Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields:
Wyoming
© 2002, © 2007 by Paul Freeman. Revised 11/19/07.
Douglas Municipal Airport / (Original) Converse County Airport (revised 11/19/07) - (Original) Evanston Municipal Airport (revised 6/18/05)
Igo Airfield (revised 10/18/05) - Wardwell Field (revised 3/26/05)
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41.54 North / 109.59 West (Northwest of Cheyenne, WY)
The Igo Airfield, as depicted on the 1980 USGS topo map.
Photo of the airport while open has not been located.
Not much is known about the history of this former airfield.
No airfield was depicted at this location on the 1962 USGS topo map.
The earliest depiction of this airfield which has been located
was on the 1980 USGS topo map.
It depicted the “Igo Airfield” as having a total of 4 unpaved runways,
with the longest being the 4,700' north/south strip.
The 1981 USGS topo map depicted the 4 runways of the Igo Airfield,
but labeled the field simply as “Landing Strips”.
In the 1994 USGS aerial photo, the 4 runways of the Igo Airfield were barely recognizable.
There did not appear to be any buildings at the airfield,
nor any indication of recent usage.
As of 2005, no active airfield at this location is listed among the FAA's Airport/Facility Directory data.
A 2005 photo by Robert Pearson, “on the north/south runway west edge
showing the transition from the large sagebrush to the smaller on the runway.
There are a bunch of buried pipelines nearby
and that makes me think the airport was affiliated with them (Intermountain Gas & Oil?).”
Igo Airfield is located southwest of the intersection of Interstate 80 & Route 372.
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Douglas Municipal Airport / (Original) Converse County Airport (DGW), Douglas, WY
42.74 North / 105.37 West (Northwest of Cheyenne, WY)
The Douglas Airport, as depicted on the July 1943 Casper Sectional Chart (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).
Photo of the airport while open has not been located.
This former municipal airport apparently dates back to before 1937.
The earliest reference to the Douglas Airport which has been located
is The Airport Directory Company's 1937 Airports Directory (courtesy of Bob Rambo),
which listed a "Legion" Airport at this location.
It was described as having a single 2,640' east/west sod runway & a hangar.
The Douglas Airport was depicted on the July 1943 Casper Sectional Chart (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).
The Douglas Airport was listed in the 1944 US Army/Navy Directory of Airfields (courtesy of Ken Mercer)
as being "Site 11B", a department of Commerce Intermediate Field along the "CX-GT" airway.
It was described as having a 4,000' unpaved runway.
The 1949 USGS topo map depicted the Douglas Municipal Airport as a triangular open area, with no discrete runways.
Two small buildings were depicted along the north side of the field.
By 1962, the airport had been renamed & the primary runway had been paved,
as the 1962 AOPA Airport Directory described the "Converse County" Airport at this location
as having a 5,000' bituminous Runway 10/28 & a 3,160' turf Runway 6/24.
The operators were listed as R & G Aircraft Service and Hart Aircraft Service.
Rod McKenzie recalled, "I was based at Douglas Airport from 1978-81.
I was chief pilot for on oil company called Chinook Pipeline Resources.
We operated a Sabreliner 40 & a King Air 90.
The King Air 90 was later replaced by a King Air B200.
Our Sabreliner was sort of a conversation piece among the local population.
They actually seemed to like the noise and commotion (go figure that one in these noise restricted days).
When we sold the aircraft, word leaked out & probably a hundred or so of the locals came out to see the old girl off.
Naturally several high speed fly-bys were in order.
The airport had a considerable slope downhill to the West (Runway 28).
Takeoffs were primarily to the West but landings upslope on Runway 10
were preferred if the winds were light (a rare occurrence in Wyoming).
The White, elongated rectangle at the top of the [above aerial photo] was where we built our hangar.
It had three 60' bays.
The other rectangles were T-hangars if I remember correctly.
R & G aircraft was the operator.”
