The 8000-foot airstrip in Marathon was built on 280 acres of land that was purchased at $70 an acre from Maitland Adams and Norberg Thompson of Key West. Belcher Oil Company was the prime contractor and constructed the airport for the Civil Aeronautics Administration.

The project was started in the fall of 1942 and it was completed in the spring of 1943. The Marathon Airport was constructed during the early days of WWII and was a portion of the U.S. Navy flight programs. Marathon would become a Navy Outlying Field (OLF) and an auxiliary airfield to Naval Air Station Key West (NAS). Used by Army Air Forces Antisubmarine Command, 26th Antisubmarine Wing. The Army Air Forces turned responsibility for antisubmarine warfare over to the U.S. Navy in 1943. For a time at the beginning of the war, the airstrip property was partly owned by the Florida State Road Department.

After the war, Monroe County petitioned this agency to turn it over to the county for a public airport. For most of its existence, the airport has been a general aviation facility although it did have scheduled passenger airline service for over 25 years including regional jet service for a short time in 2007.

Regional 44-passenger seat Convair 340 propeller service began in 1959 with National Airlines (1934-1980) serving Marathon on a flag stop basis as part of their Miami – Key West route and these flights marked the first time the airport was directly served by a major U.S. airline.

Get more info at the Marathon Airport Website

Source: Wikipedia