Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields:
California: Inyo County
© 2002, © 2009 by Paul Freeman. Revised 10/24/09.
____________________________________________________
Manzanar Army Airfield, Manzanar, CA
36.73 North / 118.15 West (East of Fresno, CA)
A 1943 photo looking west-southwest at the Manzanar flightline (courtesy of Craig Thorson),
with what appear to be Taylorcrafts in front of a hangar & operations building.
The snowcapped Sierra Nevada Mountains are visible in the background,
and the tarpaper barracks of the Manzanar Relocation are visible just above the planes on the left.
According to the 2003 paper "Airports of the Owen Valley" by Kirt Nance (courtesy of Peter Tracy),
"In early 1941 the Government contacted Inyo County
and awarded over $500,000 to update valley airports,
so that they would fall into National Defense Airway standards.
Also in this package were monies & instructions to build an airport at Manzanar.
This airport would have runways 5,300' in length,
and would include runway lights & a beacon.
The City of Los Angeles [Department of Water & Power] would lease the land to the government for 50 years,
and it would be for use by the public until such time that it would be needed by the military.
According to the US Department of the Interior publication Manzanar National Historic Site,
619 acres were leased; however the report claims the lease was never recorded."
According to an account by a National Park Service history of the Manzanar Camp,
the lease contained a provision that it would terminate automatically should the land
not be used for airport purposes for more than one year.
According to Keith Wood, "This was most certainly a 'fallback field'
[to be used by US forces in the event of a Japanese invasion of the West Coast].
They were to be run as tent cities, by forces who would fall back to the next 'ring' if necessary.
If they had to fall back, they didn't want to leave a lot of facilities to an invader.
Support would have been by the rail line.
Some fields were intended primarily for fighters & medium bombers,
while others were designed to handle the staging of heavy bombardment groups,
who might be based deeper in the interior, then move to forward bases only for rearmament & refueling for short sorties.
Repairs would be done at the home bases, such as Wendover (Utah) or March Field (Riverside, CA)."
The Manzanar airfield was adjacent to the site of one of the infamous "Wartime Relocation Centers",
to which civilians of ethnic Japanese background were relocated from 1942-1945.
However, according "Airports of the Owen Valley" by Kirt Nance (courtesy of Peter Tracy),
"It should be noted that the Manzanar Airport had no connection to the Manzanar Internment Camp."
According "Airports of the Owen Valley" by Kirt Nance (courtesy of Peter Tracy),
"By mid-May 1942… Manzanar Airport was the largest in the valley,
and would see planes as large as the B-24 landing there as crews geared up for the big push in the war."
The airport was depicted as "Inyo County"
on the 1943 Mt Whitney Sectional Chart (according to Chris Kennedy).
The earliest depiction which has been located of the Manazar airfield was a 1943 photo (courtesy of Craig Thorson),
which showed Taylorcrafts in front of a hangar & operations building.
Craig Thorson recalled, “While Manzanar may have indeed been constructed as a 'fallback field'
it was definitely used to train pilots for the Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP).
My father [Roy Thorson] was in the program at Manzanar beginning in March 1943.”
The 1944 US Army/Navy Directory of Airfields (courtesy of Ken Mercer)
described Inyo County as having a 5,000' hard-surface runway,
and did not indicate that any military operations were conducted from the field.
Ed Lansberg recalled, "I took my first dual there in November of 1944, during the war."
However, he did not provide any other details.
The 1949 Mt Whitney Sectional Chart (according to Chris Kennedy) described "Inyo County" Airport
as having a 5,000' hard-surface runway.
In 1956, Inyo County notified Los Angeles that it had abandoned the airport,
that the Civil Aeronautics Administration had consented to such abandonment & was not interested in the site,
and that the premises had not been used for airport purposes for more than one year.
In connection with the lease cancellation the county marked off the runways in 1956,
and the wind sock & tower were removed in 1957.
The Corps of Engineers indicated that it had no further interest in the airport,
and in 1958 work commenced to remove electrical equipment, including the obstruction lights.
Thereafter, the land on which the former Manzanar airport had been located
was leased to local ranchers for grazing purposes & used for a variety of special events.
In 1957 the airport was used as a bivouac area for an advance party of the NV National Guard.
Manzanar Airport, as depicted on the wrong side of the highway, several miles west of its correct location,
on the May 1963 Sierra Nevada USAF Special World Aeronautical Chart (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).
Keith Wood postulated, "The false location (and poor marking) on the USAF chart
could have been an attempt to make it look unworthy of a Soviet missile -
showing it too close to the railway would have boosted its priority as a target."
From 1968-69, Aerojet General of Downey, California,
was granted permission to use the land & runways for experimental tests.
The Manzanar runways were used for automobile racing time trials starting in 1970,
according to Scott Aguilar (a member of the Lone Pine Time Trials Committee).
John Hazlet said in 2003, "I tend to go with the theory that Manzanar was built as a military field.
I made a 'forced' landing there in the mid-1970s
(I hit such a bad bump in unexpectedly turbulent conditions north of Lone Pine
that it deformed the fuselage in the BE-35 I was flying enough to pop the door open).