The 1981 USGS topo map depicted the Douglas Municipal Airport as having 2 runways.
Two small buildings were depicted along the north side of the field.
The 1982 AOPA Airport Directory (courtesy of Ed Drury) described Converse County Airport
as having a 5,066' asphalt Runway 10/28 & a 3,200' turf Runway 5/23.
It listed the operator as R & G Aircraft Service.
Rod McKenzie recalled, "The oil bust in the early 1980s sealed the fate of our company.
Sometime in the mid 1980s a new airport [Converse County Airport ] was built about 6 miles north of town
and this airport was closed & all the buildings, hangars, and etc were torn down.
I understand the airport was used as a drag strip after that.
This is evident by the twin black streaks on the west end as seen in the aerial photos."
In the 1994 USGS aerial photo, the paved runway was clearly marked with closed runway "X" markings,
and the outline of the grass crosswind runway was still recognizable.
The ramp area north of the runway had a series of rectangular features,
that appeared would presumably be where former hangars had been removed.
The original airport was depicted as an abandoned airfield on 2003 aeronautical charts.
Rick Caldwell reported in 2005, “The strip at Douglas is in great shape but it is now used as the Douglas race track.
They have drag races in the summer.
If the need were to arrive I would think twice about landing there.
You could get passed by some very fast automobiles though.”
Douglas Municipal Airport is located northwest of the intersection of Interstate 25 & Business 25.
Thanks to Chris Kennedy for pointing out this airfield.
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(Original) Evanston Municipal Airport (EVW), Almy, WY
41.35 North / 111 West (Northeast of Salt Lake City, UT)
The original Evanston Airport, as depicted on the May 1965 Salt Lake City Sectional Chart (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).
Photo of the airport while open has not been located.
The date of construction of this former municipal airport is unknown.
It was evidently built at some point between 1955-62,
as it was not depicted on the 1955 Salt Lake City Sectional Chart (according to Chris Kennedy).
The earliest reference to Evanston Municipal Airport which has been located
is the 1962 AOPA Airport Directory, which described the field as having a single 3,400' clay Runway 18/36.
The Evanston Airport was depicted on the May 1965 Salt Lake City Sectional Chart (courtesy of Chris Kennedy)
as having a 4,300' unpaved runway.
The runway was evidently paved at some point within the next 17 years,
as the 1982 AOPA Airport Directory (courtesy of Ed Drury) described Evanston Municipal
as having a 5,000' asphalt Runway 16/34.
It listed the operator as Evanston Aviation Inc.
Evanston Municipal Airport was apparently replaced by a newer & larger airport several miles to the south
at some point between 1982-91.
Nothing of the original Evanston Municipal Airport was depicted at all (even the runway) on the 1991 USGS topo map
(which is odd, as a 1994 aerial photo shows that the runway still was completely intact 3 years later).
The runway apparently had been lengthened by another 1,000' at some point between 1982-94,
as the 1994 USGS aerial photo depicted the airfield as consisting of a single 6,000' paved runway.
Several closed-runway "X" symbols were clearly evident on the runway,
and a small ramp at the southwest end of the runway had several buildings or hangars.
The original Evanston Municipal Airport was depicted as an abandoned airfield on 2003 aeronautical charts.
A 2005 photo by Keith Wood of some of the former hangars of the original Evanston Municipal Airport.
A 2005 photo by Keith Wood.
“This field was in good shape except for being ignored,
except for the barbed-wire fence driven into the runway along lot lines intended for development.”
A 2005 photo by Keith Wood, of “The former FBO building, now abandoned.
Was this used as a shop to stuff elk, or is it a pun ('Taxi dermy')?”
A 2005 photo by Keith Wood of the former windsock frame attached to a shed.
Evanston Municipal Airport is located on the west side of Route 89,
north of its intersection with Moon Way.
Thanks to Chris Kennedy for pointing out this airfield.
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42.91 North / 106.35 West (North of Casper, WY)
A 1934 photo of the newly constructed hangar at Wardwell Field (courtesy of Marianne Hofsheier).
