This 120-acre site was formerly an airport, opened in the 1920s and closed in 2000. One of the buildings looked like a "hat box" so it was called Hatbox Airfield. After the closure of the airport itself, the local Love Bottling business was one of the major supporters in the conversion to the current sports complex. So now it is called "Love-Hatbox" Sports Complex. Newly expanded and developed over the last several years this complex is home to many leagues, tournaments, and individual users, and includes the following areas:
- Baseball - 10 lighted baseball fields
- Softball - 8 (6 lighted) softball fields (youth and adult)
- Football - 2 lighted football fields
- Soccer - 13 soccer fields
- Multi-purpose Activity Trail- 3.1 mile Cenntennial Trail
- Outdoor Skate Park
- Outdoor Water Park
- Indoor training area, turfed (8,100 sq foot)
- Fitness classes
- Summer Camps
- Indoor batting cages
- Event Venue
History:
Hatbox Field was originally dedicated by Charles Lindbergh. It was a stop for Amelia Earhardt and many other of the pioneers of travel. The airfield was Muskogee's original municipal airport. It is one of the airports that the Douglas aircraft of the Army's 1924 Around the World Flight stopped, and was a stop on the Army's mail route.
In 1929, the airfield was described as a municipal airport, operated by the Army Air Corps, and having a beacon light. It was depicted on the 1929 Rand McNally "Standard Indexed Map with Air Trails of OK" as a public airport with a radio station.
The Spartan Aviation School opened at the field in 1940. They used the two large arch-roofed hangars at Hatbox. Renamed Muskogee Army Airfield during World War II, Spartan provided primary flight training to cadets as an Army Air Forces contract flying school until 1944. The USAAF 410th Bombardment Group trained at the airfield in the fall of 1943 before being reassigned to the 9th Air Force in England.
Following the end of its military use, Hatbox was reused as a purely civil airfield. The city of Muskogee decided to close the field to the public following a two-fatality crash in 1998. Limited aviation use was allowed until 2000, however, by a private firm that refurbished military-surplus Beechcraft U-21 Utes. Hatbox was closed completely in 2000, and the refurbishing company moved to nearby Muskogee Davis Field.
Three Rivers Area Model Plane Society (T.R.A.M.P.S.), a local model airplane club, hosts two annual events at Love-Hatbox that attract flying enthusiasts from around the country.