This cache placed on the 80th anniversary of the dedication of "Durant" Airport July 16, 1933!
Durant Airport was built 1931-33 where the present Roscommon Village Industrial Park is located today.
Excerpt from Roscommon newspaper April 1933:
The Airport Description
The airport is located on US-27 (...now M-18 / Lake Street / I-75 Business Loop), a half mile south of Roscommon. It was named the "Durant" airport in a resolution adapted by the Board of Supervisors, honoring Cliff Durant, nationally known avaition enthusiast and sportsman, who made his summer home on the AuSable river for several years, and repeatedly made contributions to the welfare of Roscommon village and county.
At the time the property was acquired for aviation purposes it was a dumping ground for village junk. A clean-up bee was organized among the school boys and the American Legion and the junk was trucked away. In the past two summers the Conservation Department has prepared a landing field that a great many pilots have highly praised. The landing field is constructed in the shape of a "T", the north and south runway extending a half mile long, paralleling US-27 and being 400 feet wide. the east and west runway is 1040 feet long.
The field has a standard airport marker 100 feet in diameter made of hand placed stone painted white, also boundary and runway markers of the same material.
The total cost of the field, Mr. McClure stated, was $3266.35, and leveling the field cost $511.00. Included in the figures are costs of $240.00 for dynamite, $414.81 for labor, and $1150.00 for Conservation Department labor.
The Board of Supervisors, acting in good faith, obtained the loan from the State Board of Aeronautics, purchased the necessary additional land and completed the Airport. Perhaps the county, under present financial conditions, can not reimburse the Aeronautical board for the loan as per agreement, but the loan should not be repudiated.
The following story excerpt appeared in the local newspaper in July 1933:
LARGEST CROWD IN HISTORY PAY ROSCOMMON A VISIT
Home-Coming Celebration an Airport Dedication A Huge Success With Attendance Estimated At Around 5000 People.
AERIAL SHOW GREATEST EVER SEEN IN NORTH MICHIGAN
Twenty-three Planes for Field Dedication. Dick Young and Roger Rae Thrill Crowd with Stunt Flying and Parachute Jump.
Roscommon's three-day Homecoming, so successful that it satisfied the hopes of even it's most optimistic sponsors, reached its grand climax on Sunday afternoon when between four and five thousand visitors and townspeople gathered for the dedication of the newly completed Durant Airport, and for the air show that many of the visiting aviation fans declared on of the most interesting they had ever seen at any fair, festival, or dedication in the state of Michigan.
Twenty-two planes took part in the air festivities and two highly capable stunt flyers thrilled the crowd with a long program of spectacular and daring airplane acrobatics. The large crowd, the largest that has gathered in Roscommon since the days when the town's famous lumber industry was at it height, included home comers from all parts of Michigan, aviation enthusiasts interested in the dedication of the new landing field, summer residents at Roscommon's popular resorts, residents of Bay City and other Northern Michigan cities and towns who were drawn here by the air show, and visitors from points as far away as West Virginia.
During the afternoon automobiles were parked three and four deep along both sides of (then...) US-27 (...now M-18) for a distance of more than a half mile, and two deep for half a mile along the north side of the field. The shorter north-south runway was also lined with cars, and a great many others were left in the woods near the airport. The parking problem was well handled by the local American Legion Post.
Band Concert Starts Celebration.
The three day homecoming program got under way early Friday evening when the Roscommon Band gave its first concert in the band stand the boys moved last week from the Michigan Central Park to the old Price corner store where it could serve as a center for most of the out of door activities.
(Note: The Price Corner was E. Lake St. & N. Main St., now the site of the Vincent DePaul resale store today.)
This concert, the first of four appearances made by the Roscommon musicians during the celebration, brought warm compliments from the home comers, as well as from local residents who have watched with great interest the progress made by the young hometown band. A half hour vaudeville entertainment completed the street performance on the opening night of the reunion.