This 640-acre airport was built in 1927, as Natrona County's airport.
In 1929, the county commissioners named the airport in memory of Major Doyan Wardwell,
who died in an airplane crash at the airport earlier that year.
Wardwell had helped develop the early airport.
A 1934 newspaper (courtesy of Marianne Hofsheier) had a photo of Wardwell's newly constructed hangar.
The caption read, “Casper's new $125,000 airport will be dedicated Sunday at Wardwell Field,
seven miles north of the city on the Salt Creek Highway.
The exercises will mark the completion of the construction of the airport
and the inauguration of the new north & south airmail route from Billings, MT to Denver, CO via Casper.
Wyoming congressional delegates, state officials, Governor Ed Johnson of CO
and thousands of visitors from WY & neighboring states are expected to attend the exercises
which will be followed by an elaborate air exhibition.”
A 1941 photo from the Casper Tribune-Herald of a Boeing 247 in front of Wardwell Field's hangar (courtesy of Marianne Hofsheier).
The caption read, “Inland Air Lines observes 10th Birthday.”
A 1942 photo of a “giant silver & blue” Lockheed Lodestar “as it landed from a trial hop at Wardwell Field” (courtesy of Marianne Hofsheier).
The caption noted that the Lodestar was soon to be put into service by Inland.
The last chart depiction which has been located of Wardwell Field as an active airfield
was on the July 1943 Casper Sectional Chart (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).
In 1952, the county airport was moved to the former Casper Army Airfield,
and the abandoned Wardwell Field was sold in 1954 for the sum of $20,500 to Romie Nunn.
The abandoned airport contained 6 miles of paved runways.
When Romie Nunn bought Casper's old airport, he had great hopes for what his 640 acres would become,
but he didn't know it might become a town named after him.
Nunn always hoped the area would be used for raising horses & for horse racing.
And until he sold all but 10 lots in 1972, that was how the land was used.
"I was going to make the horse center of the Rockies out of that place," Nunn said.
"I wanted ranch-style homes on those large lots I put in.
I thought everyone who would live out there would have a horse.
This would be known around the world if we had that," he added.
From 1954-72, Nunn sponsored a variety of activities on the land,
including square dances, rodeos, a national road race, drag races, and even the filming of a movie.
He began to use the old airport hangar as an indoor arena.
"We'd put on at least one rodeo a week and they'd rope in there almost every night," Nunn said.
In 1956, the National Road Race was held on the old runways, and later, other car races were run there.
In 1958, Nunn subdivided the area, calling it the Bar-Nunn Ranch Subdivision (he acquired the Bar-N brand later).
He allowed for residential lots, the indoor riding arena, a half-mile race track, an outdoor riding arena,
and 4 miles of bridle path around the perimeter of the subdivision.
Nunn set aside land for parks, a school, churches, and businesses,
all laid out along streets which were in fact the old runways of Wardwell Field.
The foresighted developer was dubbed "The Runway Rancher" in a 1959 Denver Post Empire Magazine story.
"When you buy a ranch and build an airport on it, that's one thing.
But when you buy an airport and make a ranch out of it, that's Wyoming!" Empire said.
In the 1960's, part of the movie "The Hellfighters", starring John Wayne, was filmed on Bar Nunn's old runways.
The movie's directors landed a large plane on the runway, a re-creation of a South American airport.
The 3 paved runways of the original airfield (the largest is 5,700' long)
were still plainly evident in the 1994 USGS aerial photo,
with the former runways being reused as streets of the town.
The original airplane hangar is still in use for boat storage -
a sign on the exterior still reads "Wardwell Field, Elev. 5,282".
The runways are no longer depicted as an airfield on USGS topo maps,
but they are still depicted as an abandoned airfield on current aeronautical charts.
See also: http://www.trib.com/WYOMING/NCSD/BARNUNN/bnhistory.html
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