abandoned and little known airfields in the u.s.a.

lots to see,and info on a lot of airfields in use then,and what is today...

Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields

 

I know of a few in my old hometown area that are not on the list. I don't know what their official names were but i remember exploring a few of them when i was kneehigh to a grasshopper.

 

There were also a couple in Montana that aren't on the list, but you can see them from the sky. Most were just "ferrying" emergency strips for the aircraft headed to the USSR though. I helped a friend down in Denver "strip out" the guts of an old WW2 hanger out east of the city back in the seventies while I was "off the place" after a spat with Dad.

It was full of old stuff that we were paid to haul to the dump so that the building could be dismantled. I just threw away a whole box of "True Detective" magazines that would be worth a couple of bucks today. I did keep two boxes worth of Time, Life and Newsweek magazines which were in pristine shape and went from mid-1944 to 1959.

I gave them to my alma mater when I returned to finish my degree in the ninties.

 

Nice find, Ray.

 

Very cool! I have actually been to a couple of these sites. The first Marquette County airport and the Rexton site in Michigan. I love stuff like this...great find, Ray!

 

oh right lou,a lot of them must have been left to run down now,and will eventually fade away lou,ray..

 

I just remembered that these small airfields near my hometown that two of them are still in operation and are known as: (and I use these terms VERY loosely) Kingsville eh HEM ""International"" Airport-and the name including the word international-really is a joke as they do not get any international flights in there with rare exceptions. The last notable flight they recieved was back in about 1990-1991-when then Pres Bush landed there in Airforce 1-when he did the graduation speech at Texas A&I University (now no longer known as A&I thanks to a VERY stupid senator carlos truan) This airfield is mainly used only for those who pay the fees to try to become pilots. The other and even more laughable Airport is named: Bishop International Airport. They in fact, do NOT get any international flights. Bishop Intl airport like Kingsvilles Intl AP-are both best used as a place to fly Kites and remote-controlled aircraft.

Corpus Christi also has a Cabiness Field-which is still used by the Navy and Marines to teach their pilot-students how to land. This field is also used for -flying Kites, Balloons, letting Teens race against each other there instead of on the streets where it is strictly verboten.

Kingsville also still has yet another field-which was abandoned shortly after WWII ended-and is now owned by the people who own the local Golf Course-and all you will find there are piles of rubbish, piles of sand, piles of asphalt rocks, and some Tennis Courts. The runway can still be seen by air but is now mostly reclaimed by Mother Nature. We used to go out there after midnight to race cars and shoot-of firecrackers and such. Also is a great place to ride bikes.

 

A Great many have "faded away", but in at least one instance here in Montana the USAAF airport facilities from WW2 have been restored, and are now in the "museum" stage. The one in Cut Bank just finished up the huge hanger been completely renovated, and they are working on the canteen and a couple of the barracks are being brought back to life for tours.

I used to have a link to the "celebration" this summer, but of course I lost it somewhere. The ferrying airport for the Lend-Lease aircraft to the USSR was huge when seen from the air. Only a couple of the runways were kept in top shape for local useage, but the hanger and other buildings are being used and or repaired for use. Cut Bank isn't in your site, and I don't know why. They have the one at Great Falls included, andi t is still in use as well, so it isn't because it isn't abandoned. They include the one at Malta, and Glasgow and those are in use, but they didn't include the one at Cut Bank nor the one at Lewistown.

 

cheers carl/clint,not a lot of history on some of them? I take it..ray..

 

The one at Great Falls remains the Malmstrom Air base in the SAC and Minute Man missile system, so it's history is ongoing. The ones in Cut Bank and Lewsitown remain municiple airports, but only the one in Cut Bank seems to have been renovated for historical purposes.

See:

Cut Bank International Airport

and the subsection with the old airport picture is featured here.

See:

Cut Bank AFB Museum

The curved hanger in the background remained in service for years, and has been renovated to it’s WW2 appearance. Some of the barracks in the foreground and the canteen are under repair. I still cannot find that article anywhere. It was probably one of those things that is only available online for a week and then you have to subscribe to the newspaper in order to access their archives. That is the deal with a number of the smaller papers around Montana.

 

pretty good airfield clint,how much has it changed! looks impressive,huts and all.ray..

 

You can bet your boots on that one pardner ;-0) Lots of history. When i was in the boy scouts-we used to find small practice bombs all the time. i never kept any as i wasn't interested in such things at that time. anic:

 

would they have been metal or wooden carl?

 

Hi Ray, these were all metal and the bomb itself was solid metal. The fins had 3-4 small holes in each. These practice bombs look like Mortar rounds-at least to me ;-))