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In 1926, in response to the Red Lake Gold Rush, James Richardson, a wealthy financier from Winnipeg, formed Western Canada Airways. The company's first pilot and manager was Captain Doc Oaks. In December, 1926, Captain Oaks and his assistant, Al Cheesman, flew the company's first plane,G-CAFU, a Fokker Universal monoplane, from the Fokker factory near New York, to Hudson, Ontario, the jumping off point to Red Lake. By 1942 WCA had grown into one of the largest air transport companies in Canada. CP Air later bought WCA, and with the amalgamation of CP Air and Air Canada in 1999, G-CAFU can now take its place in history as Air Canada's first commercial aircraft.
ed. Michell Alderton, Director/Curator of the Red Lake Museum (807) 727-3006 welcomes any inquiries regarding aviation history in Red Lake. They have thousands of early aviation photos there, as well as a great deal of archival material. BFC Members may already know, but the Fokker Universal G-CAFU, which Doc Oaks flew from New York City to Hudson and Red Lake in December 1926, was found at the bottom of a lake in northern Manitoba earlier this year. According to the newspaper story, the plane sank there in 1931, and could be in mint condition. The Western Canada Aviation Museum, which owns the title to the aircraft, is planning on retrieving it and restoring it. This little plane played a major role in Red Lake's aviation history, so they're pretty excited about this development.
Check out this link to the museum's aviation history page.