Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields:
Eastern Kentucky
© 2003, © 2008 by Paul Freeman. Revised 9/25/08.
Creech AAF (revised 7/25/04) - Moorehead Rowan County Airport (revised 9/25/08)
Thorn Hill Airfield - Whitesburg Municipal Airport (revised 11/12/07)
____________________________________________________
Moorehead Rowan County Airport, Farmers, KY
38.13 North / 83.54 West (East of Lexington, KY)
Moorehead Rowan County Airport, as depicted on the February 1964 Huntington Sectional Chart (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).
This little general aviation airport was evidently established at some point in 1963,
as it was not yet depicted on the January 1963 Huntington Sectional Chart (according to Chris Kennedy).
The earliest depiction which has been located of the Moorehead Rowan County Airport
was on the February 1964 Huntington Sectional Chart (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).
It depicted the field as having a 3,000' unpaved runway.
The Rowan County Airport evidently gained a paved runway within the next year,
as the August 1965 Huntington Sectional Chart ( courtesy of Chris Kennedy)
depicted the field as having a single 2,600' paved runway.
The 1975 USGS topo map depicted the Moorehead Rowan County Airport
as having a single northeast/southwest runway.
The 1983 USGS topo map depicted the Moorehead Rowan County Airport
as having a single paved northeast/southwest runway,
with a ramp with a single hangar on the north side.
A circa 2006 aerial photo showed Rowan County to have 4 single-engine planes parked on the ramp,
around which were several small hangars.
Note another T-hangar next to the filtration plant adjacent to the southwest side of the airport.
A circa 2006 aerial view looking west showed 3 single-engine planes parked on the ramp,
around which were several small hangars.
In July 2007 the new Morehead-Rowan County Clyde A. Thomas Regional Airport opened to the north,
at which point the original Moorehead-Rowan County Airport presumably was closed.
The Rowan County Airport was closed by 2008,
as a 2008 photo by Nicki Sloan-Petronella showed large closed-runway “X” symbols painted over the runway.
A 2008 photo by Nicki Sloan-Petronella looking west at the ramp,
showing the former office & one hangar (the other hangars have presumably been removed).
Nicki noted, “Notice the hangar is full of hay, now!
I wish I could have gotten closer, but there is a gate blocking the drive. Makes me so sad!
The is the runway where I had my first airplane ride as a child and later, my first lesson.
The runway is nestled in the hills so that when you are at lower altitudes, especially when using Runway 23, it actually disappears behind the hills!”
The site of the Rowan County Airport is located southwest of the intersection of C Thompson Road & Airport Road, appropriately enough.
____________________________________________________
Whitesburg Municipal Airport, Whitesburg, KY
37.23 North / 82.87 West (Northeast of Knoxville, TN)
The Whitesburg Airport, as depicted on the March 1966 Winston-Salem Sectional Chart (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).
Photo of the airfield while open has not been located.
According to Mark Collins, this small general aviation airport also may have been known as Isom Airport.
Whitesburg Airport was evidently established at some point between 1964-66,
as it was not yet depicted on the April 1964 Winston-Salem Sectional Chart (according to Chris Kennedy).
The earliest depiction which has been located of the Whitesburg Airport
was on the March 1966 Winston-Salem Sectional Chart (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).
It depicted Whitesburg as having a single 2,500' paved north/south runway,
along with a VOR navigational beacon.
The last aeronautical chart depiction which has been located of the Whitesburg Airport
was on the August 1976 Cincinnati Sectional Chart (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).
It depicted Whitesburg as having a single 2,500' paved north/south runway.
The adjacent Whitesburg VOR navigation beacon had been upgraded
at some point between 1966-66 to a VORTAC (combination VOR & TACAN beacon).
The 1992 USGS topo map depicted “Whitesburg Municipal Airport” as having a single paved runway
with a paved ramp & a single small building on the west side of the field.
As seen in the 1995 USGS aerial photo, the runway at the former Whitesburg Airport
was still marked as an active runway (without any closed-runway symbols).
The former building on the ramp on the west side of the field appeared to have been removed.
What appears to have been the building housing the former Whitesburg VORTAC navigational beacon
remained in the clearing on the east side of the strip.
