Aviation View | Volume 1, Issue 2

84 AVIATION VIEW VOLUME 1, ISSUE 2 F orty miles north of Denver lies the beautiful City of Greeley, located in the High Plains of northern Colorado about 25 miles east of the Rocky Mountains. The city has an interesting history having been started as a Union Colony that was founded in 1869 as an experimental utopian community based on temperance, religion, agriculture, education, and family values. It was, and still is, an agricultural area that has continued to grow and embrace who they are. The Greeley-Weld County Airport is another source of pride in the community. Airport Manager Cooper Anderson, shares, “Just to give a bit of context of how we got out here, the airport used to be on the south side of Greeley and was moved to our current location in 1944. Back then, it had just one runway and was called Crosier Field – named after Clarence F. “Red” Crosier, a local kid who championed the move of the airport to its current location. Crosier was killed in action in June of 1944 while on a pre- D-day bombing raid in a B-26 Marauder over France. The driving force behind moving the airport outside of town was to allow for some larger aircraft, airline service, and mail service.” The airport continued to evolve. Lights were added in the 1950s for nighttime operations and in 1978, the City of Greeley and Weld County jointly took control, created the Greeley-Weld County Airport Authority AT A GLANCE GREELEY-WELD COUNTY AIRPORT WHAT: A thriving general aviation airport WHERE: Forty miles north of Denver, Colorado WEBSITE: www.gxy.net OUNTY AIRPORT The best of everything