Lac Éon, CA 🇨🇦 Closed Airport
CA-0199
-
- ft
CA-QC
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Loading...GPS Code: Not available
Local Code: Not available
Location: 51.852501° N, -63.276798° E
Continent: NA
Type: Closed Airport
Keywords: YEO YEO
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The exact closure date is not officially documented. However, based on its likely purpose as a temporary industrial airstrip and its appearance in historical satellite imagery, it is estimated to have been closed and abandoned in the late 20th century, likely between the 1980s and 1990s.
Economic reasons, directly linked to the cessation of the project it was built to support. This type of remote, private airstrip was typically constructed for a specific purpose, such as a mining exploration camp, a forestry operation, or a hydroelectric construction project. Once the supporting project was completed, deemed unviable, or the camp was dismantled, there was no longer a need for the airport, and it was abandoned without formal decommissioning.
The airport is abandoned and non-operational. Current satellite imagery clearly shows the outline of a single gravel/dirt runway, approximately 1,200 meters (3,900 feet) in length. The runway surface is unmaintained, with significant vegetation growth, but its shape remains distinct. There are no visible buildings, hangars, or any other infrastructure remaining at the site. The area has reverted to its natural state and is not used for any official purpose.
Lac Éon Airport served as a vital logistical link for resource exploration and development in a very remote and inaccessible part of Quebec's Côte-Nord region. Its significance was purely industrial. It was likely built in the mid-to-late 20th century during a period of intense iron ore exploration or hydroelectric development in the area, projects famously undertaken by companies like the Quebec Cartier Mining Company or Hydro-Québec. Operations would have primarily involved STOL (Short Take-Off and Landing) aircraft, such as the de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver, DHC-3 Otter, and DHC-6 Twin Otter, transporting personnel, geological survey equipment, fuel, and supplies to the remote site. It was never a public airport and did not handle commercial passenger traffic.
There are no known plans or prospects for reopening Lac Éon Airport. Reopening a remote airstrip is a costly endeavor that would require a significant economic driver, such as the launch of a new major mine or another large-scale industrial project in the immediate vicinity. As there are no current public announcements for such projects in the area, the prospect of reopening is considered virtually non-existent.
I landed here on June 5, 1990 and spend the night. I was on a ferry flight from KICT to EBKT in a C172, on the leg KBGR-CYYR when I iced up about 30 nm north of the YEO beacon in a snow storm, and decided to make a 180 back to the strip. I woke up the next day to a foot of snow. A Coastguard Labrador picked me up later that morning and dropped me off in Wabush. Returned a week later with a beaver on floats, to fly the airplane out again.
Former weather reporting station. 4000' sand/gravel strip.