Tom Wetherbee, manager of Woolsey Memorial Airport in Leelanau Township, describes how the airport started when Captain Woolsey's family donated farmland in the 1920s. The historic creamery building from the old Woolsey Dairy Farm still stands on the grounds, and the airport is working on restoration and fundraising efforts.
Yeah, I'm Tom Weatherby, and I'm the airport manager for Woolsey Memorial Airport. State of Michigan requires every airport to have a licensed airport manager, so even an airport like Woolsey has one. Yeah, Woolsey Memorial is a public use, publicly owned airport. It's owned by the Leelanau Township, and it's used for general aviation. So we have people that fly recreationally out of here, but there's also people that fly for transportation. We get charter flights that come in and out of it. But it was started in the 1920s when Captain Woolsey was killed in a plane crash in Buenos Aires. And his family decided to donate the first 40 acres of their farmland to start the airport. Of course, it's been added on to a lot since then. And then during the Depression, as a public works project is when they actually improved the runways and made it the airport that it is now. And this building behind me here is the part of the old Woolsey Dairy Farm. It was the creamery building, and that's kind of the iconic thing that we have here that's in need of restoration. So we're working on that and trying to raise funds for it.
