Hagemeyer Airport

The specific reason for closure is not officially documented. However, Hagemeyer Airport was a private field owned and operated by local farmer and pilot Ralph E. Hagemeyer. The closure was almost certainly due to personal and economic factors, such as the owner's decision to cease flight operations due to advancing age, the increasing costs of liability insurance and maintenance, or a desire to return the land to full-time agricultural production. There is no evidence of a major accident, environmental issue, or military conversion leading to its closure.

The site of the former airport has been fully reclaimed for agricultural use. Satellite imagery clearly shows that the land where the runway once existed is now part of a larger cultivated field, used for growing row crops like corn or soybeans. While the faint outline of the former runway can sometimes be discerned depending on the season and crop patterns, all formal aviation markings and infrastructure are gone. One or two of the original buildings, including a structure that was likely the hangar, still stand at the south end of the former runway but are now used as farm buildings for equipment and storage.

Hagemeyer Airport was a classic example of a privately owned, private-use general aviation airfield. Its significance lies in its representation of grassroots aviation in rural America. The airport consisted of a single unpaved turf runway, oriented approximately north/south, with a length of about 2,600 feet. Operations were limited to small, single-engine aircraft typical of general aviation. It primarily served the recreational flying needs of its owner and possibly a few other local pilots. It was not a commercial or public-use facility and had no FBO (Fixed-Base Operator) or other public services. The airfield was established sometime between 1968 and 1981 and was located on the Hagemeyer family farm.

There are no known plans or prospects for reopening Hagemeyer Airport. The land is privately owned and has been actively farmed for over two decades. Re-establishing an airport on the site would be prohibitively expensive and complex, requiring significant private investment, land-use changes, and extensive regulatory approval from the FAA and local authorities. For these reasons, the prospect of it ever operating as an airport again is virtually zero.