Historic Posts, Camps, Stations and Airfields

Taft-Kern County Airport No. 2 Auxiliary Field No. 5

 

 

US Army Corps of Engineers Los Angeles District History (20 May 1992)

 

ocation: The site is located in southwestern Kern County, California, approximately 6 miles northeast of the City of Maricopa and approximately 8 miles southwest of the City of Taft. It includes portions of Sections 19 and 30, Township 32 South, Range 25 East.

 

Site History:: A Kern County owned landing field existed on the property on, or before, 1942 as indicated in an aerial photograph of the same date. War Department acquired the property.by lease on 1 January 1944. No permanent structures are known to have been constructed on the site by the Army. It is believed that pilots based at nearby Gardner Field, a World War II training base, used the site for touch-and-go landing practice. A former World War II flight instructor based in Kern County indicated that such training at auxiliary landing fields did not involve the use of ordnance.

 

The property was declared surplus on 27 September 1945 and subsequently released. An aerial photograph dated 1952 showed no sign of the fo~mer runways and it appeared that the site had been developed for agricultural purposes. The property is currently privately held and is in agricultural use.

 

 

US Army Corps of Engineers Los Angeles District History (4 September 1992)

 

The War Department acquired 250 acres by lease on 1 January 1944. The leased property included 160 acres from the County of Kern and 90 acres from Standard Oil Company of California.

A landing field existed on the site prior to Army acquisition in 1944. A 1942 aerial photograph showed the site to be graded and possibly paved along the perimeter and in a orth-south/east-west
cross pattern through the center of the field. It is believed that Army Air Corps pilots based at nearby Gardner Field used the site for touch-and-go landing practice. No permanent improvements are known to have been installed by Army.

The 250 acres of the site were declared surplus on 27 September 1945 and were subsequently released. A 1952 aerial photograph show~d no sign of the former runways. The site appeared to have been developed for agricultural purposes. The property is currently privately held and is in agricultural use.

 

Extract US Army Air Forces Directory of Airfields (January 1945)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Updated 8 February 2016