White Mountain Golf Course Was Once The Rock Springs Airport

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In June 1931, a crowd awaits the arrival of Amelia Earhart at the original Rock Springs Airport north of the city. Photo courtesy of the Sweetwater County Historical Museum.

Submitted by Dick Blust, Sweetwater County Historical Museum

A recent article about famed aviator Amelia Earhart’s 1931 visit to Rock Springs generated several calls to the Sweetwater County Historical Museum, all with the same question: “Where was the Rock Springs Airport at that time?”

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The answer is the White Mountain Golf Course, just north of the Sweetwater Events Complex on Yellowstone Road.

An aerial photograph depicting the location of the airway beacon and hangar at the original Rock Springs Airport, circa 1931. Photo courtesy of the Sweetwater Historical Museum.

Working with United States Geological Survey data from the early 1930s, museum researchers were able to pinpoint the location of the airport’s hangar and airway beacon, as shown in the aerial photograph here. Both were located generally southeast of where golf course’s clubhouse and restaurant now stand along the southwest edge of the course.

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In later years, the airport was relocated to its current site east of Rock Springs. The old structures were completely demolished and nothing now remains of the original facility.

The locations shown in the photo above for the hangar and airway beacon are in an “Authorized Vehicles Only” area not open to the general public.

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