According to the US Army Corps of Engineers, the Raco Army Airfield and Missile Base site occupied approximately one square mile and is located about 23 miles southwest of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, in the Hiawatha National Forest. It operated during WWII and the Cold War. The Department of Defense used the site as an airfield for 21 years and as a missile base for about 13 years, ending in 1972.
The site consisted of a triangular-shaped airfield with 5,000-foot runways and a Bomarc Missile Site containing missile silos and associated support facilities. The site has been intermittently controlled by the DoD and its predecessor agencies since 1895. In 1925 the site was placed under U.S. Forest Service (USFS) management and was subject to certain reuse rights for defense purposes.
The Secretary of Agriculture transferred 240 acres for airfield use in 1942. The airfield constructed between 1942 and 1943 covers approximately 640 acres. Around 1960 the missile base was constructed on 153 acres of land southeast of the airfield. In January 1964, the Air Force released the airfield property to the USFS and released the missile area in June 1973.
Fast forward to today.
The property is managed as part of the Hiawatha National Forest and currently leased to Smithers-RAPRA as a Materials Science and Engineering - Winter Test Center.
Smithers began their operations at the old airfield in 2008.
The 750-acre property is just a few miles west of Raco and is a cold-weather testing site featuring snow, ice and bare pavement surfaces.
Its most remarkable feature is not what you can see from the ground, but rather from above. The old airfield, now testing grounds, is triangular with one-mile runways, as shown in the pictures.
It is used by manufacturers of vehicles ranging from small automobiles to Class 8 trucks, vehicle components (both OE and aftermarket), snow-handling equipment, construction equipment, recreational and seasonal sport vehicles and military equipment.
