Bryce Canyon Airport

BRYCE CANYON A I RPORT towards the completion of the structure. The hangar is a tribute to the early days of air travel in the United States. In the mid-1930s remote places such as Garfield County began to realize the benefits that could be derived from air services. Simultaneously, the U.S. government realized that a network of airport facilities was a necessity. Thus, the WPA and Garfield Country worked together to further both local and national concerns. In the realm of airplane hangar construction and design, the Bryce County Airport hangar is truly an oddity. The logs used in its construction were cut as part of the Civilian Conservation Corps (another New Deal agency) project to eradicate the black beetle in Southern Utah. Infested ponderosa pine trees were felled and sawed at the East Fork Sevier River sawmill and the logs were then hauled by teams of horses to the construction site. Having no previous experience in designing or building an airplane hangar, the ranchers and farmers built in the style they knew, which turned out to be a large, log, barnlike edifice. Still standing today, the soundness of the building bears witness to the excellence of craftsmanship and ingenuity of design. The distinctive hangar is part of the reason the Bryce Canyon Airport found its way onto the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. Garfield County employs a staff of two to operate the Airport, and also supplies some of its operating funds, although Ramsay, who took over the reins about three years ago, says that it is close to “working in the black. It’s one step at a time.” Currently, the Airport is shut down, as it is in the midst of a full runway reconstruction project. Ramsay admits that the timing for the project was fortuitous as the COVID-19 pandemic has halted much of the Airport’s regular business, anyway. He expects the project to be completed by the middle or end of September.