The Nantucket Airport started out as a 1,200 acre farm. The flat grassy area attracted a few aviation enthusiasts. It didn’t become an official airport until just before World War II. Then the Navy tok control of the airport and used it as an auxiliary base for planes practicing dropping bombs in the ocean and at the bomb fields at Tom Nevers. After the war the Navy activity on Nantucket decreased and the airport stayed a small rural airport till the mid 1980s.
From 1990 to 1997 NBC based their popular TV show, “Wings”, on the small town drama taking place in Nantucket’s relaxed little airport (the TV version called it “Tom Nevers Airport”.) The TV show’s interior scenes were all filmed in Hollywood, not Nantucket. Despite the fictionalizing of what life is like on Nantucket, the show increased the island’s already growing popularity with visitors which resulted in an enormous boom in building and purchasing homes for summer visitors, to the point of pushing a significant amount of the local year-round population out of their homes, and either into extremely expensive rentals or off the island in to affordable rentals near the ferry terminal in Hyannis.
In 2009 the airport terminal was updated and is now about the 154th busiest airport in the country despite only having three runways. Well over half a million people go through the airport each year. Many tourists wonder where “ACK” came from. It is the Nantucket Memorial Airport’s call sign (the letter N is not permitted to start an airport’s assigned code, so they used the next letter, “A”.)
While still small and sincere, the airport has hosted countless famous politicians, celebrities, and VIPs as well as famous aircrafts including numerous visits from Air Force 1 and 2, the Blue Angels, and some of the most expensive high tech new private jets, toys of the mega wealthy who visit Nantucket starting in April, when Daffodil Weekend’s car parade through town is matched with display of excess on the private jet plane lot. The Navy still use the airport periodically for practicing take offs and landings of large cargo planes and once or twice a year fighter jets practice dogs fights over the island. The pet noise and sonic booms are not much appreciated by the locals. Private and commercial airplanes are not permitted to fly over most of the island with the exception of the Alter Rock area where the aviation beacon is located and where planes circle in for landing.
The busy intersection of Airport Rd. and Old South Rd. where the geocache is hidden, has come a long way from the hole in the ground it once was. Formerly an unlandscaped boatyard, the roughly half-acre lot has been transformed in recent years. Now a well-manicured lawn criss-crossed by walking paths and benches, the landscape also features six life-size bronze sculptures by Gary Lee Price.
Bring a pen. This geocache was set up to be completely wheelchair accessible and available year round, anytime of day for locals and visitors alike. After you find the geocache, upload a photo posing with your favorite sculpture, if you want to. Don’t upload a photo of the geocache or where it is hidden, but do re-hide it back where you found it, out of sight.