Joshua Sanford Field

The airport was closed following its replacement by the new, more modern Hillsboro Municipal Airport (FAA: Y51), which was activated in August 1989. The new airport, located a few miles to the northeast, offered superior facilities, including a paved runway, making Joshua Sanford Field obsolete.

The site of the former airport has been converted back to undeveloped rural land and is used for agriculture. Satellite imagery of the coordinates shows open fields where the airport once stood. The faint outline of the former north/south runway is still discernible from the air, but no airport infrastructure, such as hangars or other buildings, remains.

Joshua Sanford Field served as the original municipal airport for the city of Hillsboro, Wisconsin. It was a general aviation facility featuring an unpaved turf runway with a length of approximately 2,600 feet. The airport was named in memory of Joshua Sanford, a 21-year-old local pilot and Air Force veteran who was tragically killed in a plane crash near the field on May 26, 1957. For over three decades, it supported private pilots, agricultural operations, and other light aircraft activity for the local community.

There are no known plans or prospects for reopening Joshua Sanford Field. The community's aviation needs are fully served by the active Hillsboro Municipal Airport (Y51), and the land of the former airport has been fully repurposed, making a return to aviation use highly improbable.