Houghton County Memorial Airport — Hancock, United States

Michigan's remote Keweenaw Peninsula, a finger of land jutting into Lake Superior, depends on CMX for reliable access to the outside world during winters that regularly bury the region under some of the heaviest snowfall totals in the eastern United States. Located near Hancock and the neighboring city of Houghton, home to Michigan Technological University, the airport benefits from the federal Essential Air Service program, which subsidizes scheduled flights connecting isolated communities like this one to hub airports such as Chicago or Minneapolis. The old Copper Country name still lingers around the region, a nod to the 19th-century mining boom that first brought substantial population and infrastructure to this isolated corner of the Upper Peninsula. Snow removal capability at the airport is consequently a critical operational concern, given lake-effect snow patterns that can produce dramatic accumulation totals each winter.