The Don Q Inn is a hotel located in Dodgeville, Wisconsin and also proudly presented in the Weird Wisconsin book. Other places I’ve visited in Weird Wisconsin include House on the Rock and the Pink Elephant. There are so many more places that I’d like to visit that are featured in this book.
Besides the themed hotel rooms and fantasy suites, the Don Q Inn is known for the very large Boeing C-97 attraction located conveniently on the front lawn. According the the website: “the plane flew to its present location adjacent to the hotel. Farah Fawcett signed the fuselage after filming a TV commercial there long ago.”
In case you can’t read that whole picture:
“Our plane is a Boeing C-97, built in 1952.
It was used during the Korean Ware to transport troops and could seat up to 150 people.
Our plane was also used to transport cargo, handling up to 95,000 pounds.
The plane empty weights 90,000 pounds, is 110 feet 4 inches in length and has a wing span of 141 feet 6 inches.
The fuel tanks hold 6800 gallons of fuel.
This plane was used to haul cargo to disaster areas such as Biafria and Bangledash.
Due to uneconomical circumstances (burning 600 gallons of fuel per hour) the government decided to scrap all planes and Don Quinn was able to purchase this plane at a reasonable price.
The plane has 4 Pratt & Whitney 4360 Cubim CM. engines, each with 28 cylinders, 56 spark plugs, and 3500 horsepower per engine. The spark plugs are made of platinum at a cost of #100.00 per plug.
The plane cruised at 300 miles her hour at 25,000 Feet.
This plane spent 10,068 hours in the air.
The commercial version of this plane was a luxury Strato-cruiser, seating 50-80 peple, and was considered the “Cadillac” of planes in its day.
This plane was used to film two Mercury Cougar Car commercials in 1975, featuring Farrah Fawcett. Her autograph appears on teh lower fuselage.
Our plane was purchased in 1977 from a bankrupt company in Long Beach, CA. and flown into Dodgeville on october 16, 1977. It landed on the 2800 foot runway adjacent to the Inn.
The pilot, ____ Schmidt, landed the plane with the wheels three feet over each side of the runway creating a large cloud of dust upon touch down. The plane was put into reverse and the brakes pushed to the maximum.”
