FOREPAUGH

NAME: Forepaugh
COUNTY: Maricopa
ROADS: 2WD
LEGAL INFO: T7N, R8W
CLIMATE: Warm winter, hot summer
BEST TIME TO VISIT: Winter, fall, spring
COMMENTS: 19 miles west of Wickenburg off U.S. 60.
REMAINS: 19th century mining trash; 20th century settlement trash.

Post office was established in 1910 and closed in 1916. Was a RR station and there was some mining reduction activities that took place here.

I was a resident of Arizona most my life until 4 years ago, when I moved to Oregon (1950 - 1998). In 1996 I visited Forepaugh and learned some interesting information. The pictures you have are of an airplane hanger. It seems that during WW II the Army Air Corps built an airfield there. It was used very briefly as a training base for glider pilots. There was a hanger, barracks, landing strip, shops, well pump, etc. All that remains is the hanger, airstrip (unusable), some of the pump and storage tank equipment, and the foundations of the barracks and shops. Seems that the barracks were there until 1995 when a fire burned them to the ground. I also learned that at least one trainee pilot was killed in an accident when the tow cable between his glider and tow plane snapped and wrapped around the glider's tail, sending his glider crashing into the nearby desert. Some information exists with the nearby town of Wickenburg, which owns the site. There was also a reunion of the surviving glider pilots in 1994 in Wickenburg. Submitted by Byron Porretta.



Forepaugh
Courtesy Kurt Wenner


Forepaugh
Courtesy Kurt Wenner


Forepaugh
Courtesy Kurt Wenner

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