbard was among those who took off to search. During that effort that covered some 75,000 miles of crisscrossing the territory, Hubbard crashed on Sept. 3.
The Casper Tribune-Herald recorded Hubbard’s account of his own crash.
“Early in September the motor of his searching ship ‘conked’ out and he was forced to make a landing in dense timber. He cut off the ignition and made the best of a bad situation with the result that his ship was wrecked beyond repair,” the paper reported. “He incurred four fractured ribs and other injuries that laid him helpless until the arrival of his rescuers.”
Hubbard’s brother, Russell and A.J. Douglas also were on the plane with him but not seriously injured. In addition to his cracked ribs, Hubbard suffered burns.
Hubbard told the paper during 10 days of extensive efforts to find Hines he flew his plane repeatedly in different sections of the territory between Dawson and Fairbanks. He still believed even in late October that it was possible Hines could be alive if he miraculously reached an Alaskan village.
The Casper Tribune-Herald on Oct. 31, 1935, reported that the recuperating Hubbard was visiting Casper to see his parents, and planned to visit Hine’s parents who lived in Eli, Nebraska. Following his state-side visits, Hubbard purchased a new airplane and headed back to the Alaskan territory to resume his flying.
The Nome Daily Nugget had a big headline about Hubbard’s crash in 1936 that ended his flying career. (Cowboy State Daily Staff) 
Left: The Nome Daily Nugget reports on the discovery of the Art Hines aircraft on Aug. 10, 1936. Right: The Brooklyn, New York Times Union newspaper had headlines about Percy Hubbard’s crash searching for his friend. (Cowboy State Daily Staff) 
The Nome Daily Nugget reports on the missing aircraft flown by Art Hines. (Cowboy State Daily Staff) 
The Casper Tribune Herald on Oct. 31, 1935, wrote about Percy Hubbard’s visit to the city. (Cowboy State Daily Staff)
The Last Flight As Pilot
On July 15, 1936, Hubbard crashed again as he was carrying a mother and her daughter on a passenger flight. The mother died. Her daughter and Hubbard survived but he would not be able to fly again.
“Surgeons said they hoped to save Hubbard’s right foot, but are not certain it can be done,” The Nome Daily Nugget reported on Friday, July 17. It could not. Hubbard lost part of his leg.
Later that year in early August, Hine’s airplane was discovered by prospectors about 175 miles from Fairbanks on a barren mountain range. They reported all four remains were in the crash and their bodies charred.
Three men hiked to the site and brought out the bodies. Hines is buried in Fairbanks.
Hubbard went on to have a successful car business that he would sell in 1953. He married a woman named Lucille, who had moved to Fairbanks in 1928.
In the 1960s, he and Lucille moved to Seattle, Washington, and then to Walnut Creek, California, to a retirement home. She died in 1974.
Hubbard died in 1985 at age 86. He is buried in Lusk.
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
