Dr Joseph W Esser Airport

The closure was a direct result of the death of the airport's owner. It was a private airfield, and without the owner to maintain and operate it, the property was likely sold or inherited by family who chose not to continue airport operations, leading to its permanent closure.

The airport site is now a private residential estate and agricultural land. The buildings that once served as hangars appear to have been converted into large garages or storage buildings for the current residence. The faint, grassy outline of the former northwest/southeast runway is still visible from satellite imagery, but the property is no longer used for any aviation activities.

Dr. Joseph W. Esser Airport, which operated under the FAA Location Identifier (LID) 3LL3, was a private-use general aviation airfield established in the early 1970s. It featured a single turf runway (13/31) that was approximately 2,640 feet long and 100 feet wide. The airport was a classic example of a privately owned airstrip, serving the personal flying needs of Dr. Esser and likely other local pilots in the Hampshire, Illinois area. It represented the passion for aviation held by many individuals who built and maintained their own facilities during the peak of general aviation in the United States.

There are no known plans or prospects for reopening the airport. The land has been fully converted to private residential and agricultural use. Re-establishing an airport on the site would be prohibitively expensive and face significant zoning and regulatory hurdles, making its return to aviation service extremely unlikely.