Mathis Airport was a private

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

located in

unincorporated Unincorporated may refer to: * Unincorporated area, land not governed by a local municipality * Unincorporated entity, a type of organization * Unincorporated territories of the United States, territories under U.S. jurisdiction, to which Congress ...

Forsyth County,

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, United States, about northwest of Suwanee in the northeastern part of

metro Atlanta Metro Atlanta, designated by the United States Office of Management and Budget as the Atlanta–Sandy Springs–Alpharetta, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area, is the most populous metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Georgia and the ...

. The airport closed in October 2014. It had an 1800-

foot The foot ( : feet) is an anatomical structure found in many vertebrates. It is the terminal portion of a limb which bears weight and allows locomotion. In many animals with feet, the foot is a separate organ at the terminal part of the leg made ...

or 550-

meter The metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its prefi ...

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt concrete, as ...

, or 357 meters

above mean sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

(AMSL). Mathis Airport sat among residential subdivisions in southern Forsyth County. From 2004 to 2009, Mathis was home to

Experimental Aircraft Association The Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) is an international organization of aviation enthusiasts based in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, United States. Since its inception, it has grown internationally with over 200,000 members and nearly 1,000 chapt ...

Chapter 1415, but in 2009 this chapter moved to Air Acres airport in Woodstock, GA.

History

LG Mathis founded Mathis Airport in 1959 as a privately owned/public use airport. The site of the airport included a family cemetery formerly belonging to the Anglin family. In 1979 LG Mathis and Patrick McLaughlin began Mathis Airpark as a fly-in residential community adjacent to the airport as a separate entity with a taxiway to the runway. In 1985 LG Mathis sold half-ownership of the airport to his brother, CJ. In 1990 CJ Mathis bought the remaining half of the airport. In 1992 CJ sold the airport to Seven Oaks, LLC. In 1995 Seven Oaks, LLC sold the airport back to CJ Mathis. In June 2004 CJ sold the airport (10.53 acres) and an adjacent subdivision lot (3.54 acres) in the airpark to Flyboy Aviation Properties LLC (with members: Joe Voyles, Jim Williams and Jill Voyles). In 2004 under the ownership/management of Joe Voyles, Flyboy Aviation expanded the airport in many ways (tore down the original wooden hangars and cinder-block FBO facility, added 17 new metal

Tee hangar {{Refimprove, date=January 2011 A Tee hangar is a type of enclosed structure designed to hold aircraft in protective storage, and their shape takes advantage of the shape of most general aviation aircraft where the main wings are longer than the ...

s, built a new clubhouse, widened and lengthened the

asphalt Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term a ...

runway, asphalted taxiways and hangar aprons). The larger runway actually covered some nine gravestones from the Anglin family cemetery. Because Georgia law generally prohibits the relocation or removal of gravestones, the gravestones were incorporated into the runway. In 2013, in the midst of a bankruptcy, Joe Voyles had arranged to sell the land to a developer for residential use, and filed an application for rezoning. Filings in the bankruptcy court indicated that Flyboy Aviation was to sell the airport property for $1.4 million, and explicitly stated, "There are no cemeteries, graves, burial grounds or historic artifacts within the property." A few days later in July, a member of a local historical society reported to the police that Joe Voyles had removed the gravestones that had been part of the runway. Nonetheless, the developer (Jim Jacobi of JEH Homes) agreed to go forward with the transaction, and also agreed to preserve the grave sites. The issue of the Mathis Airport gravestones was discussed in a December 9, 2017 episode of the Science Channel's TV series '' What on Earth''. A few of the Mathis Airpark homeowners attempted to block the sale (and eventual closure) of the airport via bankruptcy court based upon easement rights to use the runway, but were overruled by Judge Barbara Ellis-Monro. Pilots and other community members asked the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners (including during a meeting with local Commissioner Brian Tam) to reject the re-zoning of the airport, but their attempts eventually failed. In October 2014 the airport was closed and all hangars removed. The land was planned to be converted to build houses on the property. As of 2020 satellite imagery, the houses had been built, and the graves had been preserved in a green area between two of the homes. Historical imagery shows the developer took care to ensure demarcation of the grave sites so they were not interfered with while the properties were constructed. JEH Homes was purchased by Taylor Morrison, who built 32 homes in the new subdivision (Lakeview at Laurel Springs). Several Mathis Airpark homeowners still have airplane hangars on their property and a shared taxiway, but not much room to take off.

Facilities

Mathis Airport covered and has one runway: Runway 3/21: , surface: asphalt

References

External links

Mathis Airport
{{Atlanta airports Airports in Georgia (U.S. state) Defunct airports in Georgia (U.S. state) Airports established in 1959 Buildings and structures in Forsyth County, Georgia Transportation in Forsyth County, Georgia