Larson Brothers Airport

The airport operated from 1922, three years after the state's first airport opened in Milwaukee, until 1990.[3][4] It was formed when Clarence, Leonard, Newell, and Roy Larson cleared an 80 rod-long sod landing strip behind their barn.[3] He had two Curtiss Canuck airplanes.[5] They began barnstorming the United States at county fairs and offering flying lessons before building a hangar in 1924.[3] Roy Larson barnstormed Wisconsin for Bob La Follette's 1924 Presidential campaign.[3] The hangar allowed them to work and store on six airplanes.[3]

In 1926, the brothers formed the Roy Larson Aircraft Company for their repair work, and created a corporation for all of their ventures as the Wisconsin Airways in the following year.[3] Roy Larson died in 1929 while a student was flying the airplane that he was riding in.[5]

In 1932, the Milwaukee Journal called the airport the "finest airport in the state".[3] Soon after, sod airports began fading as more powerful airplanes required longer paved runways.[3] It temporarily closed following a federal mandate at the beginning of World War II.[3]

Leonard Larson trained fighter pilots for the war.[6]

By the late 1970s, it was the oldest airport in the state.[5]

The airport was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 5, 1984.[1][6] A historic marker was unveiled along Wisconsin Highway 150 on September 29, 1985 describing the history of the airport.[6] The National Register uses the airport's design as an example of an airport included because of its design/construction: "The Larsen Brothers Airport in Clayton, Winnebago County, Wisconsin, represents one of the earliest forms of airport design in the State. Builder Knute Johnson adapted barn-building technology to construct the hangar in 1924."[7]

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  Landing strip
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  Historic marker