Feds Subsidize Tiny, Unused Airport in Oklahoma

One of many across the country

ARDMORE, Okla. — Along a country road in southern Oklahoma, there is a place that doesn't make sense. It is an airport without passengers.

Or, for that matter, planes.

This is Lake Murray State Park Airport, one of the least busy of the nation's 3,300-plus public airfields. In an entire week here, there might be one landing and one takeoff — often so pilots can use the bathroom. Or none at all. Visiting pilots are warned to watch out for deer on the runway.

So why is it still open? Mostly, because the U.S. government insists on sending it money.