During World War II the US government established military airfields around northern California including a number at places such as Orland, Oroville, Redding, Siskiyou County, Marysville, Santa Rosa and Novato. Novice pilots trained in hastily-constructed planes over Lake County, which led to emergency landings and crashes in Lake County. In those days Lake County had a number of small airfields scattered around, such as Polk Field near Upper Lake. Planes from both the army and the navy crashed in Lake County.




