Introduction to Online Version
Here are some of the documentation I have found regarding
the origins of the Arcata_Eureka Airport. It covers mostly World
War II and the immediate post_World War II years. Further raw
source documents (letters, contracts, agreements) between the
County of Humboldt, the Civil Aeronautics Administration, the
US War Department, and the US Navy, as well as US Navy construction
blueprints, maps and photographs, are currently filed at the Aviation
Administration office at Arcata Airport Terminal.
Background
What follows is a sketch of the Arcata Airport history.
I got it from reading documents like the ones you have received,
from the source documents mentioned above, from examination of
blueprints and maps, and from the Times_Standard's "50 years
ago today" news clips. I also had the opportunity about 14
years ago to talk to a fellow who was a Navy chief stationed at
the Arcata Airport during the war, and to Julius Hooven, a local
rancher and pilot who was a young man when the Navy took some
of his family's land in McKinleyville to build the airport.
Historical Sketch
The planning and construction of what we now know
as the Arcata_Eureka Airport started in late 1940 or early 1941.
It appears that the County of Humboldt, in collaboration with
the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA_the predecessor to the
FAA), decided to construct a new airport. The Times_Standard column
entitled North Coast Yesterdays reports that in Aug 2, 1941...
"According to officials in Washington, the area north of
McKinleyville is to become the site of a modern airport. The development
is planned for the area between the ocean and the Redwood Highway
near Clam Beach."
At this time I cannot confirm the exact reason why
the airport was being constructed in such a remote location. An
airport near Eureka already existed. However, I have heard that
this new airport was part of a larger plan by the United States
War Department to establish airfields that could be used by the
military in times of war. In any event, it appears this airport
was to be a civilian airport.
Construction of the airport was underway when the
United States entered World War II in December, 1941. By 1942,
the United States government took control of the airport and the
US Navy continued construction of what was to become a Naval Air
Station. This Naval Air Station was administratively part of the
Alameda Naval Air Station, which was being built near San Francisco.
Thereafter, the airport near Dows Prairie was called Naval
Air Auxiliary Station _Arcata (NAAS_Arcata).
As near as I can tell, the mission of NAAS_Arcata
was pilot training, coastal defense, and a place for aircraft
flown off of aircraft carriers returning from the Pacific theater.
Later in the war it also became a place to test fog dispersal
equipment. An additional purpose of airports like NAAS Arcata
was assistance in cross_country navigation.
Examination of leftover Navy construction blueprints
reveals that the airport underwent two construction phases (three,
if you count the installation of the fog dispersal test equipment).
The problem was that the weather was very bad in the Aleutian
Islands, so bad that airplanes often could not take_off or land.
In particular, the fog at the airfields up there was very bad
(worse than it is here in Humboldt County).
The Army and the Navy were very interested in methods
of fog dispersal. So, in 1943 a member of the War Department toured
airfields in England were devices to burn off fog were being tested.
These methods were tried at an airfield in Alaska with some success.
The Navy was interested in conducting further fog
dispersal tests at an airfield that was not in a war zone. Because
of the upwelling of deep, cold water off of the Northern California,
thick fog formed along the coast. It turned out that NAAS_Arcata
was in the thick of this fog, so to speak. Therefore, the Navy
chose this place to conduct the fog tests. FIDO was born.
FIDO was installed and testing began in 1945. The
war in the Pacific ended in August, 1945, and the Navy deactivated
in May 1946, although they still had ownership of the property.
In 1947, FIDO testing resumed under a consortium of entities,
including the US Government and United Airlines. The airport was
now know as Landing Aides Experiment Station_Arcata (LAES_Arcata).
Fog_dispersal operations continued at LAES_Arcata until the end
of 1949.
By 1950 the airport was given to the County of Humboldt by the US government.
(Bob Oswell, 1995.)
Enjoy these documents which were collected by Bob Oswell and prepared for upload by Roger Elliott's students at Zane Jr. High School.