The airfield was established in 1939 as
Ephrata Army Air Base. It was used initially as a support airfield for bombing and gunnery ranges in the area (Seven Mile Gunnery School). Transferred to
Fourth Air Force in 1940 as a group training airfield for
B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombardment units (including the
401st Bombardment Group), with new aircraft being obtained from Boeing near Seattle. Later it was reassigned to
Second Air Force when heavy bombardment group training was reassigned to that command. It was also used by
Air Technical Service Command as an aircraft maintenance and supply depot. On 25 September 1945, Major General Willis H. Hale,
Fourth Air Force, notified Ephrata Army Air Base that it was temporarily deactivated, and it was turned over to War Assets Administration (WAA) for disposal. It was transferred to Grant County and developed into a commercial airport in the late 1940s.
Empire Air Lines then began commercial service to Spokane and Yakima, Washington. Empire was merged into
West Coast Airlines in 1952. West Coast continued serving the airport and was merged into
Air West in 1968 which was renamed to
Hughes Airwest in 1970. All service ended in 1974 and was briefly replaced by
Cascade Airways before all commercial service was moved to the
Grant County International Airport in Moses Lake, Washington in 1975. Parts of the 1989 Steven Spielberg film
Always were filmed on the airport. == Facilities and aircraft ==