Army Airbase Historical Society requesting exclusion on sale

Monday, October 28, 2002

The McCook Army Airbase Historical Society is requesting that the city of McCook exclude the area where the buildings for the World War II era Army Airbase once stood.

In a letter to the McCook City Council, Dale Cotton, president of the historical society, asked the Council to "set aside the building area, concrete building foundations and apron from the pending sale or auction of the property."

Cotton asks that the city allow his society to clean up the building area in order to preserve the existing buildings and promote the historical site for tourism as a heritage museum complex.

The area Cotton is asking to be excluded from the sale includes five hangars, warehouse buildings, the Norden bombsight maintenance vault, concrete building foundations and the airplane apron.

McCook is the only airbase remaining in Nebraska with all its hangars still standing.

"Some of the building foundations are, we believe, the only ones left in the State of Nebraska to show the layout of barracks, mess hall and latrine. Building foundations also remain for the celestial navigation touwers, training buildings and craxh truck building," the letter said.

Cotton said the arrival of the McCook Army Airbase changed the future of the city of McCook.

"The McCook Army Airbase is sixty years old and is valuable as a historic site. We are working to gain Historic Registry listing," he told the Council.

"Don't sell away our history again," Cotton pleaded with the Council in the letter. "Once the building area is set aside from the sale or auction, it will give us the opportunity to work with the McCook City Council to find what can be done to preserve the McCook Army Airbase."

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