an advanced air base had been supplanted by new air bases on Adak and Amchitka Islands in early 1943 farther to the west. By the end of the year, the base had become a backwater; its mission to provide housing and rations for transient personnel and the servicing of transient aircraft. Closure After the war ended, Fort Glenn remained open as a refueling stop for transient aircraft in the Aleutians along with Military Air Transport Service flights using the Great Circle Route from Japan to the United States. The main runway, however, was extended to to accommodate large, long range aircraft. By 1946, the base was manned only by skeleton staff due to the rapid demobilization of the Air Force. The last Air Force personnel were withdrawn by 30 September 1947, and the base was put on inactive status and was effectively abandoned. It was decommissioned in 1950 and the site was excessed between 1952-55 to the Bureau of Land Management. It was later transferred to numerous owners (Native corporations and the State of Alaska). Today hundreds of buildings, runways, and World War II artillery emplacements remain in various states of deterioration." In 1987, the site was added to the National Register of Historic Places as Cape Field at Fort Glenn. The remains of the base are "the most comprehensive and intact World War II base in the Aleutian Islands" It is located on Umnak Island in the Aleutian Islands. Today Fort Glenn AAF is a virtual ghost town—except for a family of cattle ranchers who have renovated several World War II buildings and who call the base home. The expanse and undisturbed quality of the resource make Fort Glenn AAF an outstanding conceptual model for landscape preservation. In 1991, National Park Service historians visited the site to review the World War II-related construction, infrastructure, landscape, and objects. It was determined that any environmental cleanup should be designed to remove loose cables, transformers, hazardous material, toxic waste, and ordnance. Nontoxic World War II-related objects such as empty barrels could be left in place; full barrels would be, of course, another issue. All other buildings, structures, and infrastructure—no matter how "unsightly"—would be left intact and preserved: in this case preservation can simply mean avoidance and the acceptance that the buildings and structures have a definite place within the landscape. On Saturday July 12, 2008, nearby Mount Okmok, erupted, sending ash 50,000