M. Graham Clark Downtown Airport

M. Graham Clark Downtown Airport
Aerial view, June 2009
IATA: PLK ICAO: KPLK FAA LID: PLK
Summary
Airport type	Public
Owner/Operator	Taney County, Missouri
Serves	Branson / Hollister
Location	Branson, Missouri
Elevation AMSL	940 ft / 287 m
Coordinates	36°37′33″N 093°13′44″W / 36.62583°N 93.22889°W / 36.62583; -93.22889Coordinates: 36°37′33″N 093°13′44″W / 36.62583°N 93.22889°W / 36.62583; -93.22889
Website	[1]
Map
PLK Location of airport in Missouri
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 12/30 3,738 1,139 Asphalt
Statistics (2011)
Aircraft operations 11,200 Based aircraft 68
Sources: Airport and FAA

M. Graham Clark Downtown Airport (IATA: PLK, ICAO: KPLK, FAA LID: PLK) is a county owned, public use airport in Taney County, Missouri, United States. It is located one nautical mile (2 km) south of the central business district of Branson, Missouri, one nautical mile (2 km) northeast of Point Lookout, Missouri, and a few yards west of the old downtown area of Hollister, Missouri. It was formerly known as M. Graham Clark Field – Taney County Airport.

M. Graham Clark Field was originally developed as a private airport by the College of the Ozarks for use in their aviation science department, and was originally officially associated with the village of Point Lookout, Missouri, a small village on a bluff overlooking the White River Valley which was later completely bought out and overwhelmed by the development of the college. The airport identifier, PLK, was based on the name of the town officially associated with the facility under a federal grant through which the college originally developed the airport.

The airport was named after M. Graham Clark, the president of the college at the time the airport was originally constructed.

College of the Ozarks closed down its aviation science department in 2003. Shortly thereafter, the airport was donated by the college to Taney County so that the Branson and Hollister community would not lose its important general aviation airport.

A private entity had contracted with the college to provide commercial airline service to Clark Field, serving Branson, in the late 1990s, but the venture failed and the terminal building, fire department building, and associated ramp were turned over to the college. The airport currently does not have any scheduled commercial airline service. Since the opening of the newly developed Branson Airport and the construction of new terminal facilities at the Springfield-Branson National Airport there is no expectation of airline service at Clark Field.