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All the United States Wyoming Bar Nunn Bar Nunn

Bar Nunn

A small town built on an abandoned airfield has former runways as streets and a bar and grill in an old airplane hangar.

Bar Nunn, Wyoming

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Joshua Foer
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Bar Nunn Welcome Sign, with its symbol based on the runways   Town of Bar Nunn
A street in Bar Nunn, once a runway   Town of Bar Nunn
A former airplane hanger and marine, now a bar and grill   Map Data © 2017 Google
Bar Nunn Town Hall   Town of Bar Nunn
Bar Nunn Elementary School   Town of Bar Nunn
The Layout of Bar Nunn on the former Wardell Air Field   Map Data © 2017 Google
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About

If the layout of the town of Bar Nunn, Wyoming seems a little angular, it’s because the streets used to be the runways of an airfield.

Casper Municipal Airfield was officially named Wardwell Field after aviation pioneer Major Doyen P. Wardwell in 1930, after he died in a plane crash nearby. It was the site of Natrona County’s official airport until 1952, when the airport was relocated to the former Casper Army Air Base on U.S. Highway 20-26.

A few years later, in 1954, neighboring rancher Romie Nunn, who already owned a portion of the former Wardwell Field property, bought the former airport with the hopes of making it “the horse center of the Rockies.” He paid $20,500 for it. 

Nunn decided to start subdividing the land, and the Bar Nunn Ranch Subdivision was born in 1958. Former runways were used as streets, and homes were laid out along them. In the 1970s, as the population continued to grow, the subdivision homeowners' association voted to incorporate as a municipality to improve the snow removal and street repair situation. In 1982, the subdivision officially became the Town of Bar Nunn, and the population went on to triple in size.

The runways are not the only parts of the town reminiscent of its airfield days. A large airplane hangar has had a couple of lives over the course of the evolution of Bar Nunn. In 1990, Wayne L. Bundy bought the hangar to keep it from being torn down and moved his boat business, Bundy’s Marine, into it. In 2016, the old hangar was repurposed again as The Hangar, a bar and grill. One of its decorations is a small, blue airplane.

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Added By

Josh

Edited By

smcripps04, Beth1116, AaronNetsky, breaingram

  • smcripps04
  • Beth1116
  • AaronNetsky
  • breaingram

Published

March 28, 2014

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  • http://www.townofbarnunn.com/index.php/about/
  • http://www.townofbarnunn.com/index.php
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar_Nunn,_Wyoming
  • http://www.city-data.com/city/Bar-Nunn-Wyoming.html
  • https://www.facebook.com/pg/The-Hangar-665432956892423/about/?ref=page_internal
  • http://www.wyominghangar.com/history/
  • http://trib.com/lifestyles/announcements/obituaries/wayne-l-bundy/article_b462937a-c03a-11e3-8c24-001a4bcf887a.html
  • http://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/aerials-zephyrs-brief-history-casper-army-air-base
Bar Nunn
Bar Nunn, Wyoming
United States
42.913577, -106.343361
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