Never knew about this site. Another landscape scar to be repaired. Plan is 21 years old. Never materialized?
I'm suprised the vegetation is so sparse. I wonder why it's held back.Ah, Aerohaven. This one I'm quite familiar with; I've been going back there for a long time.
You can find some more info and a lot of historic aerial photos here - and I'm sure also on Boydsmaps.
The southern end, where the aircraft hangars used to be, is, or was, a Superfund site. Apparently during the 1960s and 1970s, the runway around that area was extended and in-filled with waste from a glass manufacturing company. Unfortunately, the waste turned out to be asbestos (p. 102). I believe the southern end was dug out originally for soil remediation, and the ponds that resulted are now being used as retention for sewage processing for the township. This is all fenced off and you wouldn't really want to go near it anyway. Since then, there has been some talk of putting a solar farm there as well - I'm not sure if those discussions have gone anywhere.
The more interesting side to me is the northern end, which is still an open, unpaved sandy clearing where the runway used to extend. It makes for an interesting landscape. Here are a couple of photos from back in January.
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I remember when the planes were flying there. I explored the woods across the road for years starting in 1974.
Very interesting article you wrote Tommy! You know, digging up that sand to place on the runway like that is almost criminal. Changed the habitat very negatively. Are those rectangular pits where they dug the sand from?It’s a cool place. I found a “remembering forgotten regional airports” site when I was looking it up, and I wrote about it here:
The Ruins of an Abandoned Airport in the Pines
And the Lost Dream of a Supersonic JetPortthomaspluck.substack.com
Those rectangular pits are a result of the clean up. Owens corning dumped asbestos there and is/was a superfund site. Basically the asbestos is still there just covered over so it’s not disturbed.Very interesting article you wrote Tommy! You know, digging up that sand to place on the runway like that is almost criminal. Changed the habitat very negatively. Are those rectangular pits where they dug the sand from?