How a cabbage patch became the Dane County Regional Airport – Cap Times
By Abigail Leavins, Special to the Cap Times | Sep 4, 2025
Nearly a century ago, a group of Madison leaders struck a deal to buy 290 acres in a move that continues to affect the community today.
The city’s leaders agreed to pay the Joseph M. Boyd Co. $35,380 — or about $650,000 in today’s dollars — for a former cabbage patch and drained marshland. They planned to turn the east side property into a municipal airport.
At the time, city leaders were under pressure from Madison’s wealthiest and most influential residents, who primarily lived on the west side. They wanted a new airport in a different place to stop planes from flying over their neighborhoods.
Few people lived on Madison’s east side a century ago. But today, after decades of population and development growth, the decision to replace farmland with an airport is contributing to a host of challenges for neighborhoods in the area.