Deer Park Municipal Airport

T he Deer ParkMunicipal Airport is a city- owned, public-use, general aviation airport located three nautical miles northeast of the central business district of Deer Park, in Spokane County,Washington. It was originally built in 1944 as part of the WorldWar II effort,with three 6,100- foot runways that were built to handle the largest planes then in existence, such as the B-29 Super- fortress, and others contemplated in the foresee- able future. The Airport wasn’t used extensively during the war, which ended a year later, nor did it witness much aviation activity during the immediate years after- ward. In fact, the facility was mostly used as a local drag strip. In 1959, however, in the midst of the Cold War, the U.S. government selected the Deer Park Airport as an installation site for one of its Atlas ICBMs (Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles).The City Council balked at the military’s desire to place it right in the middle of the runways, and, instead, of-