Page 5 - June 2020

Penetration of the western Arctic increased at Six aircraft were used during the search, and eight more
this time also. In 1927, Yukon Airways and were available to back up the main search party with supply
Exploration Company established scheduled mail flights. On November 4, MacAlpine and his party, guided by
service between Whitehorse, Dawson and Mayo Inuit, reached Cambridge Bay on Victoria Island. On
with a Ryan monoplane. In 1929 this aircraft was December 4, 1929, the last of the MacAlpine party arrived
wrecked. In the winter of 1927-1928, Western at Cranberry Portage.
Canada Airways extended its mail service down
the Mackenzie River as far as Fort Simpson, and
then to the Arctic Circle in March 1929. On
Dominion Day 1929, “Punch” Dickins landed mail
at Aklavik. Regular mail service to that
community commenced in December 1929.

The far north during the 1920s lacked beacons
and weather services. Carburetor icing was a
common winter problem, while rubber shock

absorbers lost all resiliency. It took years of G-CASK at Dease Strait north of Kent Peninsula, circa 1929
experience in northern flying before improved (Alberta Aviation Museum Collection)
heaters and hydraulic shock absorbers were In the month following MacAlpine's disappearance, “the
developed to solve these problems.
Barrens” witnessed more flying than had been performed in
Most of the north remained an intimidating all the years to that date, accelerating the pace of air
wilderness at the end of the 1920s. "Punch" penetration of the northern wilderness. The similarity with
Dickins made a famous flight with Lieutenant- the Franklin search is unavoidable.
Colonel C. H. MacAlpine, the President of Kenneth C. Eyre, in Custos Borealis:
Dominion Explorers, a prospecting firm, between The Military in the Canadian North,
August 28 and September 9, 1928, in a Fokker his PhD thesis (1981), records how
Super Universal. For much of the trip, they the Northwest Territories and
followed well-charted coastlines such as those Yukon Signal System was assisting
along Hudson Bay, but when they landed at Baker northern flying by this time. The
Lake on September 2, they were only the second Royal Canadian Corps of Signals
operated their wireless stations at
aircraft to visit that community. The next day,
Dawson and Mayo using two 120-
however, they flew inland, from the Hudson Bay watt transmitters. They soon
water drainage system to the Mackenzie River extended into the Mackenzie basin
drainage basin. Some of the territory crossed had and by 1929 northern prospectors
never been explored, and much of that was bare Ken Tingley and mining companies relied upon
rock, devoid of any vegetation other than moss. its messages, including the only comprehensive weather reports in the
Late the following year, Colonel MacAlpine led north. The secrets of the north were quickly being revealed through
another Arctic exploration flight with two aircraft, advances in aviation and technology, and the brave exploits of the bush
pilot.
CF-AAO , a Fairchild FC-2W, and GCASK , a Fokker
Universal. On September 9, 1929, the expedition EDITOR’S NOTE: Ken Tingley became the first municipal Historian
became stranded at Dease Point on Bathurst Laureate in Canada when he was named to the position in April of
Inlet, and its disappearance triggered the famous 2010. During his two-year tenure, Tingley published “Ride of the
MacAlpine Search of 1929. The annual freeze-up Century: The Story of the Edmonton Transit System” and “My
was imminent and there were few trading posts Heart’s in the Highlands: The Building of a Historic Edmonton
or fuel caches to supply the search. Only aircraft Community”.
with powerful engines could participate, and few
of these were available.