Royal Canadian Air Force Detachment Buttress:
by Bruce Forsyth (www.militarybruce.com), with permission
Opened in 1941 near Buttress as the No. 1 Relief Landing Field for No. 32 SFTS at Moose Jaw. The detachment had 3 asphalt runways 100 feet wide and 2,500 feet long, constructed in the standard triangular pattern. Water reservoirs, a barrack block and a garage were added, but no hangar or control tower or barracks. Airmen travelled to the site during the day and returned to the main aerodrome at night.
RCAF Detachment Butress was abandoned after WWII.
The post-war growth of the RCAF resulted in many WWII stations being re-activated. RCAF Detachment Buttress re-opened in May 1952 once again as the Relief Landing Field for the similarly re-opened RCAF Station Moose Jaw.
By the late 1960s, with the advent of the Tutor jet trainer, the Buttress airfield became obsolete, and it was once again abandoned, this time for good. All that remains today are the abandoned and crumbling runways. Several farm buildings line the abandoned runways, which is now private land.
Source material: 15 Wing web site – www.moosejaw.dnd.ca, information supplied by Kirk Wallace, Research Department Western Development Museum (2006) & the Places to Fly web site – http://www.copanational.org/PlacesToFly.