Who remembers Stapleton International Airport? (Denver, Boulder: transfer, neighborhood, new construction)

[Mouldy Old Schmo]

Who would believe an entire neighborhood covers the land that used to be Denver’s airport?

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

The runway that went over I-70......

[grad_student200]

I do. I remember landing there for the first time in 88 on a connection flight from Chicago back to Phoenix.
Although it was just a brief stopover, I got to see a good view of the Rocky Mountains from the terminal which motivated me to come back two years later. I went to summer school at CU Boulder. That was fun back in my very early 20s. I wrote my first email that summer on a VAX mainframe (LOL).

The new airport is obviously more spacious but a bit far from Denver (in my opinion) out on the plains towards Nebraska. I had planned a flight back to Denver last weekend but cancelled. I had flashbacks of two racist white females mocking me at the new airport and decided just not to go. I had the impression they only wanted whites in the airport - so be it. I'll just stick to Northern AZ if I want to go back to the mountains for hiking when Phoenix gets too hot.

[CrownVic95]

Flew in and out of it many times. Always thought it was a pretty cool airport.

Not all that long ago, you could still see remnants of the runway that traversed I-70 on the Google maps satellite view. Just looked again and I can't say I see any sign of it left. But there is still evidence of the north end of runway 17L, the one north of I-70 in its entirety.

The tower is still there, of course. I'm so glad they preserved that.

[StealthRabbit]

At least Stapleton seemed like arriving in Denver, rather than Kansas. (But the new construction surrounding DEN is encroaching very fast (then the residents will be complaining and the airport will again need to head east))

Imagine the millions of tons of Jet A dropped at Stapleton (and on approaches), Previous common practice when over weight.


ONE day of Jet A burn on takeoffs at DEN is likely 3+ yrs of "auto" related pollution in the metro area (welcome the brown cloud)

[BarryK123]

Lived on the east coast at the time and made many a landing at Stapleton for a Spring ski trip.

[WoundedSpirit]

I flew in and out of Stapleton many times. The parking garage exit was like a spiral staircase, and I picked up a few nails in my tires from it. I liked Stapleton a lot better than DIA, although the terminal looks pretty cool from a distance.

It always seemed so empty for its size, so I couldn't understand why they were in such a rush to build a new one.

GradStudent, I worked at the CU Computer Center in the early 70's. Back then the closest we had to email was a teletype, and everyone used punch cards to write their programs. When I was there they had twin Burroughs mainframes that took up most of the top floor, and the disk drives looked like washing machines.

[reed303]

I have the dubious distinction of having flown out of Stapleton on its last day of operation, and back into DIA on its first day in Feb 1995. (Overnite business trip to Seattle).

Upon arrival, we were told to be careful stepping off the plane on to the jetway as there was snow on the jetway. I thought to myself: "$5 Billion dollars and no brooms or shovels ?"

They had shuttle buses for us to get back to our cars parked at Stapleton.

And I still have the 1st day postage stamp bought at the PO at DIA.

[DOUBLE H]

I flew out of there a few times myself. You want no frills--and a bargain? I flew with Peoples Air Express once, was in 1984. $49 to San Diego and $49 back. I had my next door neighbor take me out there, lived in Littleton back then. He wasn't able to pick me up 4 days later, no big deal there, either. From the terminal I walked 2 blocks to Quebec, got on a bus, and went to Colfax. Used my transfer slip and went to Broadway. Paid another 50 cents and went all the way down on the 0 Southglenn route which is Broadway to Arapahoe Road, and then walked a block and a half to my place. No worries regarding leaving a car there -heh- and no car fee! Total bus fare was a whopping $1!

[LHS79]

Miss Stapleton more and more as I get used to DIA.

Back in the late 70's when we were in high school many rock concerts would be help at Big Mac (McNichols Arena).

Being from a small town near Boulder it was a big deal to go to Denver for shows and afterwards we would go to Stapleton to walk the concourses (those days are looooong gone) and look at the planes.

Of course there was always some Mexican or Columbian (a bit more $$ but still crappy compared to now) weed involved in our escapades but we never got in trouble or arrested in those days.

Used to push our buddies around on the wheelchairs through the concourses for laughs and would call up the automated PA system and ask for "Jack Meeoff please come to customer service" etc... and that always got a good laugh. There were a few other "announcements" that went over that automated PA system that now would not be considered PC (!).

Good times!