According to a report for the Letcher County Public Libraries,
the Whitesburg Airport was closed at some point between 1960-2000.
Neither the Whitesburg Airport nor the Whitesburg VORTAC
were depicted at all on the December 2003 Cincinnati Sectional Chart (according to Chris Kennedy).
Mark Collins reported in 2005, “The landing strip is still there but is in rough shape.
It is only accessible with all-terrain vehicles or 4-wheel drive trucks.”
An October 2006 photo by Mark Collins of the abandoned runway at the site of the Whitesburg Airport.
An October 2006 photo by Mark Collins of the building which remains standing at the site of the Whitesburg Airport.
A 2007 photo by Brian Thompson looking northwest from a Cessna 180 at the Whitesburg Airport.
Brian reported, “The picture was shot at 1,500' AGL above the old airstrip & shows the fall foliage on this beautiful Kentucky afternoon.”
The site of the Whitesburg Airport is located at the southern terminus of Route 2547.
____________________________________________________
Thorn Hill Airfield, Kenton, KY
38.86 North / 84.45 West (South of Cincinnati, OH)
The 1983 USGS topo map depicted the single former runway (in the center) but did not label it at all.
Photo of the airfield while open has not been located.
According to drag racing historian Bret Kepner, this former airfield had a colorful history.
Through information from locals & the track's employees during a visit around 1985,
he learned that "the airfield was built by alcohol bootleggers during Prohibition.
The airstrip was created deep in the woods where it was virtually undetectable from the ground.
The moonshine, brewed in the nearby Kentucky hills,
was smuggled on night flights to nearby Cincinnati, OH.
Near the end of Prohibition, the operations at the Kenton airstrip were sacked by Treasury agents,
resulting in a large number of arrests.
The Feds eventually bequeathed the seized land to the town of Kenton,
whose mayor apparently assisted in the bust.
The airstrip sat, unused, until the hot rodding craze of the 1950s
resulted in the local arrest of a young street racer...the mayor's son!
The mayor agreed to allow the kid to turn the abandoned airfield into a drag strip
if it would keep his son's racing activities off the street.
Thus was born Thorn Hill Drag Strip!"
It was not listed among active civil airfields in the 1962 AOPA Airport Directory.
According to Steve Trutschel, “Ralf Payne owned & operated that property until his passing in the mid-1990s.
I used to fly my Cub in there all the time & if they were racing I would enter the pattern
and the guy lining up the cars at the starting line would hold them in place & motion me to land.
I flew in & watched the races many Saturday evenings as Thornhill is only about 5 miles from the private airstrip where I live.
I also flew ultralights into there years before I owned my Cub.”
Steve continued, “My father raced there when he was a kid in the mid-1950s
and it was a dirt drag strip when he started racing there.
Everyone would use snow tires for traction.
He remembers how great it was the day Ralf blacktopped the first 100 or 150 feet of the strip for traction for them.
When I was a kid in the mid-1960s there were at least 3 airplanes kept there.
I ended up buying a worn-out 1946 Stinson 108-3, that ironically, was one of the 3 planes that used to be kept there.
It is still very much country out there & I know of no ordinances that would prevent aircraft operations there.
Our nickname for the dragstrip was, and still is, Ralf's Palace.”
Steve continued, “Over the years I would have several friends fly into the dragstrip
and I would pick them up because my strip is very short & a Cub is one of the few planes that can go in there.
One day I met a couple of friends at the dragstrip & they were flying a completely restored Beech T-34,
complete with all the Navy military markings.
Ralf ALWAYS drove out & met you at the plane.
I assume it was Ralfs wife with him as he met the T-34.
My buddy slid the canopy back, stood up in the seat, looked around & said,
"I don't know, this doesn't look like Kansas to me!"
Ralfs wife stood there looking at the military plane in total disbelief
and said, "Oh my God, you guys are no where near Kansas!"”
Steve continued, “I quit flying the Cub in there because I tore it down to restore it.
Sadly Ralf passed away before it was finished & he never got to see it again.
I know several people that still race there every Saturday in the summer.
In this day & age there are more & more houses being built, and more & more complainers.
Most of the complainers are on the other side of the river & that is a different county so it is complicated.
