During the 1930s in an effort to fight the effects of the great depression, the Canadian Government employed men to build public infrastructure. One of the projects that the federal government commissioned was the building of emergency airfields across Canada.
North of Caddy Lake, along the Mantario Trail, is where one of the emergency airfields was built.
This particular airfield was never actually used for an emergency landing, however, it was occasionally used by cottage owners in the area.
The airfield was built near the National Transcontinental Railway, now Canadian National Railway (CN), track so that if an emergency occurred, the pilot could walk to the track and flag down a passing train.
The landing strip has been abandoned and unmaintained since the 1960s.
Most of the remains of the site were destroyed in 2016 during the Caddy Lake forest fire, which covered over 5800 hectares.
The foundation of a former residential building that was built in 1937 is still visible, along with four concrete anchor points for some sort of tower, and some small piles of garbage.
