Civil Use
The War Assets Administration turned the military airfield to civil control, and was reused starting at some point in 1949 as a civilian airport.
Rice was depicted as an active public-use airfield on the March 1952 San Diego Sectional Chart. The chart depicted Rice as having a 5,000' paved runway. The status of the Rice airfield evidently changed to a private airfield at some point between 1952–55, as that is how it was depicted on the September 1955 San Diego Sectional Chart. The Rice Airport was evidently abandoned (for reasons unknown) at some point between 1955–58.
Today no standing structures remain of Rice Army Airfield and little but deteriorating concrete and bituminous runways remain in the desert. Two runways, one oriented NW/SE; the other NE/SW are faintly visible in aerial photography along with numerous fighter dispersal pads. A concrete parking area still exists about 0.5 miles (0.80 km) south of California Highway 62, which runs east/west north of the airfield. Dirt bike and dune buggy trails in the area obscure any evidence of roads or building foundations in what probably was the ground station. Generally, the entire area has reverted to its natural state.
As of January 2013 it was proposed that the Rice AAF site be used for the Rice Solar Energy Project.
Read more about this topic: Rice Army Airfield
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