Fort Macleod Airport

In mid-April 1968, newspapers reported that a group from the United States had leased the Pearce Airstrip for drag racing, with permission from the Willow Creek Municipal District council, and planned bleachers, electric timing equipment and a concession stand. The reports are confusing. They placed the site south of Fort Macleod and 3.5 miles east of Highway 2, but the old WWII Pearce Airfield was northeast of town. It seems the Pearce Airstrip was never used, and the racing moved to the old WWII RCAF Station Fort Macleod, southwest of town, where Fort Macleod Airport is today. Photos by Canadian Murray Tonkin of drag cars at Fort Macleod show large industrial and warehouse buildings nearby, which fits a site closer to town than the very rural Pearce Airstrip. Tonkin recalled that hangars were still standing, though he didn’t think the field was in use. It was a big triangle of tarmac with room to run, and he called it about as crude a gathering as there ever was. The Lethbridge Drag Racing Association held a drag race at the airport once a year in 1998 and 1999.