Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields:
Northwestern Utah
© 2002, © 2005 by Paul Freeman. Revised 6/21/05.
Locomotive Springs Intermediate Field (revised 4/5/04) - Low Flight Strip (revised 6/21/05)
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Locomotive Springs Intermediate Field, Locomotive Springs, UT
41.71 North / 112.92 West (Northwest of Salt Lake City, UT)
Locomotive Springs Intermediate Field, as depicted on a May 1930 Airway Map (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).
Photo of the airfield while open has not been located.
Locomotive Springs was one of the Department of Commerce's network of Intermediate Fields,
which were constructed in the 1920s & 1930s along airways between major cities.
They were intended for emergency use by commercial aircraft.
The date of construction of the Locomotive Springs Intermediate Field has not been determined.
The earliest reference to the field which has been located
was on a May 1930 Airway Map (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).
A 1933 Department of Commerce Airport Directory (courtesy of Chris Kennedy)
described Locomotive Springs as Site 7 along the Salt Lake - El Paso Airway.
It was described as consisting of a 2,000' x 1,900' rectangular sod field,
with boundary & approach lights, and a rotating beacon.
Locomotive Springs was still depicted as an active airfield
on the July 1940 Salt Lake City Sectional Chart (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).
As commercial aircraft became more reliable & longer ranged in the 1940s,
many of the more remote Intermediate Fields in the Department of Commerce's network became superfluous,
and this was most likely the case with Locomotive Springs.
It was evidently closed at some point between 1940-44,
as it was not listed in the April 1944 US Army/Navy Directory of Airfields (courtesy of Ken Mercer),
and it was not depicted on the February 1945 Salt Lake City Sectional Chart (according to Chris Kennedy).
USGS topo map 1969.
Post-WW2 USGS sectional charts continued to depict the 2 runways at Locomotive Springs,
but the field was labeled simply as "Landing Strips",
which usually indicates that it was no longer an active airfield.
The 1969 USGS topo map depicted the field as having a 2,000' northwest/southeast runway
and a shorter north/south runway.
As seen in the 1993 USGS aerial photo,
the desert landscape has preserved the 2 runways at Locomotive Springs remarkably well,
more than 60 years after they were evidently constructed.
There was no sign of any buildings having been at the site.
The Locomotive Springs airfield is located southeast of the intersection of Locomotive Road & Salt Wells Road.
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40.79 North / 113.2 West (West of Salt Lake City, UT)
Low Flight Strip, as depicted on the 1945 Salt Lake Sectional Chart (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).
Photo of the airfield while open has not been located.
This was one of the many Flight Strips which were built by the USAAF
during WW2 for the emergency use of military aircraft.
The Low Flight Strip was listed on a 1943 table of 2nd Air Force Flight Strips (courtesy of John Voss),
which indicated that construction of the strip was completed in 1943.
The strip was described as consisting of a 7,130' paved runway,
with a total graded length of 9,130'.
Low Flight Strip was an auxiliary field of either Wendover AAF or Salt Lake AAF during WWII (according to Keith Wood).
It consisted of a single north/south runway, which was built on top of a dirt road which led north from US Highway 40.
According to Keith Wood, “Apparently they started using the road for liaison planes,
then widened it for larger planes before finally diverting the road past the western side of the runway & paving the airstrip.”
It was depicted as "Low FS" on the September 1949 Great Salt Lake World Aeronautical Chart (courtesy of Donald Felton).
The 1955 & 1965 Salt Lake City Sectional Charts (according to Chris Kennedy)
depicted it as "Low FS AF", and described it as having a 7,100' hard-surface runway.
It is not known whether the Low Flight Strip was ever reused as a civilian airfield.
Low Flight Strip, as depicted on the 1965 Salt Lake Sectional Chart (courtesy of Chris Kennedy).
The Low Flight Strip was apparently closed at some point after 1965.
In the 1993 USGS aerial photo, the runway was remarkably well preserved,
considering that it was built nearly 60 years ago.
The paved runway surface had apparently been extended at some point after the runway's initial construction,
as the length of the runway pavement is 9,300' in the 1993 aerial photo.
There was also what appeared to be a small square paved ramp area,
along the west side of the northern end of the runway.
There did not appear to be any trace of any buildings at the site.
This field was not depicted at all (not even as an abandoned airfield)
on either recent USGS topo maps or 2002 aeronautical charts.
This seems quite strange, for a 9,300' paved runway!
A road now passes down the center of the runway of the Flight Strip.
This road runs between Interstate 80 (4 miles to the south)
and the Grassy Mountain toxic-waste facility which sits adjacent to the Flight Strip to the northwest.
This complex also is not depicted on USGS topo maps.
A 2005 photo by Keith Wood, looking north along the remains of the runway pavement at Low.
“Digging down a couple of inches through the sand covering, I hit solid pavement -
except in the center, which was pretty much pulverized by years of heavy trucks driving over it (thus to preserve the main road).”
Keith Wood visited the site of Low Flight Strip in 2005.
He reported: “The paved runway is now covered by several inches of sand,
which was done sometimes in the desert to preserve the blacktop when a field was abandoned.
This field is at the edge of restricted airspace, used for low-level training from Hill AFB,
and it's possible that it was expected to be used again.
I found no sign of ground facilities, ramp, tiedowns, etc - just the windsock & the runway.
Less than 2 minutes after I stopped on the road to start shooting, I had a van pulling up to ask what I was up to.
When I told the driver I was only shooting photos of the airstrip,
he asked if I meant to shoot the bombing range a couple of miles up the road.
He didn't know about the airstrip, and looked at the windsock pole as if finally figuring out what it was for!”
A 2005 photo by Keith Wood, looking east from the road at the windsock pole which remains erect Low.
A 2005 photo by Keith Wood of the remains of a large, illuminated wind sock pole near the south end of the strip.
Power lines followed the current road, but there was no trace of wires to the windsock.
“Scraps of heavy orange canvas litter the ground around the post.
The metal frame from the windsock is now a nest for some large bird, so it could be said that flight operations continue.”
A 2005 photo by Keith Wood of the remains of the light bulb which presumably sat on top of the windsock pole.
“A minor mystery is that the red dome on the top light of the windsock was made of plastic, which makes it post-WWII -
indicating some use after the war!”
Low Flight Strip is located 4 miles north of Interstate 80, 6 miles northeast of Knolls, UT.
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