The End of an Era

January 19, 2022

This article was done in partnership with the Lac du Bonnet & District Historical Society. It appeared in the January 13, 2022 edition of the Lac du Bonnet Clipper. 

The 1950s were a time of great change in Lac du Bonnet. The Winnipeg River rose fourteen feet with the construction of McArthur Falls and Lac du Bonnet’s aviation heyday was coming to a close.

By 1947, Canadian Pacific Airlines withdrew from bush operations and their Manitoba assets were picked up by well-known Lac du Bonnet aviators, Roy Brown and Milt E. Ashton, to form Central Northern Airways, Ltd. (CNA), the third largest airline in Canada. They received their operational permit on May 12, and that same day, flew their inaugural flight from Lac du Bonnet to Bissett, carrying one and a half tons of mail.

CNA, headquartered at Winnipeg’s Stevenson Field, operated Norsemen and Bellanca aircraft on daily scheduled routes between their main bases of Lac du Bonnet, Flin Flon and Sioux Lookout. In Lac du Bonnet, the CNA acquired the decommissioned RCAF hanger, workshop and slipway for their conversions to floats or skis, while their offices and flights remained at the dock. CNA, with their fleet of twenty-eight aircraft, called themselves the “Wings of the North.” Though as the boundaries of the North expanded, Lac du Bonnet became farther away from these remote places.

Discussions began in May 1955 to acquire the Hydro-owned land in front of CNA’s offices for use as a park and swimming area. The dock was already a draw for local children, especially when a jump off the end meant they could avoid the muddy, weedy river bottom while swimming.

In late 1955, CNA merged with another northern airline to create a new company, Trans-Air Limited (different from Trans-Canada Airlines), which had a “fleet of forty-two planes, making it the largest commercial airline working out of Winnipeg.” Their head office was located at Stevenson Field with main bases at The Pas and Churchill. Trans-Air operated a Douglas DC-3 route from Winnipeg to Red Lake, Ont., bypassing Lac du Bonnet for access to the mining areas, though they retained a small operating base at Lac du Bonnet. Throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s, the airline’s focus was on northern expansion beyond Churchill.

Slowly, the town dock became the landmark we know today. In July 1966, years after the planes had left the dock, the question “Are you proud of our beach?” was posed in the local newspaper. Lac du Bonnet was a resort town that lacked proper beach facilities: “The little bit of beach [has] no sand, but gravel, sticks, broken glass, litter of all description to step on. There is a sign ‘please use trash cans,’ however, there isn’t one in sight.” Plus, the pre-McArthur Falls shoreline created a dangerous “sudden drop only a few feet off shore.”

Within the week, local contractor, Eugene Lavoie, leveled and cleared the beach of rocks and other debris before his trucks dumped ten loads of sand onto the beach. Seven local businessmen chipped in to cover the cost of the 120 yards of sand.

Two years later, the vacant airline offices and other buildings were removed from the town dock hill. By 1974, the village mayor and council, along with the Lions Club, worked together to purchase the beach area from the provincial government. That same year, another cleanup of the grassy hillside and beach was completed.

By 1982, the Lakers’ Ski Club, the Lions and the Legion funded the first lifeguard. A few years later, the multi-person beach patrol created a buoyed supervision area from the beach to the end of the dock. And in the summer of 1985, as part of revitalization projects, play structures were built along the town dock hill.

Ninety-four years after its construction for an airplane base, the town dock is set to receive much-needed upgrades that will ensure this dock, and its legacy, live on in Lac du Bonnet for another hundred years.

References:

“C.P.A. Gives Up Manitoba Airlines.” Winnipeg Tribune, May 13, 1947.

“New Airline Starts Manitoba Operations.” Winnipeg Free Press, May 13, 1947.

W.S. Kennard. “Happy Memories Crowd Along When Ken Recalls the Good Ole Airforce Days.” Springfield Leader (Lac du Bonnet, MB), October 7, 1947.

“Artificial Respiration Lessons for Lac du Bonnet Residents.” Springfield Leader, May 10, 1955.

“Central Northern Airways, Ltd. advertisement.” Winnipeg Free Press, June 11, 1955.

“North Line Air Merger Proposed.” Winnipeg Free Press, December 2, 1955.

“CNA Asks Air Merger.” Winnipeg Tribune, December 2, 1955.

“Here are two of three Bristol air-fighters…” Winnipeg Free Press, December 24, 1955.

“Manitoba Air Line Pioneering North.” Winnipeg Free Press, May 6, 1958.

“Lac du Bonnet and vicinity is known…” Springfield Leader, July 19, 1966.

“In last week’s column…” Springfield Leader, July 26, 1966.

“Lac du Bonnet Clean Up Week Set for May.” Springfield Leader, April 16, 1968.

“The grass bank going down…” Springfield Leader, July 30, 1974.

Editorial. Springfield Leader, October 15, 1974.

Noreen Ostash. “L.d.B. beach now complete with lifeguard.” The Leader (Lac du Bonnet, MB), July 20, 1982.

“Looking Good.” The Leader, October 29, 1985.

“Lifeguard Report.” The Leader, July 15, 1986.

Aileen Oder, ed., Logs and Lines from the Winnipeg River: A History of the Lac du Bonnet Area (Steinbach, MB: Derksen Printers, 1980), 259.