This series of history-based geocaches has been placed by me to celebrate some of the history of aviation in Fort Worth. On these grounds that these caches have been placed stood Greater Southwest International Airport a.k.a. Greater Fort Worth International Airport/Amon Carter Field.
This area had been considered for a airport in the 1930's when Dallas and Fort Worth decided to plan a large regional airport to serve both cities. Well if you know anything about the history of the DFW area you will know that the two cities have been feuding off and on for many years. One time the feuding got so bad the Fort Worth Mayor Amon Carter refused to eat in any restaurant in Dallas, he would pack a sack lunch instead. When the officials in Dallas learned that the terminal was going to be one mile closer to Fort Worth, they backed out in protest and expanded Love Field.
Construction came to a halt until WWII when the Army Air Corps made improvements to the field and used it as a auxilliary base for the movement of planes and supplies. After the war the base was closed and sat empty.
After the war the city of Fort Worth recognized the need to increase the capacity of Meacham Airport commissioned a study to come up with a solution. Their answer was to build a airport at the site of the closed airbase. Contstruction began and the Greater Fort Worth International Airport - Amon Carter Field (ACF) opened in 1953. All commercial services that were at Meacham then tranferred to ACF.
The airport did well in the 50's and things were humming right along. Fort Worth kept on touting as "modern" and "safe". Then Dallas expanded Love Field, to handle the new jetliners, and things started down hill from there for ACF. Fort Worth expanded the 2 main runways at ACF in order to also attract the jets and changed the name to Greater Southwest International Airport (GSW) in a effort get Dallas on board with a one airport plan, but they just could not compete and Dallas would not co-operate with a one airport plan
In 1964 the Civil Aeronautics Board told both cities that they were no longer gonna fund airports in either city and that they needed to come up with a plan for a joint airport, or else the government would do it for them. The result of that plan was DFW.
After the plans for DFW were put into place, airlines began petitioning the CAB for permission to cease operations at GSW. One by one the CAB granted permission until in 1968 the last airline withdrew. After that it was mostly charter flights, training flights, and flight schools that occupied the terminal until DFW opened and the FAA ordered the runways at GSW closed for safety reasons.
After closure the property sat vacant until the city of Fort Worth sold the property to developers. The property was then turned into mixed use industrial and apartment residential properties. Runway 17/35 became Amon Carter Blvd and the terminal was demolished. There was a airline reservation center in a old hangar for many years until that was also demolished in the 80's
If you look at satellite images of the land you can still make out where some of the structures and runways were, in the grass.