Name That Northwest Airport Archives - Mystery Airport #086 - Halloween 2004 Special: Night Of The Living Dead Airports

OK, Northwest airport sleuths, just how well do you know your dead Northwest airports? They may be gone now, but their spirits live on....one night (well, OK, one week) a year. Can you identify all these dearly departed strips?

The following nine photos show what's left of airports that once were visited by airmen and airplanes, just like you and yours. Some of them may be easy, but I bet a few of them will challenge even the most dead-icated abandoned airport sleuth.

For a better look, click the small airport photo to open up a larger view.

For a hint, double-click the bat (experiencing some gusts on final) next to each photo.

Dead Airport #1

A center of learning that lived and thrived in the shadow of giants for many years. The runway is still there, but the aviation training that once took place here has moved to another airport that still continues to thrive.

Clover Park Technical College, Lakewood, WA
Home to several active aviation curricula, Clover Park's runway - which would still be quite usable if there wasn't a bunch of stuff parked and stored on it - sits less than a mile from the end of the big runway at Tacoma's McChord Air Force Base. Although Clover Park still has facilities still there, they have moved their aviation-related training activities to Thun Field in Puyallup, WA.

Dead Airport #2

Another runway that lost the battle against encroaching neighborhood development, this field used to be a popular northern suburb airport, with a busy FBO and a restaurant on the field.

Clark County Airport, Orchards, WA
Also known as Scholl Field, this was once a popular and very active general aviation field that closed in the mid-1990s due to encroaching development in a northern suburb of Vancouver, Washington, just north of the Portland metro area. The 2800' runway, less than a mile west of Fly For Fun airport (W56), still looks to be in very good shape and could make a decent emergency strip in a pinch.

Dead Airport #3

Rumors hint that this ghost might still occasionally see a little life - and some even dare to whisper that one day it could rise from the dead once again. Many mountain pilot wannabes fly right by this one without ever realizing it.

Naneum Airstrip, near Mission Ridge, WA
Sitting on a ridge between Ellensburg and Wenatchee at about 5000' elevation, Naneum was a mountain backcountry strip that was closed by the state due to concerns over resident wildlife, and although definitely closed, is rumored to be still used occasionally by daring bush pilots. Pilots flying in the annual Wenatchee Mountain Flying Clinic often pass right by Naneum on the popular "Mission Ridge" route.

Dead Airport #4

ZAP! Same place, different airport. This runway, and its much more familiar nearby replacement, are close to a lot of juice.

Ugh, don't you just hate it when they build a road right across the damn runway?

Electric Airstrip, Electric City, WA
This runway is still very much there. Although now bisected by a road, this strip is located less than a half-mile east of it's replacement, Grand Coulee Dam Airport (3W7), a stone's throw from the massive Grand Coulee Dam hydropower station. It appears that this strip was deemed to be in the way of resort development (note the adjacent golf course in the photo), so it was abandoned and a replacement airport was built a bit further west, on the shores of Banks Lake.

Dead Airport #5

This big, bad lost runway, once used for drop-offs, is surprisingly close to everything - including a lot of heavy iron (at some other big bad runways almost right next door still very much in use), and a bunch of red and blue places where most of us dare not fly.

Pacemaker Landing Zone, Fort Lewis, WA
Also depicted on some old charts as "Fort Lewis Road Strip," this old military runway sits just barely outside of the Gray AAF Class Delta airspace, due south of the big runway at McChord Air Force base, which is just a few miles to the north. At 3500 feet by 60 feet, this surprisingly large runway has a few serious airplane-eating sized potholes, but otherwise looks almost usable. It was reportedly once used for high speed taxi runs and low passes by C-130s practicing palette drops.

Dead Airport #6

Ditto.

This little lost strip is close to a lot of things, too.

Fort Lewis Number 3, Fort Lewis, WA
Fort Lewis is one of the largest Army bases in the country, and it holds many suprises. Over the years it has had more than a few of its own airports, including this unpaved strip which is located just a quarter-mile northwest of the runway designated Pacemaker Landing Zone (Dead Airport #5, above).

Dead Airport #7

Pat Boone once hyped resort lots at this scruffy little lost strip out in the middle of nowhere. The airport itself may be closed and hard to spot, but the place where it sits is flagged on current sectionals as a reporting point.

Rimrock Meadows, northwest of Ephrata, WA
An airstrip built to serve a planned resort community sited along Moses Coulee in Central Washington. Backers had ambitious plans for Rimrock Meadows during the 1960s, when crooner Pat Boone (also an investor) was used as a pitch-man for the development. A string of financial troubles eventually resulted in scaled-back plans for the resort (which still exists), and eventually much of the original resort land - including the 3000 foot long airstrip - was sold to The Nature Conservancy. Although the airport itself is now uncharted, Rimrock Meadows is flagged on sectionals as a VFR reporting point (on roughly the 287 degree radial from the Ephrata VOR). The runway is still easily visible from the air.

Dead Airport #8

There are a lot of lost and uncharted airports on small Northwest islands, but this little strip is on the big one. Who knows - maybe it wood not be too difficult to resurrect.

Wood Airfield, Langley, WA
Wood Airfield sits on the southern lobe of Whidbey Island (the largest island in Washington), just about a mile north of Whidbey Airpark (W10). It's 2400 foot long turf runway still looks to be in good shape, although the surrounding trees have grown taller and encroached a bit on the old airport surface.

Dead Airport #9

The corpse is still warm on this dry-side dead airport, where this big bird runway has only recently become an ox (assuming you have current charts). And even though it's dead now, it had nothing to do with "the master of suspense."

Hitchcock Field, White Swan, WA
A nice paved strip southwest of the Yakima area, on land now owned by the Yakima Nation, this 3100 foot long paved runway with a couple of large hangars at midfield also in good shape. Although closed, this runway is in great shape (in fact, a lot better than many airports I've landed at). This one has only recently disappeared from the charts - on the most recent Seattle sectional (67th Edition) it's depicted as abandoned (an O with an X through it), but before that it was shown in all its living glory. I hope somebody can save this one - all it would take would be removing the orange Xs from the runway ends and cutting the weeds that are starting to grow up through a few cracks in the pavement.