Hangar Improvements – Lewistown MT

Description

Local businessman Harrison Green established Lewistown’s first airport at this location in 1928, intending to sell it to the city or operate it as a private enterprise. The city, however, established its own airport in 1933 just across the road from Green’s runway. When airmail and air passenger service began in 1933, it quickly became obvious that the city’s airport was inadequate. It was too close to power lines and its runway was too short. After several close calls, the city negotiated relocation of its airport to Green’s facility. In 1937, this became Lewistown’s municipal airport. In 1941, the WPA improved the facility, paving the runways. This hangar first appears in aerial photographs during these improvements. It served as a hangar-field maintenance facility for private aircraft and Inland Air Lines—the commercial company serving this region—just prior to World War II. The World War II airbase sprang up around the hangar. Inland Airlines, and perhaps private pilots, likely continued to use it throughout the war as an airport utility-maintenance hangar for smaller aircraft.