Diftwood, BC - Canada

Fort St. James is a district municipality and former fur trading post in northern central British Columbia, Canada. It is located on the south-eastern shore of Stuart Lake in the Omineca Country, at the northern terminus of Highway 27, which connects to Highway 16 at Vanderhoof
Founded by the North West Company explorer and fur trader Simon Fraser in 1806, it came under the management of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821.
Also known historically as Stuart Lake Post, it is one of British Columbia's oldest permanent European settlements and was the administrative centre for the Hudson's Bay Company's New Caledonia fur district
The first use of an aircraft for prospecting the vast Omineca came from the Railway Employees Investment and Industrial Association of Hazelton, B.C., who in the summer of 1922 purchased a Junkers JL-6, G-CADP, from Imperial Oil at Edmonton, Alberta.
The seaplane base at Fort St. James remained active over the years with service provided by a number of local air services. On July 12, 1991, the village of Fort St James unveiled a one third scale Junkers W-34 mounted on a pedestal at the waterfront and declared that henceforth July 12 would be known as "Junkers Day".
Fort St. James (Perison) Airport has a 2,800-foot long airfield and is located 2.4 nautical miles south of Fort St. James. Code: CYJM, YJM. Elevation: 721 m. The airport was built in 1964, thanks to land donated by Harold Person. It was originally a gravel strip, but over the years has been upgraded by the Airport Committee and brought up to Transport Canada standards for an airport without scheduled flights.
There is still a “strong but small” aviation community in the Fort, and with the new pilot training program in Vanderhoof and Mt. Milligan Mine, the airport might once again see an increase in use.

References:
Chris Weicht is an accomplished 18,000 pilot and has chronicled the history of aviation in BC. He is the author of the book series "Air Pilot Navigator". Air Pilot Navigator, Volume 3: Air Route To The Klondike is where the story for this videos story can be found as part of the video series “British Columbia Airfield Stories”. Chris’s research included interviewing aviators and their next of kin who opened up their photo albums and often related exploits of flights creating some outstanding historical aviation books.
If you would be interested in buying Chris Weicht’s books go to coasteaglepublications.com
Special thanks to Doug Rollins and Geoff Hallett Archival Photos for providing this material.
Google Earth Pro
Map Data 2022 Google
Wikipedia
Video:
Flight Over Fort St. James' Murray Ridge
Andy Sundahl
Bird-eye view over Fort St. James and Stuart Lake in the summer
Jack Le

Linda R Stagg: Host / Script
Chris Weicht: Author book series "Air Pilot Navigator"
Geoff Hallett: Archival Files / BCAM Librarian
Back Ground Music: “Frenesi” by Artie Shaw
Randy Stagg: Video Production / Script

youtube.com/@rvjs100

Playlist: “BC Airfield Stories”

The Driftwood Outdoor Guide & Business Apprenticeship is bringing a new form of education to our youth. We spent the time to learn and document the program over the last few weeks. Enjoy an inside look into the program, and experience a few days with the youth.

Osland is a small "town" that I discovered last year, completely on accident. I was out fishing and exploring and I stumbled upon this island, with a boardwalk and a bunch of very old buildings. After releasing that video, I got so many comments and messages from folks, telling me what this place actually is. It is remote, it is off grid, it is hard to access, it is practically unknown, and to some it is home away from home. This is Osland, and this is the story of generations. People moved to this country and made this home. Europeans that took massive risks to cross the world and start a new life, and they chose this little island. Sometimes we take our history for granted, but just take a moment and think about that journey. From Iceland to British Columbia. Then they built homes, and boats and families here, in a location almost nobody knows about, in a spot most people cant access.
It was an absolute pleasure getting to revisit this location, and to get the chance to do it with locals, and family members of the original immigrants. These are the stories I really love to tell, because these are the ones that are so easily lost in time.
Great big thank you to the the folks that made this one possible.

If you enjoy these episodes, and you would like to help support the channel, I have a couple of options for you.
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This adventure was also possible only because of my amazing sponsors at Swellfish. If you're wanting to incorporate a little more water adventure in your life, there is no better adventure boat than a Swellfish: https://swellfish.co/DUSTINPORTER