In 1954, the U.S. Government decided it needed a jet fighter/interceptor base in either Southeastern Wisconsin or Northeastern Illinois to protect the Milwaukee-Chicago area from hostile air attacks. It chose a 5,540 acre plot in the towns of Kansasville and Brighton, Wisconsin. 

Congress authorizes $16.5 million for the base and the government begins purchasing land from 59 farm families. The base, designed to house 5,000 airmen, will feature a 12,500-foot runway and is named after World War II flying ace Major Richard Bong of Poplar, Wisconsin. Construction begins in June; by year’s end, 500 men work around the clock to beat deadlines and winter weather. 

Three days before the gravel runway was planned to be surfaced, construction came to a stop due to Defense Department budget problems, criticism that this air base may be obsolete, and concerns of air space congestion. In 1963, the federal government gave 1,933 acres to the Wisconsin Conservation Department for that land to be managed as a wildlife preserve.