Arizona Gov. George P. Hunt returns to the speaker’s stand during the dedication of Flagstaff’s Koch Field on June 7, 1928. The final parcels of land from the former airfield were sold with city council approval last week. Arizona Historical Society, courtesy
By AZ Daily Sun
The Flagstaff City Council approved the sale of the final remaining parcels of the former Koch Field airport in Doney Park on Tuesday, Feb. 18, and both were purchased by newly incorporated development companies owned by Flagstaff residents.
The city acquired approximately 540 acres of land for Koch Field in 1927 and opened an airport there in 1928. City officials began planning for a new municipal airport in the 1940s, leading to the opening of Pulliam Airport in 1948 and the decommissioning of Koch Field.
The former airfield was used for farming and as a skeet shooting range until the early 1990s, when the majority of the land was sold at auction. The city retained two parcels: a 12.52-acre lot adjacent to Cromer Elementary School on Silver Saddle Road, and a 9.26-acre lot off of Open Sky Road. These parcels were held as assets of the city’s self-insurance trust, which funded environmental remediation on the former shooting range.
