La Leona Airport

Operational replacement and obsolescence. La Leona was an unpaved airstrip that was replaced by the newly constructed, paved, and better-equipped Terlingua Ranch Airport (1E2), located a few miles to the northeast. The new airport provided a more reliable and modern facility to serve the needs of the Terlingua Ranch development.

The airport is abandoned and defunct. The physical location of the former runway is still clearly visible from satellite imagery, but it is heavily deteriorated, overgrown with desert vegetation, and unusable for aviation. The land is now simply part of the undeveloped expanse of Terlingua Ranch, with dirt roads and tracks crossing the former airstrip.

La Leona Airport was the original airfield built to serve the vast Terlingua Ranch development, which was established in the 1960s. Its primary purpose was to fly in prospective land buyers and provide air access for property owners in the remote, 200,000-acre ranch. As the initial air gateway, it was instrumental in the early marketing, sales, and development of the community. The airport featured a single, 3,600-foot unpaved runway.

There are no known plans or prospects for reopening La Leona Airport. Its function has been entirely and permanently superseded by the active Terlingua Ranch Airport (1E2), which continues to serve the local community. Reopening the older, primitive strip would be redundant and economically unviable.