Treasure Hunting in Kingman, AZ.

[michaelharadon]

Has anyone found cool "stuff" on the airfield in Kingman?

[RickH]

Michael, the airport proper at Kingman is mostly industrial park now. Who knows what's out in the valley surrounding the airport. The aircraft stretched across the valley floor from one side to the other. Must have been quite a sight !

[Holedigger]

very sad site!

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/f? ... cb708fada6

[RickH]

What an amazing collection of photographs !

Ever wonder where all the 1820s have gone ?

[Connery]

When I lived in Kingman and worked for Mohave County in the data center, many of the people I dealt with said that many "things" where just bulldozed into holes.

[RickH]

Makes you wondewhat's out there in that valley. I've heard those rumors but never first hand.

[mustangdriver]

I was at Kingman a few years ago. There were a bunch of airliners parked out there as well as a few firebombers including a C-123 and a PBY. You could hear a pin drop the entire time I was there. It was odd. I kept waiting to see a row of B-17's somewhere. What was odd was that I walked down a row of US AIrways Express Jet Streams. I used to work for them when we had these. So I had my little Best Years of Our Lives moment.

[JimH]

all I found was some lightning...everyday around 4oclock.



I drove all around the dirt roads...you could spend days out there. Its quite the garbage dump as well...lots of refridgerators, ovens, and cars...you name it. If you go flying you can see the pavement where the smelter was located and it is a bit charred, also you can still clearly see the roads that match William Larkins aerial photos of the graveyard. Again, google earth is a great tool for getting a general layout of the area. Would love to take a metal detector out there. There are still piles of B-17 fuel tanks, nothing usable but cool nonetheless.

Jim

[F3A-1]

I was there in 1974. I remember that a small junk yard accross the road from the main entrance had a few T-50 hulks and P-39 doors etc. The owner was up there in age and told of seeing them bury P-39's and many other items (maybe bombs) in the desert. There was a P-39 crash site in the area he said.

There was some 4 engine (Connie?) out by the road that was or going to become a bar/restraunt. When asking around the terminal about a large hanger with a sheriffs tag and lock, I was told it was full of B-29 parts.

I am sure all but the buried stuff is gone long ago. I was in the early stages warbirdrecoveryitis as a teen. I have found buried items at many locations, even those with smelters! The chance of P-39's there should deserve more investigation.


Pirate Lex
www.BrewsterCorsair.com

[aerovin]

I understand rumors but why would a contractor pay good money for aluminum for smelting and then bury it instead of smelting it?

Never made sense to me. The contractor paid over $2.7 million for airplanes (equivalent to about $28.3 million in 2007 dollars). I would suspect the only thing buried at Kingman was smelter slag.

[A2C]

I was there 2-3 years ago, and saw hundreds of fuel tanks from the scrapped bombers still out in the field.

[Second Air Force]

If any P-39 remains were buried there I'd bet it happened earlier than everyone supposes. Remember, Kingman was a HUGE gunnery training station with many, many flight operations daily during its service life. It is possible that damaged airframes and parts could have been disposed of via various means, totally unrelated to the scrapping operation during the postwar period. Wunderlich seems to have had a pretty accurate accounting of the material at hand during the scrapping process, and I tend to agree with Aerovin on this subject.

As I recall, those fuel tanks were to be used to make household goods such as those weaved rubber floormats that some of us older folks remember. The manufacturer ended up leaving them out there.

Scott

[astixjr]

One of the guys who really knows the area well is John Szabo from Depot 41. He saved lots of bits and pieces back in the 70s and 80s and continues to work the site to this day. He even has some of the Aluminum molds used to make ingots of the "liquidified bombers". He says they crushed up parts and pieces that could not be cost effectively separated into Aluminum, Steel, Copper and so on. They used a plough or spreader to distribute the crushed stuff around the site. Near the end of the salvage process they set the remaining pile of tires on fire. I'll bet that was a big black cloud! Check out John's website below.

http://www.depot41.com/

Last edited by astixjr on Mon Dec 15, 2008 6:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Reduction of heavy bombers into aluminum for household use, at air field at Kingman, rows of planes on flight strip, being dismantled, piles of motors and cylinders.Kingman, AZ April 1947 Peter Stackpole

[michaelharadon]

My thanks for all the replies. At some point in January, I'm going to go up there and check it out. Any advise on metal detectors?