Marfa, TX, Ca. 1931 (Source: Webmaster)

The Marfa, TX airfield was primarily a southwest Texas military installation. It was built originally by the U.S. Army in 1919 for patrols of the Mexican border by airplane. The Army's patrols of the border were discontinued in 1923 and the field was turned over to the town of Marfa and made into their Municipal Airport. It was, however, jointly used by the military until WWII.

At right, from this REFERENCE, page 48, a description of the field from 1931. Although the description suggests it was also an airdrome for the Navy, none of the naval aviators who signed the Register were based, went to, or came to Tucson from Marfa.

The Army built another, larger airfield at Marfa during WWII. It took over the Municipal Airport and made it the Marfa Auxiliary Airfield #7. The fields around Marfa were used for twin engine airplane training during WWII. After about 1949 the #7 airfield was no longer used by the military or as a civil airfield. It was abandoned, and a golf course built over part of it.

Below, from this REFERENCE, page 192, a description of the Marfa airfield from 1937. The infrastructure had evolved over six years to include four identifiable landing strips, but the entire field was still available for landing. The Army added their radio station, WUG, even though the field was joint use by this time. Two pilots identified Marfa, TX as their home base. Fourteen flights arrived from Marfa and seven cited Marfa as their final destination.

Marfa, TX, Ca. 1937 (Source: Webmaster)

Below, a Google Earth image of the approximate location of the Marfa Municipal Airport in 1937. Notice the golf course. I left the latitude and longitude grid on this image. Compare them with the values given in the description, above. Close, but not as good as we can get with a simple GPS today. The contemporary Marfa Municipal is about 2.5 miles to the northwest of this site.

Marfa, TX, 2010 (Source: Google Earth)

A summary of Marfa Army Auxiliary #7, with photographs, is at the Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields site.

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THIS PAGE UPLOADED: 12/18/10 REVISED: