Northwest Staging Route
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The Northwest Staging Route was a series of airstrips, airports and radio ranging stations built in British Columbia, the Yukon and Alaska during World War II.
Airfields were built or upgraded every 100 miles (160 kilometres) from Edmonton, Alberta to Fairbanks, Alaska. The route of the Alaska Highway, which was built to provide a land route to Alaska, basically connected the airfields together.
The route was used to ferry aircraft, notably the Bell P-39 Airacobra to Siberia in the Soviet Union as part of the Lend-Lease program.
Known airfields include:
- Grande Prairie, Alberta
- Fort St. John, British Columbia
- Beatton River, British Columbia, emergency airstrip
- Sikanni Chief, British Columbia, emergency airstrip
- Prophet River, British Columbia, emergency airstrip
- Fort Nelson, British Columbia
- Smith River, British Columbia, emergency airstrip
- Watson Lake, Yukon
- Pine Lake, Yukon, emergency airstrip
- Squanga Lake, Yukon, emergency airstrip
- Whitehorse, Yukon
- Aishihik, Yukon, emergency airstrip
- Snag, Yukon, emergency airstrip
There were additional airfields between Snag and Fairbanks, the terminus of the route where Soviet pilots took over.
