FORT KENT, Maine – Looking at it now it’s hard to believe the grassy area at the end of a quarter-mile stretch of dirt road off Sly Brook Road was once a hub of upper St. John Valley aviation catering to the likes of state officials and United States senators.
But if a group of local fliers has its way, the old Fort Kent municipal airport once again may become a mecca for local pilots and aviation enthusiasts.
Last Monday during its regular meeting, the Fort Kent Town Council authorized Town Manager Don Guimond to develop a lease agreement between the town and the newly formed Fish River Flying Club for the airport.
“We are not looking to compete with the [Northern Aroostook Regional] airport in Frenchville in any way,” said Tommy Voisine, local pilot and club member. “Frenchville is a great airport, but it’s kind of out of the way for us.”
Once an acceptable lease agreement is hammered out between the town and club, Voisine, a licensed pilot, said, members would fund and undertake the project of reconditioning the 3,200-foot runway to make it safe for air traffic.
“There’s about 15 or 20 [people] interested in the flying club,” Voisine said. “A lot don’t have planes but the interest is there.”
It’s an interest with a decades-old history going back to the start of aviation traffic in Fort Kent after the end of World War II.
“I built the first airport where the old Fort Kent drive-in used to be and operated Fort Kent Flying Service out of there,” said Roland Dumond, retired state police trooper. “I still call the airport [off New Canada Road] the ‘new’ airport.”
Dumond said that first airport was on land owned by his father and by the time he and other fliers had outgrown the 1,300-foot runway, he was operating with five or six airplanes ferrying people and equipment in and out of northern Maine.
“I had the only plane for a while,” Dumond said. “Eventually more people learned how to fly and got their own planes [and] there were all kinds of planes coming in and out with people.”
Dumond recalled returning from one trip taking woods workers to a remote lumber camp to learn he would be taking a celebrity of sorts to southern Maine.
“I flew Margaret Chase Smith back to Augusta one time,” he said. “It was in the middle of winter and I had the skis on the pane [and] I flew her and her friend to Augusta.”
After that flight, anytime Maine’s first woman U.S. senator traveled through the tiny Fort Kent airport, Dumond said, she made it a point to stop and chat with the pilots.
“It really was your typical hometown airport,” said Paul Nadeau, licensed pilot and former flight instructor. “We’d gather together even on rainy days to have barbecues [and] the pilots would each put a couple bucks in a hat and have ‘spot’ landing contests.”
During the airport’s heyday it had a tiny office building and several hangars for private planes.
Nadeau remembers walking into that small building one day in the mid-1970s fresh out of the military with one thing on his mind.
“I had a longtime ambition and had put some money aside and wanted to learn how to fly,” he said. “I learned to fly from Jesse Baker who encouraged me to go to school and get my commercial license.”
Nadeau said he did just that, eventually earning his ratings to fly skiplanes and floatplanes on his way to becoming a flight instructor himself.
“I ended up putting in probably 600 to 800 hours of flight instruction in Fort Kent and Frenchville,” he said. “It was a great place to fly.”
Guimond grew up across the Fish River from the old airport and recalls air traffic being a common sight in the skies above his family’s farm.
“The agricultural industry used it quite a bit for spraying crops,” the town manager said. “They actually used to plant grain using airplanes. It was not uncommon at all to see planes coming and going.”
Increasing costs associated with flying and lack of interest spelled the eventual demise of the Fort Kent airport which was decommissioned by the town in the late 1980s.
“Now the club is trying to reactivate interest in flying out of there again,” Guimond said. “They were told if they want it, they will have to maintain it.”
According to Voisine, there is enough interest to do the work which will include removing brush, clearing some trees, reseeding and smoothing out the landing area.
“We have some guys from out of state who have planes who own property here and fly up,” Voisine said. “We even have some people who fly ultralites and remote-control planes who want to join.”
The end of the landing strip has long been a parking area for people headed for the trailhead to the Fish River Falls, and Voisine said the club would work to establish a designated parking lot for people visiting the falls.
While he hasn’t flown in about 10 years, Nadeau said he might get involved with the Fish River Flying Club.
“I remember being at the airport with the other fliers was really the ultimate as far as camaraderie,” he said. “It was a great place, and it was just fun.”
Anyone interested in joining the Fish River Flying Club may contact Voisine at 834-5685.
