Edmonton/Cooking Lake Airport is a registered aerodrome located 15 kilometers east of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on the west shore of Cooking Lake, north of the hamlet of South Cooking Lake, Alberta, Canada. Cooking Lake Airport is the largest of two public airports located within Strathcona County and currently serves 87 per cent of the county's public aeronautical traffic. Established in 1926, it is Canada's oldest operating public airport, and Alberta's only airport with both a floatplane base, Edmonton/Cooking Lake Water Aerodrome, and a conventional runway. The airport is operated on a non-profit basis entirely by volunteers. History The first known aircraft to land at Cooking Lake was in August 1922. The aircraft, G-CAEB, was a Vickers Viking Mark IV, Type 69, and was operated by Laurentide Air service. It was returning from an unsuccessful search for a lost gold mine east of Yellowknife. Cooking Lake Airport was the site of one of the earliest recorded medevacs in Alberta. On August 28, 1932, Walter and Gladys Hill of Fort McMurray were advised by their doctor to seek specialized medical care at a hospital in Edmonton due to complications with Gladys' pregnancy. The couple were flown to the Cooking Lake Airport in a Fokker Universal G-CAHJ, and a healthy boy was born 10 minutes after landing. In 1953, Max Ward took delivery of a de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter single-engine aircraft at the Cooking Lake Airport and founded Wardair. The U.S. Army established a base at the Cooking Lake Airport in 1942. The purpose of the base was to support construction of the Canol pipeline connecting Norman Wells to Whitehorse, Yukon. The project was considered a high priority due to the potential threat of a Japanese invasion of the Aleutian Islands. The Americans purchased a number of Norduyn Norseman aircraft (named the C-64) to ferry personnel and supplies to the extremely rugged northern wilderness where the pipeline was being constructed. The American operating base was wound down in 1945 as the war came to a close, but the Americans left behind upgraded docks and seawall for use at the airport. The Cooking Lake Airport lodge hosted the cast and crew of the 1961 film Wings of Chance, one of the first full-length Hollywood motion pictures shot in Canada. The film stars James Brown, Frances Rafferty, Richard Tretter, and Patrick Whyte. While many of the scenes for the film were shot at the