- City:
- Butte, MT
- Site Type:
- Infrastructure and Utilities, Military and Public Safety, Airports
- New Deal Agencies:
- Works Progress Administration (WPA), Work Relief Programs, Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)
Description
Then known as Butte Municipal Airport, the CWA, FERA, and WPA each contributed toward the finishing of the “best equipped landing field in the state.”
The Big Timber, MT Pioneer reported in Sept. 1937:
“Definite plans were completed for the construction of an asphalt surfaced runway 100 feet wide and a mile long, by means of a WPA project, with the city of Butte and the county of Silver Bow co-operating equally in furnishing materials and equipment.”
150 WPA workers worked tirelessly to ensure that the runway was constructed before the onset of winter.
As Bert Mooney Airport’s runway 12/30 is one mile long and 100 feet wide, it is possible that the WPA efforts form the basis for the runway still in use today.
W.P.A. project information:
- “Improve municipal airport”
Official Project Number: 165‐1‐91‐105
Total project cost: $619,592.00
Sponsor: City of Butte - “Improve airport”
Official Project Number: 265‐1‐91‐56
Total project cost: $168,535.00
Sponsor: City of Butte - “Improve municipal airport”
Official Project Number: 665‐91‐2‐146
Total project cost: $125,028.00
Sponsor: War Department
Source notes
"Butte's Airport to Be Improved"; Big Timber Pioneer, Sept. 2, 1937 (page 3)
Nationwide Context, Inventory, and Heritage Assessment of Works Progress Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps Resources on Department of Defense Installations, July 2009 (page C-103).
Site originally submitted by Evan Kalish on February 8, 2018.
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