I have explored a US Air Force base but this was our first chance to see 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.
Opening in 1939 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.
For more information check out this site: https://rcaf.info/rcaf-stations/manitoba-rcaf-stations/rcaf-station-rivers/
