Salt Lake City's winter market to return to old Leonardo, but without 2 historic planes

SALT LAKE CITY — As Salt Lake City's popular Downtown Farmers Market wraps up for the season on Saturday, city officials have decided to scrap two historic planes as they clean out space for its winter home.

Salt Lake City has already scrapped a Convair 131 Samaritan (C-131) that remained in The Leonardo after the museum permanently closed last year. Work to remove and demolish a MiG-12 is nearing completion, according to city officials.

Both historic military planes hovered over vendors and customers after the winter market moved to the building at 209 E. 500 South for the first time last year. They had been left over after The Leonardo closed.

The Leonardo opened in 2011, focusing on interactive ways to offer science, technology and art education. It included an exhibition about aviation, featuring both planes. It had temporarily closed for renovations, but that closure became permanent last year, with owners citing "years-long challenges" with the aging building.

Salt Lake City's annual Saturday winter market moved into the space days after the lease was formally terminated in November 2025, as the city searched for new uses of the building and the Salt Lake City Downtown Alliance looked for the market.

The market had a previous home at The Gateway, but that became unavailable before the 2025-2026 market.

However, it was clear that the planes cluttered the market. KSL observed one customer inadvertently hitting their face on the C-131's propeller within minutes of the market opening for the season. Its propellers were removed for later events.

"Project teams identified that the aircrafts should be removed to maximize programming space," Salt Lake City's Public Services Department said in a statement about the planes.

City officials said last year they had identified a C-131 buyer, but its new owner agreed to wait to receive the plane until this year. It's unclear what happened with that deal; however, it's clear that it fell apart.

An open house for potential buyers to view both planes was held earlier this year, only to end up with no attendees, department officials explained. The planes were put up for public auction on the state's online procurement site, but "interest was low, and the few bids that came in fell short of covering removal costs," they added.

Salt Lake City ultimately decided to scrap both planes after they were on the auction site for months. Demolition of the C-131 began on Sept. 26, while the process to demolish the MiG-12 began this month.

The winter market will return to the building on Nov. 14, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. It's scheduled to be there every Saturday through April 17, 2027.

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