Gaston's White River Resort, the Grass Strip in Arkansas Where You Taxi Off the Runway, Tie Down Under a Walnut Tree, and Walk Fifty Feet to a Plate of Trout You Can Watch Somebody Catch

Gaston’s White River Resort is a 3,200-foot grass airstrip and fly-in resort on the banks of the White River near Lakeview, Arkansas, deep in the Ozark Mountains. Pilots land on turf, taxi off, and tie down under a walnut tree roughly 50 feet from the restaurant door, where the specialty is trout pulled from the same river you watched on final. Its identifier is 3M0.

Where Is Gaston’s and What Makes It Special?

Gaston’s sits in a river valley in northern Arkansas, with the White River on one side of the runway and a wall of Ozark hills rising on the other. The strip is 3,200 feet of mowed turf running parallel to the water.

This is not concrete-to-concrete flying. You come down into the valley, cross the wide green ribbon of the White River on final, and settle onto grass while fishermen in flat-bottom boats wave up from below. If you’ve ever landed on good turf, you know the feeling - concrete talks to you, but grass whispers.

The proximity of the resort to the ramp is the signature detail. You shut down under the trees, and you can smell breakfast before you’re out of the seat.

The History: Three Generations on One Bend of the River

The resort began in the late 1950s, when a man named Al Gaston bought a patch of riverfront with six cottages and some boats - a small fishing camp on the White River.

His son, Jim Gaston, took over in the 1960s with an idea that was ahead of its time: what if pilots could fly directly to the property, land on the grass, and walk to their cottages? So he built the airstrip along the river.

Under Jim, the six-cottage camp grew into a full resort with dozens of cottages, a restaurant, and a conference center. For decades it has ranked among the great fly-in destinations in the country. Jim Gaston passed away a few years ago, remembered as a genuine steward of both the river and the pilot community. The Gaston family still runs the resort today.

What’s the Flying Like at a River-Valley Grass Strip?

The approach earns your respect. You’re descending into a valley with hills and trees at both ends, onto a living grass surface. That means fundamentals matter more here than at a big flat concrete field.

Fly the numbers. Come in over the water, know your winds, and be precise on speed.
Respect the turf. Wet grass is an entirely different runway than dry grass.
Keep your eyes outside. This is non-towered, see-and-avoid flying, with boat traffic on the river and other aircraft in the pattern.

The reward is a takeoff few surfaces can match: firewall the throttle, feel the turf rumble away beneath the gear, and climb out over the White River with the morning mist still rising off the water.

The Trout: Farm-to-Table, 50 Feet From Your Airplane

Walk in off the ramp and the restaurant’s back wall is glass, opening onto the river. The house specialty is trout, and the twist is that the fish on your plate can come straight out of the water you’re watching. The White River is one of the best rainbow and brown trout rivers in America, and anglers fly in from all over to stand in that cold water.

The kitchen serves the trout grilled, fried, and almondine, and the smoked trout has a following of its own. Breakfast is the real draw for many pilots - the classic “hundred-dollar breakfast” instead of a hundred-dollar hamburger, and by all accounts worth every gallon of avgas.

Beyond the Runway: The Full Gaston’s Experience

The ramp itself is part of the charm - grass and gravel, picnic tables, kids running around, and almost always a dog. You’ll see Pipers and Cessnas parked beside a Cub on big tires and a Bonanza polished to a shine.

The people are the heart of it. Families come back for decades; some couples who honeymooned here now fly in with their grandkids, who wake in riverside cottages to watch airplanes land before breakfast.

Pilots also pass down the quieter traditions like a shared secret: Jim Gaston’s giant water wheel, the riverfront walking trails and dock, and the evening duck feeding down by the water. You fly in, eat trout, walk the river, feed the ducks, and sleep with the window open to the sound of the current all night.

Planning Your Trip to Gaston’s (3M0)

A few honest notes for flight planners who want to go - and go safely:

This is not a first-solo cross-country field. Have some grass and backcountry-style experience under your belt, or bring an instructor who does.
Watch density altitude in summer. Heat, humidity, a soft grass surface, and a valley all eat into climb performance. Calculate your takeoff distance and add a healthy margin.
Check field conditions before you launch. Grass changes with the weather - call ahead, and let the resort staff tell you straight what the strip is doing.
Fly the valley heads-up. Look for boats on the river and traffic in the pattern, and give yourself room.

A place like this reminds you why you learned to fly. An airplane isn’t just a way to get from one parking lot to another - it can set you down soft on the grass at a bend in a river you could reach no other way, 50 feet from breakfast, with an eagle in the tree and a fisherman waving from a boat.

Key Takeaways

Gaston’s White River Resort (identifier 3M0) is a 3,200-foot grass airstrip on the White River near Lakeview, Arkansas.
The resort began as a six-cottage fishing camp founded by Al Gaston in the late 1950s; his son Jim Gaston built the airstrip in the 1960s and grew it into a major fly-in destination.
You park under a walnut tree about 50 feet from the restaurant, where fresh White River trout is the specialty.
The valley grass strip demands backcountry-style skills: mind density altitude, verify field conditions, and fly a heads-up, see-and-avoid pattern.
The Gaston family still operates the resort, carrying on three generations of aviation hospitality on the same bend of the river.