Jun 042012
 

I have posted a US Air Force base on my blog before and I have explored some Canadian military locations however this is the first chance I have had to photograph a former Canadian Air Force Base.  I have known of this location for several years but it was just one of those places that for some reason I never thought was worth the drive to see.  I had seen other explorers’ photos of the base and always thought it was too far gone to have anything all that interesting to see, however I must admit I was wrong.

The base closed in 1971 and from what I understood the base was actively used by several businesses including a large hog operation.  We originally arrived the night before but decided to wait until the following morning to access the base.  We approached cautiously as we weren’t sure how active the base was.  We found that the hog operation had not been used in quite some time however many of the original buildings had been converted into makeshift hog barns and weren’t exactly too interesting.  The most interesting things we found included some of the barracks that were very original and were still in good shape, the power plant although gutted still had some interesting things to see as well as a very large old hanger that appears to still be utilized for storage.  The size of the base was impressive as I have been to other old RCAF stations and found them to be fairly small but this base was many times larger than the average base even though a lot of it had been demolished over the years.

I am glad we took the time to see it as we noted that many of the buildings had evidence of recent asbestos abatement and on the ground we could see tracks from heavy machinery.  So it is a possibility that after the abatement that they will demolish some of the buildings.  Today I am showing a quick overview of the base and will follow up with further posts on the base.

Borrowed Arial
An aerial photo of the base from the 1960’s I borrowed from the internet

The Gate
The remains of the front gate to the base

The largest hanger
The largest hanger that wasn’t used as a hog barn

Hanger inside
Inside the hanger

Target for aligning sites
these targets are common at RCAF stations – they were used to align the sights of the guns on the planes

Power Plant
The Power Plant

Gutted Interior of Power Plant
Inside the power plant – almost completely gutted

Basement of Power Plant
Basement of the power plant – the ash pits for the boilers

Barracks
The row of barracks

Barracks Hallway
A hallway in one of the barracks buildings

Barracks Bathroom
A very intact washroom in the barracks

 Posted by at 14:32