But I enjoy the races & I can hear them at my house, It's just part of that area.
I know several people that race there & one of them has even asked the new owner if I could fly in there again.
His response to them was, "As long as I get an airplane ride." We'll see.”
No airfield was depicted at the location on the 1969 USGS topo map.
It was not listed among active civil airfields in the 1982 AOPA Airport Directory.
The 1983 USGS topo map depicted the single former runway but did not label it at all.
The former runway was labeled "drag strip" on the 1984 USGS topo map.
As seen in the 1993 USGS aerial photo, the former airfield consists of a single 3,100' runway.
The property was also used until 2001 for flying radio controlled model aircraft,
until that use was also precluded by zoning.
It was labeled "drag strip" on the 2002 Sectional Aeronautical Chart.
According to Jim Decker, the current property owner said zoning is causing problems with the drag strip,
and precludes him from renting tie downs for aircraft.
The 7/9/01 issue of the Cincinnati Enquirer reported
that neighbors had been making complaints about the noise from drag racing at Thorn Hill.
The Thorn Hill Airfield is located along the west bank of the Licking River,
a half mile southeast of the town of Kenton.
____________________________________________________
Creech Army Airfield, Arkansas City, KY
38.08 North / 84.32 West (East of Lexington, KY)
Creech AAF, as depicted in the 1960 Jeppesen Airway Manual (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).
This former military airfield is located on the grounds of the Lexington Blue Grass Army Depot.
According to an Army Corps of Engineers report,
the depot, originally named the Lexington Signal Depot,
was built early in WW2 to store, repair & issue the Signal Corps' communications & electronic equipment.
The airfield was built to support the Depot activities.
The date of construction of the airfield has not been determined.
It was evidently built at some point between 1950-60,
as the airfield did not appear in a 1950 aerial photo of the depot.
The earliest depiction of Creech Army Airfield which has been located
was in the 1960 Jeppesen Airway Manual (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).
It depicted the field as having a single 2,000' Runway 11/29,
with a taxiway leading to the southwest to a ramp with an operations building & several other buildings.
The 1961 Cincinnati Sectional Chart (courtesy of Chris Kennedy)
described Creech AAF as having a single 3,000' pierced steel planking runway.
The airfield was described in the same manner
on the 1968 Cincinnati Sectional Chart (according to Chris Kennedy).
Creech AAF, as depicted on the 1970 Cincinnati Sectional Chart (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).
A 1974 Facility Layout Plan of the Lexington Blue Grass Army Depot,
depicting the existing runway & the (apparently planned but never built) crosswind runway.
The above 1974 layout plan also depicted Creech's east/west runway,
as well as a crosswind runway which was apparently planned but never built.
William recalled that in 1984 "I was stationed there & it had a nice set of runway lights & bumpy dirt runway."
He recalled that the runway would have been usable for small single engine fixed wing aircraft.
"But what I remember most was a large 75' high x 100' wide x 200' long hangar from at least the mid 1940's
that seems to be on the map but is missing from the photo?"
Bill North reported in 2003 that the "odd shaped buildings or Quonset huts…
that is where the first radar units were tested after their development.
Other than the metal outer skin, there is no metal in the building & the interior is all wood."
The Depot was placed on the Base Realignment & Closure list in 1991,
and was scheduled to be transferred to the Kentucky National Guard in 1994.
According to JSH, "The depot's main DOD contractor, Raytheon,
moved most of its operations to the Blue Grass Army Depot in Richmond
after the Lexington Blue Grass Army Depot's closing."
As seen in the 1993 USGS aerial photo,
the airfield consisted of a single 3,000' paved runway (which was crossed along its southeastern end by a road),
and a taxiway connecting the runway to a ramp with two small hangars.
East of the ramp was a helipad which was built at a later date than the runway,
as it did not appear in the above 1974 plan,
and it appeared to have been used up to a later date than the runway.
The date of closure of the Creech airfield is unknown,
but it was depicted as an abandoned airfield on the 1998 World Aeronautical Chart.
Bill North reported in 2003 of the buildings used for the first radar testing,
"There has been some talk as to placing them under some sort of historical preservation
but I am not sure the status of that effort."
____________________________________________________