Haycock Airport

The closure was due to economic reasons directly linked to the fate of the community it served. Haycock was a gold mining town that thrived in the early-to-mid 20th century. After World War II, mining operations declined sharply, leading to a mass exodus of the population. With no permanent residents or economic activity to sustain it, the airport became obsolete and was abandoned. The closure was a gradual process of disuse rather than a single event.

The site is abandoned and unmaintained. Satellite imagery of the coordinates shows a clearly discernible but overgrown gravel/dirt runway adjacent to the Koyuk River and the remnants of the Haycock ghost town. The surface is likely soft and covered with vegetation, making it unusable for conventional aircraft. The area is now part of a historical ghost town, occasionally visited by hunters, trappers, or tourists exploring the region's mining history, who would typically access the area via the river or by landing specially equipped aircraft on nearby river gravel bars rather than the airstrip itself.

Haycock Airport was the lifeline for the remote mining community of Haycock. In a region without road access, the airstrip was the primary conduit for transportation and supplies, especially during the long winter months when the Koyuk River was frozen. It was used exclusively by bush planes for general aviation, handling the transport of miners, mail, food, medical supplies, and mining equipment. The airport was critical to the placer gold mining operations on the Seward Peninsula during its active years, enabling the settlement to exist and function far from regional hubs like Nome.

There are no known plans or prospects for reopening Haycock Airport. The complete lack of a local population and supporting infrastructure makes its revival economically unfeasible. Reopening the airport would require a significant new economic driver, such as a large-scale resumption of mining in the immediate vicinity, for which there are currently no active proposals. Given its remote location and the high cost of restoring and maintaining an airfield in the Alaskan bush, the prospect of it ever becoming an active airport again is extremely low.