This World War II Airfield is Hidden in the Woods of Maine

One of the things that has always fascinated me about Maine is how there is history hidden throughout the state.  You never know what historical site you are going to stumble across if you take a drive down a back road.

We've got old forts, long-closed factories, abandoned villages, and even old landing strips.

Like the Milford Air Force Auxiliary Airfield, for example.

This long-abandoned military airfield sits just off the Stud Mill Road in Milton.

WARNING: Under no circumstances should you enter this property. By doing so you risk bodily harm and/or prosecution for trespassing on private property.

According to several sources, including the YouTube channel Exploring ME, the airfield was built around 1942 and was used as an auxiliary field to Bangor’s Dow Field (later known as Dow Air Force Base).

When the United States officially entered World War II in December of 1941, it became clear that an additional place to train bomber crews was going to be necessary.  The airfield in Milford was the perfect place for B-17 crews to practice bombing runs.

They would supposedly take off from the field, do practice bombing runs on targets in a nearby swamp, then return to the field.

Once these crews were fully trained, they would be sent to England to fly bombing missions over Europe.

Near the end of the war, the airfield was also used as a POW camp for captured Nazi soldiers.

The military continued to use the airfield for a few years following the war.  Around 1948, about the same time the Deblois Bombing Range in Columbia Falls went into operation, the military stopped flying planes from the airfield.

The facility remained useful even after it stopped being used as an airfield.  Personnel from Dow Air Force Base would use the area for survival training.

These days, not much remains of the field.  The runway pavement has been torn up and is piled to one side of the runway.  At one end of the runway is a concrete slab that once served as the foundation of a small building.

Here's a video of the entire exploration:

What are your thoughts?  Should someone try to rehab the old landing strip?