I tried to find the 'Still out there' thread with no search luck. I was looking Thursday at a ride route up thru Springfield, VT and was wondering why I had never seen the airport (it's above line of sight from the road). There is a construction company next door and for some unknown reason I zoom in (the spirt of Emmitt??). Sure did look like a Tucker, so made a slight detour to verify. No for sale sign posted, but obviously still moved since it was by the road Friday.
View attachment 168739
I was born and raised in Springfield. The construction company is almost definitely Gurney Brothers.
The Springfield airport, Hartness State Airport (VSF), has the second longest runway in the state. These days the airport gets a lot of glider activity. (The New England Soaring Association is based there.). It’s named for James Hartness, a former governor, astronomy enthusiast, and a prolific inventor. When Charles Lindbergh toured the country after his historic transatlantic flight…he stopped in Springfield; at James Hartness’ invitation. Absolutely amazing man:
en.wikipedia.org
But the story of Springfield is a sad one. Supposedly, during WWII Springfield was something like the seventh most important strategic bombing target in the whole country - due to the machine tool companies based there. But not long after the war ended the major companies, Jones & Lamson, Fellows Gear Shaper and Bryant Grinder all started a downhill slide that saw them bought by conglomerates Textron, Emhart and Ex-Cell-O, and then eventually they all went bankrupt. The town subsequently “sold its soul” to get a state prison.
Whereas the machine tool companies had literally thousands of highly skilled employees that were well paid, a prison offers low wages and attracts the associated segment of society characterized by crime, drug abuse and dependency on government handouts. For a great many years Springfield had the highest per-capita income in Vermont. Now… not so much.
