From a Frontier 35th anniversary bulletin published in Nov. 1981
by Walt Rea, a native of Durango, who joined Monarch in November 1947. 
He served as a station agent, flight passenger agent, and station manager.


I went to the Durango airport on Nov. 27, 1946, to watch Monarch’s first plane land, 
but the runway was muddy and the plane never reached Durango.
It was tough to get an airline started in the late 1940s. 
Airplanes were new to the communities we served. Passengers were somewhat afraid to fly. 
It didn’t look like a secure company, so an employee really had to like the work to stay.
Durango’s first terminal was an old Conservation Corps building, heated by a pot belly stove. 
Each night, the agent who closed the building was supposed to bring in wood for the next morning. 
I opened the terminal every day at 4 a.m., and sometimes those agents forgot.
Because the runway was dirt, airplanes occasionally got stuck in the mud. 
We kept wood planks in a truck near the terminal. 
If a plane got stuck, we put the planks underneath the landing gear, and collected as many people as we could find. 
Then we all pushed.
The runway wasn’t fenced, so we had a problem with visits from cattle. 
One evening I saw cows on the runway just before a plane landed. 
The captain pulled the plane right up to a bull, and the bull never moved. 
We didn’t have many passengers at first. 
I worked three weeks before I had to write a ticket, and when asked for a ticket to Grand Junction, I went into a flat panic.
We had air shows to publicize our flights. A DC-3 flew into town and we offered short flights for $2. 
After each show, our boardings increased.
Frontier has succeeded because we have had hard working people and good management.
Before I started this job I ran cattle. 
I thought the airline business would be a better way to make a living, and I was right.