Airport History

The 70th Anniversary year (2024) was a big one for the Home Acres Sky Ranch Airport located just outside Lake City, Michigan. A new non-profit organization was formed in June of 2024 in order to preserve and maintain the Lake City (Y91) airport for the good of the community, keep the airfield operational and be sure that it is here for generations to come. Friends of Lake City Airport is a nonprofit that was organized to achieve this purpose. The most recent private owners, Dave and Cathy Grabowski of Clear Skies Enterprises LLC, generously transferred the runways and taxiways into the nonprofit. The local Lake City airport will no longer have an individual owner, but rather the airport will be owned and operated by Friends of Lake City Airport. Community residents work together to achieve the goals of the nonprofit.

George Haveman launched the airport in the mid-1940s, and established Home Acres Sky Ranch in 1954. In the state of Michigan, this was the first residential airpark on this scale where pilots could live with their planes.

There have been a handful of airport owners over the years. Homes and hangars built by original pilot lot owners are being transferred to a new generation. These lots now have quite a variety of machines flown by pilots who live there - low wing, high wing, factory produced, home built, gyrocopter, seaplane, glider, powered parachute, ultra-lite trike and model airplanes. Pilots come from all over the United States to be part of this unique airpark.

The Lake City Airport has two grass runways and had its beginning in 1947. Three years prior, George and Lois Haveman purchased the Jess Huling farm of 120 acres at the southeast corner of Beeler Road and McGee Road, two miles east of Lake City, Michigan. They tried dairy farming, but weren’t very happy with that, so they modified their farm to transition out of farming and into aviation. George is thought to be the first licensed pilot in Missaukee County. The ground was level with good approaches for landings and take-offs.

The first task in 1947 was creating runway 9/27 (east/west). Next was creating Erdman Road on the south side of their land and then Taxiways Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Delta between Erdman Road and the runway. This became Subdivision #1. Soon runway 18/36 (north/south) was established at 2550 feet long, about the same length as the first runway. When visiting friends at Pontiac Airport, George told them about his new airport community, and he left with seven lots sold!

The airport community was officially recognized as Home Acres Sky Ranch in 1954. This was one of the first residential airparks in Michigan. In addition to selling lots for development, George built up an aviation business on site where he taught others to fly. He also flew freight and passengers in addition to continuing the airport and airpark development. In 1955, George bought a T-hangar and dismantled it to haul it up to the airport. Ultimately, he assembled four red hangar buildings for rental. Looking for ways to improve their income, the Havemans planted Christmas trees on 23 acres of open fields on their land from 1958-1960. When the tress matured, George sold the saleable ones and the remainder continued to grow. Many pines remaining in Subdivision #4 are offshoots of those.

Havemans established the Dawn Patrol Fly-in Breakfast in 1963 with the primary purpose of bringing pilots to Home Acres Sky Ranch in hopes of enticing them to buy a lot in his airpark. The Dawn Patrol became an annual event and expanded its purpose to provide a fly-in opportunity for pilots and a community event for locals. It was enjoyed for 57 years until the pandemic caused its cancellation beginning in 2020. (Many in the community and around the state are anxious for this event to restart. We need more workers to make this happen. If you are willing to assist, please contact the Dawn Patrol chair, Cindy Patin, at CindyPatin@gmail.com.)

Havemans bought additional land on the east side of the airpark which allowed runway 9/27 to be extended to its current length of 3830 feet. Through the 1970s, additional lots were developed on the north side of runway 9/27 in three more phases known as Subdivision #2, #3, and #4. These lots are accessed from Taxiways Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, Ida, Juliet, and King that all connect to the north side of runway 9/27. There are now a total of 146 half-acres lots. Some people have a home and hangar on one lot while others have multiple lots and spread out their house and hangar(s).

After getting the airport back after previous attempts to sell the airport and retire, Havemans sold the airport to Don Kohler, a lot owner at Homes Acres, in 1995. Other lot owners and Don Kohler built an FBO/Pilot Lounge on airport property in 1998. This new building gave visiting pilots a place to gather, do flight planning, and use the restroom. The airport community members used the FBO/Pilot Lounge for social gatherings and meetings.

Home Acres Sky Ranch was sold to another lot owner, Dave Grabowski, through Clear Skies Enterprises LLC, in 2015. During Grabowski’s ownership, the FBO/Pilot Lounge was renovated and drywalled. He also renovated Haveman’s original home on the corner of Beeler Road and McGee Road and painted the big airport hangar. These three building were sold to a private individual in 2021 and are no longer part of the airport property.