PINECREEK, Minn. — A colorful era in Minnesota’s aviation and cross-border cooperation history comes to an end Friday, Dec. 27, with the permanent closure of the Piney-Pinecreek Border Airport.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation and the Rural Municipality of Piney, Manitoba announced plans to permanently close the airport in a press release on Friday, December 13.

One of the few airports located in two countries, the Piney-Pinecreek Border Airport straddles the U.S.-Canada border approximately 20 miles northwest of Roseau, Minn., and 5 miles south of Piney, Minn. west side of state (and provincial) Highway 89. The 61-acre airport has a 3,297-foot paved runway, 2,350 feet of which are in Minnesota and the rest in Manitoba.

The airport is also adjacent to the Piney and Pinecreek border crossings.

In a press release announcing the closure, MnDOT said the general aviation airport had been operated under an international agreement between MnDOT and the Rural Municipality of Piney since 1949. The airport was “very little used,” MnDOT said, and was facing significant maintenance expenses, including rebuilding the runway, apron and terminal.

The international agreement required to operate the airport expires Dec. 26 and will not be renewed by either airport owner, MnDOT said.

News of the airport’s closure was a disappointment to area residents who remember efforts to secure its expansion in the late 1970s.

“It’s an unfortunate situation, but the state of Minnesota is unwilling to intervene,” said Marlin Elton of Pinecreek, a member and former chairman of the Piney-Pinecreek Airport Commission. “The state of Minnesota has set the standards, and we’re looking at millions of dollars’ worth of improvements there, and the state is not willing to pay for that itself.

“They want Canada (the federal government) to come in and take care of the rest, and they’re not going to do that, from the looks of it. The people (in Manitoba), of course, have no more tax base than we do in our township here. So it’s a question of finances.

The concept of an airport straddling two countries was very widespread at the time. A groundbreaking ceremony held on Saturday, July 28, 1979, marking the completion of a project to extend the trail to Manitoba, made headlines in the next day’s edition of the Grand Forks Herald.

As the Herald reported, the airport opened in 1952 with a 2,155-foot grass runway that allowed pilots access to U.S. and Canadian customs. But when the decision was made in 1972 to extend the runway to 3,200 feet to better accommodate night landings, the only direction in which to extend the runway was toward the northwest, into Manitoba.

“Nine different federal, provincial, state and local government agencies had to approve the project before construction could begin,” the Herald reported. “An amendment to a U.S. Senate foreign aid bill sealed the deal in 1977.”

On a beautiful Saturday in late July 1979, about 400 people from both sides of the border gathered to inaugurate the airport expansion. Minnesota Governor Al Quie and Manitoba Premier Sterling Lyon were among the dignitaries present to dedicate the project.

Brad Dokken / Herald of Grand Forks

Quie, a Republican, served as governor of Minnesota from 1979 to 1983, and Lyon, a Progressive Conservative, served as premier of Manitoba from November 1977 to November 1981.

Lyon hailed the cross-border project as a “concrete symbol of what two nations can achieve by working together,” the Herald reported.

A lot of hard work went into the expansion project, acknowledged Elton, who was also on the airport commission at the time of the groundbreaking. Pilots from across the country used the track to commute between Canada and the United States, he said.

“It’s not just Minnesota, it’s way beyond,” Elton said. “It’s a large area affected by this.

“It was extremely convenient, but I guess it doesn’t matter anymore.”

In its press release, MnDOT said several other nearby airports serve the northwest Minnesota general aviation community, including Warroad Memorial International Airport (RRT), Roseau Municipal Airport (ROX) , Stephen Municipal Airport (D41) and Warren Municipal Airport (D37). All have more annual flight operations and support existing aircraft, MnDOT said.