A deserted 4,430-foot stretch of asphalt leading toward the distant hills lies four miles southeast of Tombstone’s main drag.

Across from a torn red windsock, two decrepit steel hangars sit amidst weeds growing in excess of three feet tall, brown from water deprivation. Off Highway 80, a rusted sign hangs over a dirt road leading to an unkempt parking lot directing few to this seldom-used landing strip. Despite all this, new life may be in store for the Tombstone Municipal Airport.

“Anyone who wants to use the airport can use it,” Mayor Jack Henderson said, noting that the visitors just need to call before they use the landing strip and the town will welcome them with open arms. “There have been less fly-ins recently with the way the economy’s been going,” he added, letting his disappointment show.

“Of course we like to keep it maintained,” Henderson said. “It wouldn’t make sense to have it and just let it rot away.” He said he wasn’t sure of the exact number on how much keeping the strip maintained costs, but he assured it was a minimal price. Henderson was also sure it would cost more if the town let it become washed away now and tried to rebuild it later.

The town is working with the Southern Arizona Economic Development Group to help bring in more tourists. “We’ll be looking into furthering the airport after we address some other upgrades to the town,” Henderson said. Specifically, the mayor mentioned adding the boardwalk to Fremont Street as well as possible major hotels and a convention center. “Those additions, of course, means airplanes.”

“Airports are a good economic engine for a town like Tombstone and they should take advantage of what they already have,” said George Scott, executive director of the Southern Arizona Economic Development Group. “Tombstone is looking to fix up their airport, but it isn’t high on their list of priorities.”

“Airports do help bring in tourists,” Scott said, noting there have been numerous studies showing that fact. Scott is working with the city of Benson to revamp their airport, but he believes Tombstone shouldn’t count on additional business coming from a town 20 minutes away. “I’m sure more people would fly if the airport was more welcoming,” he added.

Scott was not sure how much it would cost Tombstone to bring its own airport up to standards, but he knows that Benson has been able to get funding for the project from outside sources. “The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) and Arizona transportation are willing to give grants to towns renovating their airports,” he said, “and I think that’s something that should really be explored.”

It all makes sense to Henderson.

“We’d like to have more events at the airport,” Henderson said, hoping to boost not only the town’s tourism but also that of the airfield itself. “We’re looking into hosting a balloon launch at the site,” he said. “That always makes for a fun weekend.”

Aside from possibly housing hot air balloons, a small privately owned plane is kept in each of the locked silver hangars, which sit on the end of the cracked asphalt taxiway. Other than the two shelters, dozens of tires with chains cemented inside are situated on the adjacent dirt to tie down additional fixed-wings.

“In the past year we’ve had fly-in breakfasts and they’ve been fairly popular and I imagine when the economy comes back up we’ll be doing that a lot more often,” Henderson said.

For the time being, the land itself is used as a sort of storage yard for the city—in what was once the parking lot sits the overhead portion of the pedestrian bridge traversing Fremont Street to the old Tombstone High School. Although a sign on the bridge claims there is 15 feet, 3 inches of headroom underneath, there is clearly only enough room for lizards to squeeze under.

“It’s expensive for us to ship something that big and heavy outside of town just to throw it away,” Henderson said. “We’ve heard there may be some interest in it from the college in Sierra Vista, so we’re holding on to it until they say for sure they want it.”

In addition to adding more value to Tombstone and helping raise the number of tourists, Henderson has a personal agenda for bringing a viable airport to town. As a retired pilot, he owned a flight school and has seen first hand that airports can bring in more jobs for the community as well. “Maintenance and fabrication of the airplanes, businesses at the airport,” he said. “Someday I’d like to see something like that here in Tombstone.”