The Hidden Runway

When your bike-riding territory is an old, semi-urban area like Boston's South Shore, you find yourself pedaling through many layers of past lives and memories. Sometimes the signs are right there for all to see ... like colonial-era mile markers, 300-year-old homes, lighthouses and industrial ruins. And sometimes it's simply old stories that add an invisible, but eerie weightiness to the air.

I had been riding through one of those storied places for years now, thinking that was all that was left, just nostalgic old tales. But on Thursday morning at 5:00 am, I set out to discover a small piece of the story history left behind.

I rode out to Marina Bay in Quincy, Massachusetts ... in search of a runway.

The sunrise was shining brightly as I reached the shore...



I rode down Quincy Shore Drive, turned right onto the East Squantum Street causeway, and then turned left into the upscale Marina Bay development.



I've posted photos from here before. Marina Bay has a small boardwalk, nice restaurants, a music club, and attractive condos. But this is only the uppermost layer of its long history.

I know, for example, that an old airfield used to sit just a few hundred feet from here in the 1920's, out of which Amelia Earhart regularly flew. Marina Bay was also the home of an immense shipbuilding factory during World War I; and later, from 1929-1953, it was the site of the Squantum Naval Air Station.

It's that Naval Air Station period that concerned this morning's ride. Here's an old (public domain) photo of the Station:


Riding through this area many, many times, I never once came across any signs of this gigantic airport. All remnants of it seemed to have quietly sunk into the salt marshes.

But then a few days ago, I looked up Marina Bay on Googlemaps, and I saw something very exciting (for the larger Googlemap click here)...


There amongst the trees -- could it really be ... a runway?! Could I have missed something that obvious for the past 10 years?

Doing further research online, I found out that yes! ... there actually is a public park right next to Marina Bay (Squantum Point Park), and it features a scenic walk along a portion of old Squantum Naval Air Station's Runway 3 -- a tribute to its aviation past!

How could I have ridden by it for so long and not noticed?

In search of an answer, I rode from the Marina Bay boardwalk to Squantum Point Park, just a couple hundred feet away. I've ridden by this park before, and it always looked to me like nothing more than a neglected parking lot, with a few nice views of the harbor at the end.


But then, pedalling along the southwest corner, I came across a gate. It stood in front of a nondescript path that disappeared into thick brush...


I got off my bike, walked through the gate and followed the path around a tight curve. Then ... as if the clouds opened and a great pipe organ began playing full blast ... there it was ...

I was standing on an old, abandoned runway.

In these photos, you can see the runway as a strip of tall grasses and wildflowers, with a paved path running around each side...






The runway was both magical, and strangely surreal, hidden as it was behind an impenetrable wall of thick bushes and craggy trees. The only place the vegetation finally broke was at the far end, where it opened onto a little park with a view of Boston Harbor.




Plaques along the path detailed the runway's story...






As I rode along the path, I was joined by a number of little companions. A playful rabbit jumped out of the bushes, looked at me, hopped back into the underbrush just as I tried to snap a photo, and then reappeared farther down the path a few moments later...


A red-winged blackbird wasn't very happy when I inadvertently startled it. It called out to what must have been the local blackbird squadron, all of whom had a great time angrily squawking at me from the low tree-tops...


And I came across one mildly curious seagull in the park at the end of the runway...


All of the wildlife seemed acutely aware of my presence, as if I was the first visitor to this place in a very long time. Judging by the overgrown bushes and plaques in need of a cleaning, I think they were right.

I spent a good 20 minutes or so on the runway, trying to imagine the old propeller planes nosily taking off, spitting out fire and oil, and then slowly lifting into the air. I thought of the grounds crew making repairs, refueling the planes, and maybe smoking cigarettes on a break. Flight is a beautiful, graceful thing ... but I love the gritty atmosphere of hard work and rock-solid know-how that makes it all possible.

I looked at my watch ... 6:15 am ... time to get back home and get ready to go to work myself. I walked my bike back through the narrow path that led to this special place and slowly re-entered the known world.

But before leaving Squantum Point Park, I took a photo from the end of the parking lot...


Just one more window on this complex, mysterious place called Boston Harbor.