Wichman Airport

The specific reason for closure is not officially recorded. As a small, privately owned airfield (managed by Delbert Wichman), the closure was most likely due to personal reasons of the owner, such as retirement, sale of the property, or death. Following the cessation of flight operations, the land was fully converted to agricultural use, which is a common economic outcome for rural private airstrips.

The site is currently used as active farmland. Modern satellite imagery shows that the land where the runway was located has been fully reclaimed for agriculture. A faint, linear outline of the former north-northeast/south-southwest runway is still discernible in the fields, but there are no remaining aviation facilities. The property is integrated into the surrounding cropland.

Wichman Airport was a small, private airfield with no major historical significance on a national level. Its importance was local, serving as a private base for general aviation. The 1972 Illinois Airport Directory described it as having a single 2,600-foot turf runway (Runway 2/20). Operations would have consisted primarily of recreational flying for the owner and possibly other local pilots. Given its location in a farming region, it may have also supported agricultural aviation activities like crop dusting.

There are no known plans or prospects for reopening Wichman Airport. The land has been privately owned and used for agriculture for several decades. Re-establishing an airport would require purchasing the land and significant investment to meet modern standards, making it highly improbable.