North Bay’s Air Harbour (1923)
The geographic location of North Bay made it an excellent base of operations for the exploration, charting, and surveying of Northern Ontario.
In 1923 North Bay’s first airport, an 800 yard seaplane station, was established on Trout Lake near the current location of Average Joe's restaurant.
Trout Lake was chosen over Lake Nipissing as the site for the air harbour to avoid the risk of planes getting stuck and damaged in Lake Nipissing’s shallow waters.
In May 1930, the first military airplanes, eight RCAF flying boats, landed at the air harbour en route to Manitoba and Saskatchewan. North Bay became well known as an excellent stopover for flying boats and float planes coming to and going from all over the country.
From 1933 to 1936, the Department of National Defence (DND) set up headquarters in North Bay to supervise the construction of eight emergency airfields between Ottawa and Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay). Although North Bay was not selected as a site for an aerodrome, civilian and government aircraft continued to land at the Trout Lake air harbour.
A busy day at the Trout Lake Air Harbour, North Bay’s first airport, circa 1941.
North Bay Museum Collection