Little Rock/Rock Port Airport

The specific reason for closure is not officially documented in public records. However, the closure is consistent with patterns seen at other small, privately-owned, public-use airports. Likely reasons include a combination of economic factors, such as low profitability, rising operational costs, increasing property taxes, or the owner's decision to sell the land for more lucrative private or agricultural use.

The airport site is now a private residential and agricultural property. Current satellite imagery clearly shows that the land has been repurposed. A private home and several large outbuildings, some of which may be repurposed hangars, are located on the property. The faint, cross-shaped outline of the two former turf runways is still visible as distinct mowed paths and tree lines within the surrounding fields, but the site is definitively no longer an active airfield.

Originally established as a private airfield named 'Rock Port' between 1965 and 1970, it later became a public-use facility known as Little Rock Airport with the FAA identifier 9Y4. It was a modest but important general aviation hub for the Rice, Minnesota area. The airport featured two turf runways: the primary runway 17/35 at 3,000 feet and a crosswind runway 8/26 at 2,000 feet. It catered to local pilots and recreational flyers, and records from the 1980s show it offered services such as 100LL aviation fuel and minor airframe repairs through the 'Little Rock Air Service'.

There are no known plans or prospects for reopening the Little Rock/Rock Port Airport. The land is privately owned and has been integrated into a residential homestead for over two decades. Re-establishing an airport on this site would require land reacquisition and significant investment to meet modern aviation standards, making its reopening extremely unlikely.