CHEYENNE — Preserving the iconic, and now-abandoned, 1960 airport terminal at Cheyenne Regional Airport is the mission of the Wyoming Aviation Heritage League, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting the state’s rich aviation history.
There’s a lot of that history tied up in the 65-year-old building that was closed to the public in 2018, but was once a hub of activity and a monument to the eclectic 1960s.
Cheyenne’s airport had already earned a reputation as the “Air Capital of the West” in the three decades before the terminal was built.
The group hopes to eventually see memorabilia from that history housed inside the distinctive building with its hyperbolic paraboloid roof that sits just off East 8th Avenue.
Founding board President Stephanie Lowe, Treasurer Cheryl Bean and Secretary Mike Kassel all see the structure as an important treasure for the state.
“This group actually came together because of the old Cheyenne terminal,” Bean said. “But then when we came together, we realized that there was a bigger mission — getting the news out about Wyoming’s aviation history.”
Bean is a former aviation planning and programming manager for the Wyoming Department of Transportation Aeronautics Division. She said the terminal’s roof is one the few remaining examples of hyperbolic paraboloid architecture.
Kassel, associate director and curator for collections at Cheyenne Frontier Days Old West Museum and co-author of the book “Wyoming Airmail Pioneers,” said the building is not only important for its architecture, but also for the famous names who came through it.
“This is the place where many important figures came and made contact with the people of Wyoming,” he said. “We note that John Kennedy flew into Cheyenne in 1960 to address the people of Cheyenne and he landed at the airfield, right there while the terminal was still under construction.”
Kennedy returned in September 1963 and greeted supporters at the terminal before going on to Laramie. And former President Dwight D. Eisenhower flew in on Oct. 9, 1962, and addressed more than 2,000 Republicans at the airport to criticize the Kennedy administration.
Other notables who walked through its doors included Afghanistan’s king and queen in 1963 and, before becoming president, California Gov. Ronald Reagan stumped for GOP candidates in June 1968, giving a speech near the terminal.
“Many of the times these people would stop at the terminal, address the crowd, and get back on the plane and take off and not go anywhere else in the state,” Kassel said. “But they landed in Cheyenne at that terminal and that’s where they delivered that message.”
Opened In 1960
The terminal cost $558,000 when it opened on Sept. 9, 1960, and was 55% paid for by federal money and the rest by Cheyenne residents and business owners after a bond issue failed, according to an article in the Sept. 8, 1960, Casper-Star Tribune.
As the terminal was being designed, Kassel said the community wanted a structure that would stand out as a symbol of Cheyenne’s one-time aviation importance.
He said Cheyenne’s geography made it important in early aviation history. It was a key location for the U.S. Air Mail service and Boeing Air Transport which later became part of United Airlines.
“That hyperbolic paraboloid roof … was used in only a few places in the United States as an architectural feature for roofs,” he said. “You see roofs similar to that in Chicago, St. Louis, Denver had one for one of its department stores, but this was a new and innovative way of doing this type of structure.”
Lowe, a historic preservation specialist with an architecture and design firm, said a plan spearheaded by the non-profit Arts Cheyenne and the Arts and Aviation Steering Committee, that involves several entities with interest in the project, has been working to bring “arts and aviation into that space.”
Restaurant, Art, And Aviation Museum
The hope is to reopen the restaurant that used to be in the building, create an art space for artists, retail shops, and include a Wyoming aviation history museum.
Efforts have been underway for the past few years and now some grants have been acquired to help inch the project forward.
The terminal’s roof has “stood the test of time,” Lowe said but repairs to the roof and structure are needed soon.
Bean said Cheyenne Regional Airport has committed to reroofing the structure and that is supposed to happen this summer. She said the airport also recently received a grant from the Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund for $50,000 to repair the canopy in front of the terminal.
“That will be the first phase of a canopy project,” she said. The Cheyenne-Laramie County Economic Joint Powers Board also committed $75,000 for a grant to help with the roof project.
Lowe said there have also been efforts to get grants for inspection of the building for hazardous materials and development of action plan to remove them. The building contains some asbestos, lead paint, and there is a minor mold problem.
“The building has been abandoned for five or six years now, so (the mold) is pretty common,” Lowe said. “It’s a large building, so there are just some hazardous materials in there that have to be abated and removed.”
Grants received through Arts Cheyenne also have gone for renderings that show what the space could become.
The roof on the 1960s-built Cheyenne air terminal resembles an airplane’s wings in flight. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
A glass case that sits inside the old terminal contains information on members of the Wyoming Aviation Hall of Fame. The plan is to make part of the building a place that honors the state’s aviation history. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
The front of the old Cheyenne air terminal. (Courtesy Arts Cheyenne) 
Plans call for the bar area of the terminal to be renovated and lead to an observation deck outside. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
An artist’s rendering of the front of the renovated Cheyenne air terminal. (Courtesy Arts Cheyenne) 
A plan shows the concept of what the Wyoming Aviation Heritage League and others hope the iconic Cheyenne airport terminal can become. (Courtesy Wyoming Aviation Heritage League) 
Asbestos, lead paint, and a small amount of mold are issues that need to be addressed before the renovation at the old Cheyenne airport terminal can begin in earnest. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
An old banner advertising the airport can be found inside the old air terminal. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
Space inside the old Cheyenne airport that one day is hoped to be transformed into a restaurant. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) Plans call for the bar area of the terminal to be renovated and lead to an observation deck outside. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily)
$10 Million Project
To bring the envisioned project at the terminal to completion will take about $10 million.
As for the aviation museum component, Bean and Lowe said their group is acting as a facilitator to help connect people who want to donate aviation-related memorabilia to the Wyoming State Museum and airport and other entities.
“People are finding all of their family heirlooms they would like to donate — photographs and stories — so we are just trying to bring these people together and get the word out to the public,” Lowe said.
The group’s vision is to see a museum that recounts the state’s aviation history in a way similar to how the Cheyenne Depot Museum shares the state’s railroad history.
Lowe said ownership of the depot is complicated and involves the city, airport, county, and economic development agencies. A timeline for when the air terminal might become a place where the public can visit, and where private pilots can fly in for a hamburger or check out art and aviation history is a few years away.
“I would imagine it is five to 10 years down the line,” Lowe said. Once the hazardous materials are removed from the building, efforts to recruit a restaurant and get other grants “will take us a long way.”
Bean said the group has found that the public “really supports” the project. Renderings of the completed project have generated a lot of interest.
Last August, the Wyoming Aviation Heritage League promoted the state’s aviation heritage with a festival fundraiser that brought in World War II planes for the festival.
A festival is planned this year for the weekend of Sept. 13-14 and will feature an air show and vintage planes.
At the festival, the Wyoming Aviation Heritage League is allowed to open the air terminal doors and educate visitors about the project and the building’s history.
“We certainly would like to see people from all over the state come down for the festival and just experience what we are bringing to Cheyenne,” Lowe said. “Eventually we would like to raise funding to not only help provide grants for the terminal here in Cheyenne, but also to help preserve other aviation facilities around the state
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
