Lost City

East of Richmond International Airport, formerly known as Byrd Field, is an undeveloped patch of land known as the Elko Tract. The area residents call it Lost City. Originally owned by the US Government, the land was used to build a decoy airport during WWII. A triangular set of runways, modeling those of Byrd Field, were built in a clearing east of the actual airport,  strewn with fake rocks and cardboard outbuildings that housed machine guns and hidden US soldiers. After the war, the land was developed into a planned colony for “Negroes” suffering from tuberculosis or mental illness. A series of paved roads with streetlights, fire hydrants, and a sewer system were built on the Elko Tract, but objections to the colony from area residents put a halt to the project. It has lain dormant now for over 50 years.

I had heard about this lost city and had imagined something more grandiose and ambitious. A decoy city.  I imagined a mini-Richmond of sorts, a reduced scale model of the city to the west, with multi-storied buildings and a similar grid of streets. But what we found were the remnants of a grand plan that was never realized.

Residents of nearby Sandston have told tales of secretive military-looking personnel guarding the Lost City, chasing off inquisitive visitors and partying teenagers. There is also a story of a burnt body found on the perimeter of the city. Now the tract of land is for sale and the sidewalks and streets are slowly being reclaimed by nature. Virginia owns some of the property; Henrico County the rest. Parts of Elko Tract were sold to several high-tech companies a decade ago in order to lure them to the area during the tech boom. Qimonda, once called Infineon and White Oak Technologies, went out of business last year and now the sprawling corporate campus stands empty, surrounded by weeds. Like the Lost City, the once grand plans of these tech companies were cut short, and now they wait to be slowly reclaimed by the surrounding forest.