Al Chance writes; "The tower was about eight feet square inside. The small sliding window in the right of the photo was the only window that opened. This was to enable firing of flares if needed. Very little concern about employee comfort." |
Situated near one of Canada's most picturesque areas, Lake of the Woods, Kenora Tower/ERU (Enroute Radar Unit) had an interesting history in Central region. The tower was built in 1957 to assist itinerent traffic, mostly American aircraft flying into "Sunset Country". However the tower only stayed open for several months. Kenora ERU (Enroute Radar Unit) opened in July 1960 and operated until ATC services were relocated to Winnipeg ACC in April 1992. The Kenora AASR1 radar was decommissioned and a new ISSR radar site was located at Dryden Ontario, 60nm east of Kenora. While a few controllers chose to retire in Kenora, most of the ATC staff were relocated to Winnipeg in the spring of 1992. Today the area is provided air traffic services by QK FSS and WG ACC.
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Al Chance writes; "The tower was about eight feet square inside. The small sliding window in the right of the photo was the only window that opened. This was to enable firing of flares if needed. Very little concern about employee comfort." |
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Al Chance writes: "Kenora Tower opened in the spring of 1957 and closed that same year in October. We painted the tower ourselves and I put the name on it. Previously it was just unpainted wood and plywood. Before we got radios up there, the Air Radio station (now of course FSS) would relay to the pilots our control instructions, which we gave them over the phone. Then the pilots were told to watch for a light on final - a battery operated light gun powered by our car batteries which we had to remove from our cars and take up the ladder to the tower cab with us at the start of each shift! One day a visiting American pilot lined up with the wrong end of the runway when I had a departing aircraft in postion at the correct end. I gave the inbound a red light, but he landed anyway. Fortunately the departing flight saw the red light I gave him and held his postion. I called Air Radio on the phone and told them to put the arriving pilot on the line to me as soon as he came in. He soon called and I asked him, in quite angry terms, why he landed when I was giving him a red light. He replied that he could not find the tower. I told him it was the wooden building near the intersection of the hard surface and the grass runways. He said, "Oh, I thought that was the shithouse". I couldn't argue, and thanked him for the good laugh. Then we telexed Winnipeg to get the tower painted. They sent a few gallons of white and International orange paint and some brushes, the result is in the picture." "I can confirm al's Kenora story about the painting of the tower, although as the tower chief I have a couple of different memories. The tower was commissioned (really) on June 1,1957 and decommissioned in mid November. Now about getting that paint out of the cheapskates in central region... I relayed Al's story with a request to have the tower painted by a painter or airport maintenance. This is when I first was introduced to that wonderful thing called a budget. Region's initial response, no budget, no money, no paint job. I could not believe this and I reacted not too wisely - hey I was only 21. Anyway, the short version is we received several cans of paint and Al and I painted and painted and painted, with Alec painting the name of the airport (KENORA) and the fact that it indeed was an (AIRPORT CONTROL TOWER). There are actually quite a few KENORA stories such as setting a pig on fire on the runway, the bear in the control tower office, the arrival of a T-Bird, the arrival of a Mosquito, the attempt to close the tower earlier than region wanted; etc., but those can be told another day." |
Prior to the establishment of Town of Kenora in 1905, the whole area situated on the northeastern
shore of Lake of the Woods was known as "Waszush Unigum" or "Portage of the Muskrats". In the early 1800's the Hudson's Bay
Company established a post on the river near the town. Trappers from all over the region would bring their furs here to be
shipped to the East. The French and English fur traders continued the use of the name and with a few linguistic changes,
the area became known as Rat Portage.Rat Portage was no more than a small community with hodgepodge rows of shanties lining the shoreline. Soon it became known as the "Roughest Town in Canada" due to it's transient population that flooded into the area to look for work on the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. This was soon followed by the Gold Rush which brought even more people into the area/community seeking their fortune, and just have a good old time. Now add the sometimes comical boundary dispute between Ontario and Manitoba with Rat Portage literally right in the middle. This territorial dispute must have been interesting during the early 1880's with both Provinces having local jails which were at times filled with each others constables. In 1884, after Manitoba claimed Kenora as its territory, the Privy Council in England settled the dispute in favor of Ontario. This became official in 1889. Dissatisfaction with the name of Rat Portage had been expressed by the residents of the town over the years, but apparently it took a final push from industry to initiate the change. The Maple Leaf Flour Company, established in 1905, had reportedly refused to build there because they didn’t want the word "rat" on their flour bags. So the new name was formed by combining the first two letters of KEewatin, a sister town; NOrman, an adjacent village; and RAt Portage. |
