How Wrigley's gum money built the most demanding runway in California
In 1919, William Wrigley Jr. — yes, the chewing-gum Wrigley — bought controlling interest in Santa Catalina Island sight unseen and made it his personal project. He built the Avalon Casino in 1929 (a movie theater and ballroom, never gambling), brought a bison herd over for a 1924 silent film and never reclaimed them, and made Catalina a Hollywood escape. In 1941 his son Philip K. Wrigley took on the airport. There was no flat ground, so they took two mountaintops and made one mesa — bulldozed the peaks together, leveled the valley between, and capped it with a 3,000-foot runway at 1,602 feet elevation. The runway has cliffs on both ends. Runway 22 climbs 2.1% to a crest that hides the last 700 feet from a landing pilot. During WWII, the entire island was leased to the US government and the OSS — precursor to the CIA — trained spies in Avalon's grand hotels. The airport reopened to civilian use in 1946. A 1984 Learjet 24 overrun killed six and led to permanent transport-category restrictions. In 2019, US Marines and Navy Seabees rebuilt the entire runway in concrete as a training exercise. Pilots still come for the buffalo burger at the DC-3 Gifts & Grill restaurant. Many flight schools require a "Catalina checkout" before solo. The reward is honest: $35 landing fee, the most distinctive runway in California, and a panoramic Pacific view that earns its name.