This collection of historical documentation is focused on both government and contractor communications involving three site locations comprising the Flagstaff Airport at different intervals during the early and mid-part of the twentieth century. The earliest known location for the Flagstaff Airport was actually a small airfield northwest of town. Scant documentation is available to its existence prior to the selection of Koch Field as Flagstaff’s second airport locality in 1928. While in operation for two decades, the Koch Field location proved challenging due to topographic and atmospheric obstacles. The third location where the current Flagstaff Pulliam Airport resides is located five miles south of town.
For many years, the Flagstaff Airport Collection has been dispersed in multiple boxes mixed with various unrelated City correspondence housed in the Flagstaff City-Coconino County Public Library Archive. Over the past 18 months, this material has been reviewed, assembled, and digitized into an organized and viable collection of folders labeled in boxes representative of the development of the Flagstaff Airport from the 1920s through the early 1960s. Many of these papers involve correspondence among prominent Flagstaff City staff including Clarence T. "Maggie" Pulliam, namesake of the current airport built in 1948. An assortment of correspondence among contractors and legal authorities along with blueprints and diagrams is also found in the Collection. Also included are documents relating to former Flagstaff Airport Managers Francis Xavier Shamrell and Larry Larkin.
The Flagstaff Airport is an integral part of the history of Flagstaff, and related files are now assembled for physical and digital access at the Flagstaff City downtown library. Physical materials are comprised of non-circulating items located in the library archive. The collection is available to review upon request at the Reference Desk.
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