History
In 1936, the City of Oroville acquired 188 acres (0.76 km2) of grazing land for use as a municipal airport. During 1941, the city and the Works Project Administration (WPA) extended the runways and increased the total airport land area to 428 acres (1.73 km2).
In 1942, the War Department leased the Oroville Municipal Airport and renamed it Oroville Army Air Field (AAF). That same year the Army purchased an additional 381.98 acres (1.5458 km2) of land for expansion of the field and construction of a cantonement area. Once operational, it served as a fighter group training installation from spring of 1943 through early summer 1944. Two fighter groups rotated through Oroville AAF: the 357th Fighter Group (fighter group of famed pilots Chuck Yeager and Bud Anderson) and the 369th Fighter Group. Aircraft present at the field were identified as the Bell P-39Q Airacobra, North American P-51B/C/D Mustangs, and possibly the North American A-36 Apache, the ground attack version of the P-51.
Layout plans of the former Oroville AAF dated 1944 indicate a Bomb Storage Area west of the two runways and a skeet range between the southern extents of the runways. Fueling pit boxes were located along former Taxiways A (running parallel to runway 12/30) and C (connecting the southernmost ends of runways 1/19 and 12/30). A 1947 Inventory Report of Buildings and Structures states that bombs were stored in earth revetments.
In 1945 Oroville AAF was listed as “temporarily inactive” under assignment to Air Technical Service Command and was later classified as surplus. In 1946 the War Assets Administration (WAA) assumed custody of the site and on 21 May 1947, the WAA terminated the U.S. Army’s lease with the City of Oroville and returned ownership to civil authorities.
Read more about this topic: Oroville Municipal Airport
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