In the late 1920s the United States Army sought a place where army fliers could train for wartime manuevers and aerial gunnery practice. Susanville attorney, Ben Curler an avid pilot had just the place—Honey Lake. In the spring of 1931, Curler gave Captain Thomas Boland of the Mather Field in Sacramento a tour of the region and it met with the Army’s approval.
In the summer of 1931, supplies and equipment were shipped from Sacramento to the Wales Ranch, about four miles north of Milford. A summer base camp was established and operated for two months.
The following year the camp resumed operations. This consisted of forty-three flyers, thirty-nine pursuit planes, three transports and a squadron of one-hundred men. The Army was pleased with conditions at Honey Lake and it was their intention to make it a permanent summer training camp and the State obliged. Once the Army obtained ownership of the lake, they no longer used it. When the Sierra Ordnance Depot was formed in 1942, it was annexed to the depot. Jere Baker provides a complete account the air field operations at Honey Lake in Untold Stories.