Spurred by my first, uninformed visit to Kinloch over a year ago, this time I was able to tour the town with Bryce Robinson, who works in the town, giving me a much better look at this historic community.
It’s so important to stress how the aborted airport expansion wiped out a wide swath of Kinloch.
Scattered through the trees, remnants of the earliest houses in Kinloch still stand in several places.
Kinloch has a long and storied history, which I will talk about in future posts. Perhaps some of the key players in its history once lived in these houses. While some are beyond repair, a few are still in good enough condition that they could be restored.
A first step would be for the airport to give the land back to the city of Kinloch. The whole noise abatement things seems ridiculous to me; nary a flight passed over Kinloch during my hour tour of the area. Would it really be that intolerable for people to live here again? I’m sure people would love the short 15 minute drive to downtown.
My understanding is that the buyout from the Airport Authority was voluntary and included language that would have allowed any of the owners to reclaim their land if they so wished. My impression is that once the Airport had ownership of the land, then other plans developed to create a light industrial park there which the officials of the City of Kinloch seemingly agreed to.