Silver Bay Municipal Airport

The closure was for economic reasons. The City of Silver Bay, which owned and operated the airport, found it was no longer financially sustainable to maintain the facility. The city council made the strategic decision to close the airport and redevelop the valuable land into an industrial park to attract businesses and generate tax revenue, a more economically productive use for the property.

The site has been successfully redeveloped into the North Shore Business Park. The original alignment of the runway is still clearly visible in satellite imagery, but it is now occupied by several large commercial and industrial buildings. In an ironic twist, one of the anchor tenants of the business park is a major facility for Cirrus Aircraft, which manufactures composite components for its aircraft on the grounds of the former airport.

Established around 1956, Silver Bay Municipal Airport (former FAA identifier: BDE) was a public-use general aviation airport. Its creation was directly linked to the founding and growth of Silver Bay as a company town for the Reserve Mining Company's taconite processing plant. The airport played a crucial role in connecting the remote North Shore community, supporting business travel for the mining industry, facilitating the transport of urgent parts and personnel, and serving local general aviation pilots and tourism. It featured a single asphalt runway, designated 14/32, which was 3,000 feet long and 75 feet wide. The airport primarily handled single-engine and light twin-engine aircraft and did not have scheduled commercial airline service.

There are zero prospects for reopening the airport. The land has been permanently and irreversibly repurposed with the construction of large, permanent industrial buildings directly on the former runway and taxiway. The region's general aviation needs are served by other nearby airports, such as William M. Kelley Memorial Field (62D) and Two Harbors Municipal Airport (KTWM).