Site of Pampa Army Air Force Base

The field, called the Eagles' Nest of the High Plains, taught advanced twin-engine flying, mostly in Beechcraft AT-10s, with AT-9s, AT-17s and B-25s also on hand. It had three concrete runways, four large hangars and four auxiliary fields; one of them, Thompson Auxiliary No. 2, later became Perry LeFors Airport. Advanced training ended on December 28, 1944. The Air Force reopened the site as an auxiliary field in 1948, declared it excess in 1955 and sold the last tract in 1957. A concrete water tower, one hangar and a broken parking apron remain.

What the plaque says

Site of Pampa Army Air Force Base In the early 1940s Pampa mayor Fred Thompson and a delegation from the city's Chamber of Commerce traveled to Washington, D.C. to promote this area as a possible site for a military base. Attracted by the terrain, climatic history, available land and community response, Army officials chose this site for the establishment of an installation to train pilots and support personnel for World War II. Construction of the Pampa Army Air Force Base began in June 1942, under the direction of the Tulsa, Oklahoma office of the Corps of Engineers. Overseeing the initial stages of the operation was Col. Norman B. Olsen. Temporary offices were set up in the Rose Motor Company and Culberson-Smalling buildings in town. Col. Daniel S. Campbell became the commanding officer in September 1942, and within two months the first planes and aviation cadets had arrived. The Pampa Army Air Force Base closed September 30, 1945, after just three years of operation. During that time 6,292 aviation cadets and 3,500 mechanics were trained. The base's safety record was one of the best in the U.S. Training Command during World War II. Despite a brief history, the base had a dramatic impact on the development of the Pampa area. (1982)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Woody Guthrie Folk Music Center — 11 mi
  The old Harris Drug Store in Pampa, where a young Woody Guthrie jerked sodas and found his first guitar, now a folk music center with Friday night jam sessions.
• White Deer Land Museum — 12 mi
  The 1916 Pampa office of the land company that sold a foreclosed British ranch to wheat farmers, with an annex holding one of the Panhandle's largest Red River War collections.
• Roberts County Museum — 12 mi
  The county museum in Miami's old Santa Fe depot, holding mammoth bones and Clovis points from a 1934 dig, in the cow town that has held a cow-calling contest since 1949.
• Old Mobeetie Jail Museum — 18 mi
  The 1886 stone jail of the Panhandle's first county seat, the buffalo hunters' Hidetown on Sweetwater Creek that ran the courts for fifteen counties before losing its fort, railroad hopes and county seat.

More markers nearby

• Rescue of Two White Girls by Lt. Frank Baldwin — 7.8 mi
• Big Springs — 8.4 mi
• Gray County — 9.5 mi
• First Methodist Church of Pampa — 11 mi