Gliders Above the Valley

* Tip: Turn volume up to best hear the audio files, 7 audio files in total.

As an addendum to the winter 2019 exhibit at Goodman Library, which is not currently on view while we are closed for the shelter-in-place restrictions, we present here a selection of audio clips from our oral history collection.

On May 11, 1982, George Allen Prouty and Jess Doud sat down to capture the history of the Napa Glider Club. This brief conversation describes the process of just what it took to get the glider up in the air.





Calistoga Gliderport, courtesy of the Napa Valley Register.


Dihedral [adjective]: having or contained by two plane faces / [noun]: an angle formed by two plane faces

Mr. Prouty continued the conversation with information about locals involved, and where they used to meet in the county. See also Marie Ellen Bower’s research through this audiotape and other selections from our archives for a history on the gliders.

Photographs of the Calistoga Gliderport, courtesy of the Napa Valley Register.

Prouty, G.A. & Doud, J. (1982, May 11). Napa Glider Club and Napa Soda Springs [Audiotape 0037]. NCHS Archives, Napa, CA.