Homesteaded by George Stevens and his Apache bride in 1878, under the Desert Lands Act, the Double Circle Ranch was once one of the largest cattle ranches in the southwest. It’s place between Willow and Eagle creeks at 4,800′ made it a coveted place by not only the ancient pueblo Indians, but by the then marauding Apaches, the most notorious being Geronimo, who even tried to bargain with General George Crook for the site. The early ranch was right in the path of Geronimo’s many treks from the reservation back to Mexico. On two of these treks, multiple ranch hands lay dead, a few even still lie in their graves in the cemetery at the southwest end of the runway.
DOUBLE CIRCLE RANCH (Z66)- FIRST NEWLY CHARTED AIRSTRIP ON FOREST SERVICE LANDS IN REGION 3 FOR DECADES!
The ranch saw its hay days from around 1900 to 1936, under Kansas City cattlemen, and the Abner T. Wilson family management. The Double Circle would be the second largest employer in Green Lee County, maintain a commissary where many folks living in the Eagle Creek valley would get their supplies. With the San Carlos Apache not renewing grazing leases, on their lands that lay immediately west of the ranch, things would change dramatically for the old Double Circle. While among the last to go, some 20,000 to 30,000 head of cattle were slowly rounded up and shipped off in style, even reported in the press, and filmed for Hollywood newsreels. The ranch was sold to the McKinneys in 1938, who ran it as a small family ranch until1948. Ownership of the old ranch changed so fast over the next few decades that even locals lost track of it. In 1950, the then owners attempted a dude ranch, constructing the current lodge and cowboy bunkhouse, and somewhere along the way a 2,400’ airstrip was bladed in just north of these structures.
In 1989, the USFS, through a land swap, obtained ownership of the remaining acres and old ranch headquarters site. Due to lack of funding, and or interest, the site lay unmaintained, subject to all sorts of vandalism and destruction until the then Double Circle grazing permit holders, Doug and Wilma contacted the AZ Game & Fish to ask for help through a program called Adopt a Ranch. One thing lead to another, and today, the old Double Circle is alive and well, and through cooperative agreements with between the USFS and the aviation community, its remaining structures are being cared for, and the airstrip is now Z66, the first newly charted airstrip on FS lands in region 3 in decades!
The old lodge is open to all, and quite comfortable if you have a cot and sleeping bag, and twice each year the APA and RAF hold fly in camp out, and maintenance days along with locals who have also taken on the task with the aviation community.
Submitted on May 6, 2016.
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At about this time, every year, we have this conversation at the RAF about what our year end letter (code for asking for your financial support) should say to you, and about the RAF and the accomplishments of the past year.
Our many RAF supporters have such vast and varied experience, and we’re capturing some of their words of wisdom to share with you. This guest editorial is by Stef Goza, a pilot and an RAF Alaska liaison.
Bill credits aviation for much of his success in business and the ability to serve his companies and family. What began in a Champ, and a Tri-Pacer owned by five people, turned into what Bill calls, “a key business tool” in which he accumulated 9,000 hours – in a Cheyenne, a Pilatus, and a TBM, where ninety-five percent of his flying was for business. “My retirement enabled me to recall ‘Why I Learned to Fly’, a slogan from an old RAF video.” Bill’s son, Patrick, purchased the C185 they now share. “While attending a business function, some associates arrived in corporate jets. As they joined up on the tarmac, the jet pilots gathered around Patrick’s 185, and one of the passengers asked, ‘What’s special about this?’ No explanation needed for this RAF audience,” Bill says. “My involvement in the RAF is, in a partial way, repaying the rewards aviation has endowed me with. Having been involved in many worthwhile nonprofits, this is one where financial support is only part of the picture. Physically participating in great projects that have a lasting effect, with good people, returns a great personal benefit,” he says. “My only regret is that I wasn’t there at the start.” Bill and his wife Jane are privileged to be able to split time between their long-time home in eastern Nebraska and Scottsdale, Arizona. While still serving on several boards, he enjoys golf “about every third shot,” biking, cars, and reading, but always looks forward to the time he can be involved in the RAF. “It’s flying with a purpose,” he adds. Bill can be reached at bdugan@theraf.org
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A Christmas gift of flight lessons from his parents started Scott Anttila’s aviation journey in 1985. “I learned at Johnson Field, a small grass strip tucked into the woods in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and that early exposure to simple backcountry flying stuck with me,” Scott says. Growing up in the U.P., he spent a lot of time outdoors and found that flying was another way to get to the places he liked to explore—especially the ones most people never saw. As he earned more ratings and eventually moved to the Detroit area for work, Scott realized he needed a way to stay connected to northern Michigan. He bought an airplane and used it to get back to the smaller airstrips and lake country he enjoyed. Along the way, he also flew gliders out of Frankfort, soaring along the Sleeping Bear Dunes and towing sailplanes over the Great Lakes. “Those flights gave me a different appreciation for the landscape and made me even more interested in the small, out-of-the-way airports scattered around the state,” he says. Visiting those kinds of places, Scott first came across the Recreational Aviation Foundation. He started using RAF-supported airstrips both inside and outside Michigan. “I noticed how well-kept they were and how much access they opened up,” he says, adding, ”Over the years, I’ve watched a number of grass strips close, which made the RAF’s mission feel especially important to me. Maintaining these airstrips keeps aviation connected to the outdoors and makes it possible for more people to reach the quiet, remote areas that inspired me to fly in the first place.” Scott joins the other two RAF Michigan Liaisons, General Grant and Tanmoy Ganguly. He can be reached at santtila@theraf.org . Submitted December 11, 2025.
