Canada's Pioneer Airlines
Text from the plaque
In February, 1926, J.V. Elliot and Harold Farrington, each flying a Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny" made the first in a series of passenger flights from here to the isolated Red lake mining district. The following month, a Curtiss "Lark" flown by H.A. ("Doc") Oaks inaugurated a regular service from Sioux Lookout to Red Lake. That December Oaks organized Western Canada Airways, whose aircraft were based at Hudson. One of the earliest airlines in Canada, it was the first to maintain year-round operations. With its predecessors and with Starratt Airways, organized here in 1932 by R.W. Starratt, it laid the groundwork for commercial aviation in Canada and greatly stimulated northern development.
Transcribed from the marker, not summarised.
Find the place
The District of Kenora
The Municipality of Sioux Lookout
In Hudson, on the north side of Main Street (Highway 664)
just before its end
N 50 05.061 W 92 11.285
Recorded July 2006. Check current access before visiting.
More views
Where it stands
Visitors' notes
June 5, 2013
I have a photo of my father (and plane) Jimmy Cairns, pilot of a Fairchild 81 at Sioux Lookout in the fall of 1936 while flying for Starrat Airways. Jimmy went on to fly for Austin Airways for a number of years and during the war was Superintendent of Maintenance at AOS No.4 in London