Bear Lake County Airport expands with help from state, federal funding

PARIS, Idaho — In a remote part of southeastern Idaho, between Paris and Montpelier, the Bear Lake County Airport is preparing for more aircraft, more hangars and eventually even jet fuel.

State and federal funding is helping make these expansions possible for the small county-owned airport, which was originally built by the military during World War II.

A convenient place to fly

For pilots who use the airport, its remote location is part of its appeal.

Tom Johnson, a pilot from Garden City, Utah, has been flying for four and a half years. He said he initially became interested in flying because of the convenience.

"Yeah, I got interested in it. Just because I hate waiting at Salt Lake International, in TSA lines. And I can usually beat commercial air travel," he said.

Johnson keeps his small airplane at the Bear Lake County Airport in a hangar he rents.

"So this airport is pretty cool just because it's as close as you can get to my house. And then, you know, we've got great airport management here. The runways are really long, really well maintained. And then I have a hangar here, which having a hangar makes all the difference in this cold country," he said.

The airport also offers something that cannot be measured in convenience.

"These purple mountain majesties we have around here just are something else," Johnson said.

Airport sees traffic from across the country

Trevor Keetch has been the airport manager for eight years. He said the airport sees an average of 10 to 20 aircraft per day during the peak summer months, depending on weather and other factors.

Much of that traffic is transient, with pilots traveling across the country and making a stopover.

"A lot of it's coming from just the east coast. Headed somewhere to the west, or vice versa. They know it's a great place. We keep our fuel cheap so they stop for fuel, stop for a bathroom break," Keetch said.

The airport's location and conditions are among the reasons Keetch said pilots continue to use it.

"The number one reason. Super beautiful. And it's fully taken care of. The runways are in great shape. Everything is just maintained well during the winter, summer. Things are taken care of. And to top it off, it's just beautiful. It's a beautiful area," he said.

New hangars will more than double capacity

The latest grant funding is being used in part to expand the airport's private hangar capacity.

"We had a new taxiway put in. It comes off of the current taxiway. And it's specifically to build more hangars up to 10 or 11 depending on size of the future hangars," Keetch said.

Keetch said the project will significantly increase the airport's private hangar space.

"This will more than double or private hangar capacity," he said.

The expansion is part of a broader effort to prepare the airport for future growth.

Looking ahead to jet fuel

Keetch said the airport is also looking toward adding jet fuel, which would allow it to better serve some of the larger private aircraft.

"Obviously we're growing," he said.

The airport can currently accommodate most aircraft short of commercial passenger jets.

"We can take most airplanes up until you get to the point of the commercial. We have from time to time, had small jets coming in," Keetch said.

The goal is to make it more useful to private and transient pilots as the Bear Lake area continues to grow.

Keetch also sees the airport's growth as part of the larger growth of the Bear Lake area.

"Probably growth in the Bear Lake area as well. It's a beautiful place to be. It's a really nice place to just to fly into. Pretty nice airport all together," Keetch said.

The airport also houses instrumentation used to collect weather data that is sent to the National Weather Service.

From Sept. 9-13, it will host more than 100 paramotor pilots for the 4th Annual Bear Lake Fly-In hosted by SkyVentures Paramotor. The event's organizers say the Bear Lake County Airport Board has allowed the event to be held at the airport.

For now, the airport remains a relatively quiet piece of infrastructure in a remote part of southeast Idaho, but with new hangars going up and plans for additional services, its footprint is getting larger.

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