I dragged over the abandoned Manzanar field, but it looked like it was covered with rocks.
I got down a little lower, and the 'rocks' turned out to be cow pies.
The runway was otherwise in fine shape, so I landed
(knocking the dry ones out of the way, and squishing through the fresher ones),
re-latched the door, and continued to BIH."
"While on the ground, I observed obviously well built reinforced concrete runways,
expensive runway lights (including heavy cast aluminum flush light units in the vicinity of the intersection),
and other signs that much more money had been spent on this airport
than would be likely for a remote, little-used county facility."
It was labeled "Manzanar Airport" on the 1994 USGS topo map.
A 2001 aerial view by J.D. Lawson looking south at Manzanar Airport.
The airfield consists of two 4,800' paved runways, one of which has a parallel taxiway.
Both runways are still marked with "X" closed runway symbols.
A small paved ramp sits at the runway intersection,
but all buildings had been removed.
A recent picture of a solitary cow grazing on grass growing up
through the cracks in the pavement of one of the runways at Manzanar.
The field is still depicted as an abandoned airfield on 2002 aeronautical charts.
A beautiful 2002 panoramic photo by Larry Turoski, looking south from Manzanar's runway intersection.
A 2003 photo by Larry Turoski looking east at the apparent foundation of a former hangar at Manzanar.
Larry Turoski reported in 2003, "There are indeed two foundations left.
One was, I'm certain, a hangar.
It is a raised slab of concrete attached to the parking ramp,
with a low berm between it & the ramp where I assume the hangar door was.
There is no evidence of tracks for the hangar doors.
The entrance faces approximately due east.
There is an adjoining portion on the north side the slab that was, I presume, office or shop space.
Just to the north of this shop space is another small foundation that may have been an outbuilding, or a second office.
It was about 8' x 8'.
I paced off the hangar floor area & it measured approximately 100' x 60',
with the 100' dimension running from front to back, i.e., east to west.
Etched into the parking ramp concrete immediately 'outside' the hangar was this: SN IG 6-26-42 RW."
Larry continued, "I found a USGS bench mark in the hangar foundation.
You can see the bench mark in the extreme foreground of the upper picture.
The bench mark was dated 1952.
I gave the only structure a closer look & it indeed appears to have been an electrical or utility building of some sort.
There are conduits & openings in if where electrical lines could have passed through,
and the remnants of a large switch of the type one throws in circuits with lots of juice.
There was a second USGS benchmark cemented to the side of this building dated 1962,
but I think the building predates that.
The parallel taxiway abuts against the parking ramp
and reinforces my opinion that it wasn't really a parallel taxiway, but space for extra parking.
The cement parking ramp has tie-down rings embedded in it, and they are huge.
They weren't for tying down Airknockers or Piper Cubs."
Chris Kennedy reported in 2003, "I stopped by the old Manzanar airfield.
If that was a military field,
I don't see how it could have been anything but an emergency strip because there isn't any parking area.
On the aerial photos you can see the very small concrete pad on the west side.
It has a few tie down rings, but it wouldn't have accommodated very many airplanes.
On the other hand, I don't know why Inyo County would build such a large airport in the middle of nowhere like that.
On the other hand, they used to film a lot of movies in that area.
Maybe they built it to allow the movie people to fly in & out. Probably not.
I don't see it having any direct connection with the relocation center either;
none of the other centers had airfields, as far as I know. Quite a mystery.
By the way, it looks like the property is owned, or controlled by the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power,
which owns the aqueduct adjacent to it.
There was a sign by the road in with their name on it saying it was a day use area, no overnight camping allowed.
The aqueduct has been there longer than the airfield."
Scott Aguilar (a member of the Lone Pine Time Trials Committee) reported in 2005
that the use of the runways for automobile racing time trials “continues to this day.
It is an annual event that takes place in May,
traditionally on the weekend before Memorial Day, but this has varied slightly in recent years.
It is a charity event, with all proceeds going to the LA Braille Institute Youth Center.
Black tire marks from one of our events are visible in the overview photo.
We go to the field a few weekends in advance of the event to knock down weeds
and patch major holes in the runway surface which lie near the driving line.
After the event, we are required to repair the white 'X's as needed if we have left any marks on them.
To my knowledge, ours is the only activity that takes place on the grounds.”
A December 30, 2005 aerial view looking northwest shows the 2 large runways, parallel taxiway, and ramp which remain intact.
A 2006 aerial view taken from a remote-controlled aircraft by Jeff Moore, looking northeast at the Manazar runways.
The Manzanar Airfield was reused for a very unusual purpose –
filming of a elaborate “see saw” Toyota truck commercial
which aired during the 2007 Superbowl (airfield identified by John Szalay).
The airfield site is bisected by Manzanar Reward Road (which passes right through the runway intersection).
The airfield is bordered on the west side by Route 395,
and the Los Angeles Aqueduct on the east side.
The site of the relocation center is on the other side of Route 395.
____________________________________________________