Decatur Airport celebrates 70th anniversary at current site

DECATUR, Ill. (AP) — The Decatur Airport in central Illinois is celebrating 70 years in the same location.

Airport director Tim Wright tells the (Decatur) Herald and Review he avidly collects Decatur Airport memorabilia. He has maps, newspaper articles and stories to pass on. 

A landing strip that served as the city’s first was plowed up in the 1930s. A 60-acre airport was built in 1932. But by World War II, Wright says folklore has it that Decatur’s runways were the nation’s worst. 

So the Decatur Park District took over in 1943. Fire destroyed much of the field the next year. That encouraged plans already underway for a new field. 

For a time in the 1950s, the airport also featured a steam train for rides and a golf course.

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