Ford Grows from Cow Pasture to Jet Age Field in 30 Years

From a cow pasture in 1939 to a jet-age airport 30 years later. That’s the story in a nutshell at Ford Airport.

The Iron Mountain-Kingsford facility will come of age Sunday when North Central Airlines introduces regular DC-9 100-passenger fan-jet service here.

It all started in 1939 when the Ford Motor Company of Kingsford gave the county a $1 deed for 320 acres of land along the Menominee River.

DURING WORLD WAR II, the Ford Plant in Kingsford was converted to glider production. Ford produced 4,190 CG-4A cargo gliders between December 1942 and August 1945. Initially, the gliders were crated and shipped via railroad. Toward the end of production, they were towed to Ford Airport and about the last 100 gliders were then towed by airplane to Milwaukee. (Jack Deo, Superior View Studio)

The land was deeded to Dickinson County, with the stipulation that it would be used for airport facilities and named Ford Airport. It is now the only airport facility in the nation with that name.

“It was just a cow pasture at first,” airport manager Joseph Fontana recalled when discussing the early days of Ford airport.

Sod Runways

Just before the beginning of World War II in 1941, the Works Program Administration constructed two side runways, one being 1,600 feet and the other 2,100 feet.

During the war, the Ford plant here manufactured gliders for the military. Wood and fabric were utilized in constructing these gliders in order to conserve metal for other wartime materials.

Taken to Milwaukee

“Sometimes, the C47 would be flying too fast, and the cable would break,” Fontana pointed out. “Then they would have to put up a new cable and try again.”

However, the frame for the fuselages were built at the Lloyd Manufacturing Company in Menominee and shipped here via truck.

After the gliders rolled off the production line at the Ford plant, most of the machines were shipped out by rail, with the remainder towed out to Ford Airport.

At the airport, a nylon cable was hooked on two poles and the gliders were tied to the cable.

Then a C-47 would make a pass over the glider, having a cable extending below the tail with a hook on the end. The C-47 would snatch the gliders off the ground as the cable reeled out and the nylon cable stretched.

The gliders were taken to Mitchell Field at Milwaukee, where the C-47s picked up two gliders and towed them to the East Coast for the Armed Services.

After World War II, Nationwide Airlines initiated passenger service from Ford Airport and Houghton to Detroit and Lansing. As a result, 500 feet of blacktop was laid at the end of each one of the runways to permit safe landings of the passenger aircraft.

In 1948, the short northwest-southeast runway was extended from 1,600 feet to 3,800 feet and a 24-by-24-foot terminal building was constructed in 1949, when North Central Airlines started passenger service here as Wisconsin Central Airlines.

“When North Central started talking about bringing Convairs here, the north-south runway was increased from 2,100 feet to 4,800 feet in 1959,” Fontana explained.

Hangar Converted

The following year, 1960, a hangar was converted into what is now the airport terminal building.

The north-south runway has been extended again at the airport to permit the DC-9s to land safely here. A $500,000-plus improvement project at the airport this summer included extending the long runway from 4,800 feet to 6,500 feet. The airport has been extended from Kingsford to Breitung Township.

Future plans call for a new terminal building and the taxiway for the north-south runway. Joseph Fontana has been airport manager since 1944 and also serves as fixed based operator as head of Fontana Aviation Inc.

During World War II, Fontana was training U.S. Air Force cadet pilots at Houghton and his brother, Mario, was doing likewise at Rochester, Minnesota. When the war ended, the brothers brought their Fontana Aviation operations to Ford Airport.

Mario retired in 1964.

Joe still operates Fontana Aviation with four of his sons — Joseph Fontana Jr., Mark, Thomas and James — associated in the business. The firm has a total of 20 employees.