Airport supports pilot safety, community growth

Upton Municipal Airport (ID “83V”) has a bigger role than some people may realize, according to manager Lori Materi, a commercial-rated pilot who volunteers to run the airport.

To a casual visitor, the airport, which is on Buffalo Creek Road about half a mile northwest of the road’s junction with Wyoming Highway 116, might not look like much. The runway is just a dirt path. Hangar space is limited. And unlike Newcastle’s Mondell Field Airport, Upton’s airport doesn’t receive Federal Aviation Administration funding, Materi said.

However, it’s FAA charted, which makes it an entryway for pilots who travel around, over or into the tiny, rural town and an accessible landing spot when pilots are in trouble, she said. People who use small airports like Upton’s buy fuel, eat in local restaurants, stay in hotels and promote business. Because the Upton airport doesn’t have a manager on-site to count airport users, it’s hard to tell how many people use it, but the airport estimates that about 10 people use it per week, based on such factors as how often Wyoming Game and Fish personnel use the airport to fly in for conducting bird surveys and wildlife counts and how often Materi, who chairs the airport board, receives calls from people asking what runway conditions are.

“That’s not always a land and get out and have lunch, but that’s what we predict,” she said.

Pilots also use the airport for emergency safe landings, Materi said. She recalled the case of a man who was able to land there when an engine on his airplane failed.

She said Weston County is “super fortunate” to have two airports and that she’s grateful Upton organizations, including town and county officials, have recently teamed up to support the airport. The Upton Town Council wants to keep the airport viable, charted and part of the growth plan. She’s seen support from the state, other airport managers, and the community too.

“It’s a web of people that believe strongly in keeping these viable and open,” she said.

According to Materi, because the city is invested in the airport and its viability, Upton Municipal Airport is part of the Wyoming airport system and is eligible for funding from the Wyoming Department of Transportation.

It wasn’t always that way, she said. General aviation pilots began using the airport around the 1960s and 1970s, but its use tailed off in the 1990s and 2000s before the airport board formed around 2010.

Around 2012, Materi bought a tailwheel airplane and wanted to do some training in Upton.

“It became clear that it had been a long time since the Upton airport had had any kind of activity or love or development,” she said.

Concerned that the airport would close, she decided to do what she could to prevent that from happening.

“I grew up flying in a family that used that airport a lot, so it’s got sentimental value,” she said.

It’s also challenging to establish an airport in the state, so Upton even having a runway is wonderful, according to Materi.

It’s also her understanding that it’s difficult for a municipality to start an airport because of the expense, engineering work and even just finding an area that will meet state and federal requirements.

According to Materi, Upton hopes to see growth and already has seen some, with companies, including Rare Element Resources, coming to the area. She thinks the airport has a role to play in that growth.

Around 2020, the state of Wyoming granted the airport $100,000 to complete a master plan, and the Weston County commissioners, Upton Economic Development Council and the Upton Town Council pitched in to provide the required $10,000 local match, Materi said.

The airport’s master plan was finalized in 2023, after about 10 years of work and meetings with WYDOT and the Upton Town Council, and she said even just looking at the plan makes her so happy that she wants to cry. With the master plan, if Upton grows or if a company wants to build a hangar at Upton’s airport, the airport is prepared to accommodate that.

The airport’s goals for the future include trying to get the part of its runway that is Thunder Basin National Grasslands property to be transferred from the U.S. Forest Service to the town.

The airport also wants to get more hangars and places for local pilots to store planes. Currently, the airport possesses three usable hangars, which private businesses in Upton own. The master plan allows the airport a place to put several more hangars if it gains the necessary funding. Materi stores her plane in Spearfish, South Dakota, but she hopes to someday store it in Upton, after more hangars are built.

Pilots who fly into the airport have a place to park, but the airport wants “more secure tie-downs” for visiting aircraft to park safely than the “old” tie-downs the airport has right now.

“It’s nice to dream big, and sometimes it actually happens. What’s next is to be seen, but hopefully we’re ready so that if Upton does grow a lot or there becomes like a huge demand for people needing an access point like an airport with more hangars, we’re ready,” she said. “We were not 10 years ago.”

Materi considers it her “personal mission” to help preserve tiny community airports and runways, regardless of whether they receive funding. She finds grass strips and negotiates with the Bureau of Land Management to use them for general aviation. She represents the state’s small airports on the Wyoming Airports Coalition (wyomingairportscoalition.org/) board.