It’s not just ranches and rodeos that bring people to Stephenville’s Clark Field Municipal Airport. Touch down there and take a golf cart ride to some very good eats.
By Brandon V. Webb
Texas Transportation Institute
OK, the truth is that I drove right past the Clark Field terminal and nearly ended up piloting my white minivan across the runway. Call sign: Panic Charlie Bravo.
I’d love to point the long finger of blame somewhere else, but it’s my own fault. That’s what I get for driving and snapping pictures at the same time.
But in my defense, the terminal at Stephenville’s Clark Field Municipal Airport is a modest structure. It’s easy to drive past it. Erected in 1962 and dedicated to then Terminal Golf Carts af Clark Field Municipal Airport, dedicated in 1962. Mayor Henry Clark, the small, white cinderblock building bears its 45-years with weathered dignity-and a water leak or two.
“It’s about worn out,” says Assistant Airport Manager Todd Downs. Eyeing the drooping ceiling tiles and weathered countertop, he adds, “Along with one new corporate hanger, we’re slated for a new terminal building next year.”
Downs and the airport’s manager, his stepfather Bill Smith, are modest about the improvements during their tenure at Stephenville’s Clark Field, but they deserve ample credit. The grounds and runway are mowed, clean and thoroughly maintained. Shiny black asphalt gleams in the Central Texas sun. An Automated Weather Observation System (AWOS) has been added, 12 new ”T-Hangars” are perched for duty near the runway and the facility boasts self-service fuel and dusk-to-dawn lighting for arrivals anytime day or night. The ability to arrive discretely at Clark Field in the dead of night might just be important to you-especially if you’re a celebrity.
“In Stephenville?” you ask.
Absolutely. A surprising array of rodeo stars call Stephenville home (Howdy: Ty Murray, Tuff Hedeman and Jim Sharp). Singer/ songwriter Jewell also dwells there locally, but Downs says the size of her aircraft and the limits of the runway at Clark Field have caused her to begin flying out of Mineral Wells.
“Locally we have a Citation Bravo based here,” Downs says. ”The biggest aircraft we’ve had fly in here are a Falcon 900 and a G-11.”
The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT} analyzed the economic impact of Clark Field Municipal Airport on the local economy and found that the airport:
• Brings more than 1, 150 general aviation visitors to the area each year who account for more than $146,000 in direct economic output
• Supports five visitor-related jobs and $92,000 in payroll
• Helps employ six people at aviation-related businesses with an estimated direct payroll of $118,000
When combined, the general aviation tenants and visitors at the airport are responsible for $922,000 in total economic output, 16 full-time jobs and $345,000 in payroll.
And now for some tougher questions …
Figuring my interview with Assistant Airport Manager Downs had gone on long enough with softball inquiries like, ‘When was this terminal built?” and ‘What does AWOS mean?” I decided to put my high-flying journalism degree to work and ask some meatier questions. So to speak.
I leaned across the small, round, chipped table and fixed Downs with a challenging eye.
“So … why do people fly in and out of here?” I asked.
“Honestly?” he said. “Barbecue.”
“Sorry?”
“Hard Eight BBQ,” he said. “A good 80 to 85 percent of the pilots who land here ore headed for Hard Eight BBQ. It’s a big attraction. You see those golf carts over there?”
I swiveled around for a look.
“Well, people use those golf carts to get to and from Hord Eight,” he instructed. Edging a thumb under my waistband and calculating how long it’d been since breakfast, I squinted and asked, “So … if someone only had one chance to come to town and investigate why people go there, what should they eat?”
“Get the turkey poppers,” he advised. “It’s a hunk of smoked turkey with a jalapeno strip and an onion wedge. They wrap it in bacon and slow smoke it on mesquite fires.”
The line of hungry patrons outside Hard Eight Pit BBQ attested to its popularity. Mesquite smoke billowed from more than a dozen massive, square pits next to the “Hawg Pen,” a site designated for Harleys.
At the head of the line, I found a master pit of sorts, a staging and serving area for the plethora of cooked meats. I ordered brisket and the famous turkey poppers, which glistened in a tiny paper tray with the oily goodness offered by their sheath of peppered bacon.
Inside the restaurant I found a serving line featuring jalapeno creamed corn, crisp iced tea and a sweet but not-too-tangy barbecue sauce that I’d swear boasted cinnamon as its secret additive.
In all, Hard Eight BBQ receives high marks. It deserves the daily flights into Stephenville’s Clark Field Municipal airport by military pilots, hunters, rodeo stars and all intrepid souls in search of smoked meat.
