Mojave Airport – 1986

It was time to paint my office at home since it had never been painted in the time I have lived there.

This required me to go through old totes of photos, etc. that were above the closet that had not been seen for a long time. Their contents were mostly old photos of the kids and their school “stuff.”

Then I found something of mine! I had saved a copy of the Enterprise Newspaper because it featured a photo of my daughter Meg on a “slip and slide” when she was seven. The photo allowed me to note how hot it had been that week in August of 1985.

On the front page of the paper were two articles that I had written. One featured Mojave Airport and the other was an observation of a reporter from New Yorker Magazine who came to Mojave to write about Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager and their round the world flight in the Voyager aircraft. (more of that article in my next column.)

So this week will be a Page of History from me-not my mother.

I wrote an article about Mojave Airport and how it had grown. (It was one of hundreds of such articles written by others, and about a dozen written by me.) The good thing about the airport to this day, is that there is always something new to write about it.

The airport was created in the late 1930s by the U.S. Marines as a temporary base as the government anticipated our involvement in World War II. When the war ended, the Marines slowly began to wind down in Mojave and the base was moved to Yuma, AZ. Civil Service employees,

including my dad, could move to Yuma or lose their jobs – my dad chose the latter, as I have mentioned before.

The base was left just as it had been and some described it as a miniature ghost town. The airport was taken over by Kern County and renamed Kern County Airport #7.

Not much happened there until proponents of area development helped form the East Kern Airport District. Once the voters approved the formation of the district, the new directors hired Dan Sabovich as general manager.

In the beginning, Sabovich wanted to make money for the airport and, as aviation was promoted, other things were as well. Sabovich leased property for such ventures as sheep grazing, and grape drying on one end of the runway, (It was raining where the grapes had been grown) and parking for large aircraft that were being mothballed.

Local salvagers were hired to tear down the old barracks on the airport to give way for more development.

Early aviation leases included long term leases to General Electric, Flight Systems, Inc., and even a sulfur plant that had closed by 1985, according the Enterprise article.

At that time a lease was approved and written for Buckner Wilson, a steel fabrication plant out of Lancaster. Free rent was given to the developer to entice him to re-locate to Mojave.

Sabovich was quoted as saying that although they were given the development free rent, it would mean jobs for the area residents.

In 1985 there were 600 employees at the airport at various businesses. When the district was formed in 1972 the district had to borrow money to operate its first year. By 1985 the funds had been paid off and the district had a healthy budget – in the black.

Sabovich was a great promoter and told prospective businesses that were looking at the airport that they could get cheap ground leases; he also offered them clean, clear air. Some that came besides businesses were movie and television companies. The weather was good and there were some old buildings left to use as backgrounds.

Following Sabovich’s retirement Stu Witt became the general manager and worked to attract new businesses, including those going into space.

Since that time the airport has thrived and it is now known as the Mojave Space Port, not just because of current businesses seeking to reach the stars, but to attract new ones with the same goal. The current general manager is Karina Drees, assisting others who wish to get a closer look at outer space, and my brother Bill Deaver serves as an elected board member for the district.