The Riddick Field and Namesake

 

                    Merril K. Riddick in the Boomerang Newspaper (Laramie, Wyoming)  at age 79

Private airplane enthusiasts have been around since before Orville and Wilbur Wright flew their contraption at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in December 1903. Local memories recall Jess Evans constructing a rudimentary grass strip on the Black Pine Ridge in the mid fifties. I wish he and Dean Nietz were still around so I could pick their brains. I did not decide to become a private pilot until later in life so missed a lot of their escapades. When I did start flying and earned my Instrument rating I would always contact Dean and he would find me an empty hanger to house my Piper Cherokee 180D for my visits to Granite County. 

The first history that is found was the Forest Service allowed a 30 year lease on 44 acres of land to be used as an airport in 1967. The first minutes found in the Court House are in 1968 authorizing the construction of a runway. This was the beginning of airport UO5 with runways 16 and 34 being developed and mapped on the Great Falls Aeronautical Sectional Maps for Philipsburg. 

When the 75th Centennial was being planned for Granite County, it was suggest by people and submitted in the County Commissioner’s Minutes by Mike Kahoe to name the field for Merrill K. Riddick. Steve Immenschuh relates that Merrill had great joy as a passenger in a bi-plane ride during the dedication ceremonies. The reason for selecting Riddick were many and varied and following is his life history. 

Merrill was born March 7, 1895 in Madison, Wisconsin and moved to eastern Montana at the age of eleven. Merrill’s father, Carl served two terms as a U.S. congressman for the Eastern District of Montana from 1919 through 1922. When Merrill was sixteen, he became interested in aviation while traveling throughout the Northwest and was a member of the first graduating class from the Army Air Force Aeronautics School in San Diego, California. He served in World War I as a flight instructor and flew reconnaissance flights. After the War was over he became one of the first airmail pilots and barnstormed with Charles Lindbergh in the Harry Perkins Air Circus. (Steve Immenschuh shared that Charles visited Merrill once during the early 1960's when he was living in Philipsburg.)

During this time Merrill met and married his wife, Helen May Williams, from West Virginia. To this marriage was born three children: Mary Ruth, Keith and Barbara. By 1928, Merrill was flight instructor for the first preparatory aviation school in Rochester, New York At that job he instructed the future president Franklin Delano Roosevelt. 

Merrill re-joined the Air Force during the Second World War, serving as a technical instructor. Before and after the War he became involved in prospecting and was involved in many mining claims. After the War he returned to Montana, but continued traveling the states. His wife died in 1949 and it was then that Merrill became involved in politics. 

 As a resident of Granite county, his political campaigns were focused on the management of natural resources and in reforming campaign finance. Merrill authored and published in the Journal of Applied Human Ecology and focused on his plans to develop the resources. He campaigned for Governor of Montana as a Democrat in 1960 and 1968. Next he ran for U.S. Congress in 1972. 

His campaign ad shows where he crossed out Democrat and wrote in Republican and stated: 

I OPPOSE making a wild river out of Rock Creek and the Missouri River; 

I FAVOR a navigation canal up the Missouri to Winifred and Fort Benton to save farmers 30cents a bushel on shipping their wheat; 

I FAVOR $500,0000.000 worth of dam construction on the upper Missouri River to pump water for Eastern Montana and to generate millions of kilowatts of power for new industry in Montana. 

A vote for Riddick is a vote for progress. Paid for by Merrill K. Riddick, Philipsburg, Mont. (printed by Daily News Lewistown, Montana.) 

Next he ran as a candidate of his self-created political party named Magneto-hydrodynamics-Puritan epic-prohibition party for President in 1976, 1980 and 1984. The Puritan Ethic and Epic stood for Moral values and Magnetohydrodynamics is a process for clean electricity generation. Prohibition meant barring illegal campaign contributions. He refused to accept any campaign contributions, but did accept a silver dollar from Steve Immenschuh as a token.. 

Interestingly, Merrill traveled only by bus during his nationwide campaigns. He stated in 1981 “I live on the bus. I can get passes for less than $12 a day. It’s cheaper than living in a hotel.” The cost of a hotel he knew well as he resided for a number of years at the Pintlar Hotel in Philipsburg during the years Steve Immenschuh's parents operated the establishment in the 1960's.

After his last campaign he relocated to his sister Ruth’s home in Annapolis, Maryland. Merrill died of cancer two days after his 93rd birthday on March 9, 1988 in Annapolis and is buried there. 

Now you know for whom and why the airfield outside of Philipsburg is named Riddick Field! The Forest Service has renewed the thirty year lease for the 44 acres again, so aviation enthusiasts can continue to enjoy flying into this beautiful valley.