Transportation Historian to Advise Medicine Bow Council

JUNE 16, 2025 |

Photo – Medicine Bow Airport beacon light – Courtesy Larry Liebrecht

Larry Liebrecht, a nationally recognized transportation historian, will give a presentation about the Medicine Bow Airport this Thursday.

At the next Medicine Bow Airport Advisory Board meeting on June 19th, Larry Liebrecht, from the Colorado Aviation Historical Society, will speak about the historical significance of the town’s landing strip.

Speaking to Bigfoot99, Liebrecht said his interest in transportation history began in the mid-1970s while volunteering at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. While working at the Paul E. Garber Facility annex, Liebrecht restored aircraft for the national museum.

In 2019, Liebrecht was in Casper with a group of Colorado aviation archaeologists searching for the remains of a B-24 Liberator that crashed in the 1940s. After the mission failed, Liebrecht’s team was headed home when a blown tire forced them to stop at Medicine Bow. While awaiting repairs, Liebrecht learned about the existence of the Medicine Bow Airport outside the town.

The transportation historian said he was immediately captivated by its remarkable state of preservation.

After his initial introduction, Liebrecht began working with the Wyoming Historical Society to learn more about the Medicine Bow Airport. The historian obtained Steve Wolff’s 2012 National Parks Service application to list the airfield on the National Register of Historic Places. Liebrecht said Wolff’s documents hold valuable information, much of which will be presented at Thursday’s Medicine Bow Airport Advisory Board meeting.

Included in Wolff’s application to the National Parks Service is the firsthand account of Betty Jean Cruickshank Cole-Keller, whose father, Edwin Cruickshank, served as Caretaker and Weather Observer for the Medicine Bow Airport when it was founded in 1928. Originally established by the Department of Commerce’s Lighthouse Service, the airport was called Site 31 and consisted of a beacon tower and a single office building, which was used as a bunkhouse for Cole-Keller and her brothers.

Two years later, in 1930, the original Site 31 was replaced with a new airport, now called Site 32. A new tower and office building were constructed, as well as a powerhouse to provide electricity for the electric beacon light. For an unspecified amount of time, Cole-Keller’s father was the sole employee at the airport, responsible for providing weather data and operating the lighting system. Eventually, additional homes were built at the site to house a three-man crew and their families.

The houses are no longer there, with only the foundations marking where the structures once stood. Liebrecht, a Colorado Aviation Historical Society member, said Wolff’s National Park Service application describes the old homesteads as having little historical significance to the airport. Liebrecht said he disagrees with this assessment.

Liebrecht said future archologists are likely to discover many important artifacts in the ruins of the old houses.

The transportation historian said the caretaker families often maintained airport equipment in their homes.

Last summer, Colorado pilot Nathan Finneman explained the significance of town’s airport to the governing body of Medicine Bow. Finneman described the airmail directional arrow and outbuildings as the best-preserved in the western United States.

Shortly after Finneman’s presentation, the town formed the Medicine Bow Airport Advisory Board to protect and maintain the existing buildings, including the beacon tower and telegraph office. Liebrecht said the board’s highest priority should be replacing the telegraph office roof.

Liebrecht said the next goal should be restoring the buildings to their original 1930s appearance. Medicine Bow could keep the original equipment and structures while operating a fully functional airport.

Liebrecht said his presentation to the Airport Advisory Board will focus on the history of the landing field. He will also include suggestions for how the area can be preserved for future generations.

The Medicine Bow Airport Advisory Board will hold its next meeting on Thursday, June 19, at 6:00 p.m. in the town Community Center, located at 221 Pine Street.