My dad told me last night that my grandma used to work at the Crofoot Ranch on the Salmon River, and received her mail by plane every week. I thought that was odd, because I'd never heard of an airstrip before with that name. I asked for more details, and he said it was on the north side of the river, about a thousand feet up on a bench on the hillside, and gave me the general location.

I started looking on google earth, and sure enough, there is an old airstrip up there!

45.5615, -115.1485

If anyone knows any history on the place, I'd love to hear about it!

Wow, one way in and one way out....and 774ft long.

new almost a mile hi? haha

If you land at Yellowpine Bar it is only about 4 or so miles up the Salmon river trail. When I used to run a pack string in there we would camp about 200 feet from crofoot strip. It has been closed forms long I would hike in and look before landing

I was talking to an old geezer who stopped for some avgas, and I got an earful!

He said the Crofoot Ranch was acquired by the Forest Service in the late 70's. The Central Idaho Wilderness Act was being proposed as legislation, and once it became law, it would prevent the Forest Service from closing any airstrips that were in use at the time of the act's passage. So, the FS hastily closed a few strips prior to the law's passage, one of them being the Crofoot airstrip. Then, the FS went in and burned the buildings, put X's at the ends of the airstrip, dug a couple of ditches across it, and planted some trees in the middle of it.

So, it doesn't look like there is any possibility of ever using it again.

That sure sounds like the good old Forest Service that we have learned to love. They bought Red's Horse Ranch out of LaGrande, OR and did the same thing. They didn't close the strip but included it in the wilderness area. So they can't use motorized equipment to mow the runway. I thought Congress was the only one to declare wilderness areas? I guess not.

interesting. While we were at Moose Creek we hiked a couple miles north to a place called Seminole Ranch. The Forest Service has purchased that and have closed the landing strip. They are dismantling the equipment and flying it out. I suppose they will burn the buildings as they have so many other places. There is a sawmill. Some newer lodging. A huge barn and some older log buildings. It's a shame to see it go to waste.

The shame of Seminole (and many other places like it), is that you and I financed it. A "conservation group" paid way too much money for it and then turned around and sold it to the Forest Service under a "special" program. The Forest Service had spent years harassing the original owners. Lawsuits, etc. Seminole Ranch was a special place. I spent a number of nights in there with the original owners. Tried to buy the place for 25 years. Hard to compete with taxpayers' pockets though. Upstream was an even bigger ranch and airstrip, the Moose Creek Ranches. My older brother spent a summer dismantling and burying equipment there back in 1968. A complete waste.

Yeah, I researched this a couple years ago and after talking to people and looking at the satellite images decided that it is probably unusable for even emergency use - so i left it out of the shortfield.com database.

The Central Idaho Wilderness Act was being proposed as legislation, and once it became law, it would prevent the Forest Service from closing any airstrips that were in use at the time of the act's passage.

So how is it that their closing down the strip at Seminole?
I hiked in to the ranch summer before last,man what a place. the strip uphill going in, down hill going out.looked to be about 1500 ft long if I remember right. The last part was pretty steep but looked very doable. So, how is it their able to shut it down?

It was on private land.

There have been and there are private parcels of land in the wilderness that predate the formation of the wilderness area. There is still a private dude ranch in Yellowstone Park. Some where along the timeline of the ownership, the Federal Government will obtain the right of first refusal from the present owner. The owners usually think at the time that they will never sell or their family or the corporation will never sell. Owners die, corporations change and the parcel in the wilderness or National park does not have any sentimental value to them, just money to be collected by the sale. Once the government buys the property, it is theirs to do with as the wilderness management plan dictates. Even if the current Ranger on location wanted to keep the buildings or airstrip on newly purchased private property, they have to follow the management plan. That was the issue with the picnic tables at the Moose Creek camping area. Even though it seemed like no big deal to have a few picnic tables, the Ranger was just following the plan in place.
The Forest Service is mandated to review periodically how they manage their assets within the laws in place. That is why they have public input on how the areas are used and managed. It is vitally important that we give input as users. The RAF has been diligent to provide input. It's too bad they weren't around 40 years ago. I was on the last "official" trip into Gates Park in the Bob Marshall Wilderness to haul out a tractor after it was decided to close a beautiful recently upgraded airstrip.
While at Johnson Flying Service as a youngster, we flew the DC-2 into the Moose Creek Ranch with some of the last freight before it was officially closed. The buildings had just been burned, but the outfitter was allowed to service his booked clients out of tents until the hunting season was over that Fall. Then the Moose Creek Ranch was no more. I talked to the principal owner/operator that day and he was very sad/mad. In the case of the Moose Creek Ranch, his corporation decided to pull the plug.
Anyway, a long explanation as to what happens to those private holdings. If we didn't all own planes, maybe one of us could buy one of those parcels.
If you want to go to the Silver Tip Ranch in Yellowstone, the Park Service owns all the surrounding land so no motor vehicles will get you there. You will have to go in a horse drawn wagon from the road.

Bob