From the Town of Peace River website:
"AIRPORT HISTORY
No one is exactly sure when the first Peace River Airport was commissioned, but in April of 1937 it was abandoned.
That first airport was located on the west bank of the Peace River, about 3 miles south of the present town site.
The site was abandoned when one of Grant McConachie's pilots had a near fatal accident on landing. The airline was called "United Air Transport Limited" whose head office was located at the Edmonton Municipal Airport. The airline was later to become Pacific Western Airlines.
Our historical records indicate that the present site (NW Section 29, Township 83, Range 22, West of the 5th Meridian) was picked by none other than the famous "Wop" May.
The original configuration of runways shows that there were three. Two are still operating 04/22 and 08/26 the third appears to have aligned itself with 18/36. Each was 3,000' long and 500' wide, apparently cross wind landings were to be avoided at all costs.
There were no buildings at the site and only a dirt road. On rainy days it took 2 hours to fly from Edmonton and a further 2 hours to traverse the muddy road to town.
Things gradually improved with the addition of a terminal building of sorts, a telephone line to town and improvement of the landing surfaces. Three airline companies serviced Peace River at that time, Yukon Southern, MacKenzie Air Service and Peace River Airways.
In the fall of 1942 an American Corps of engineers extended the 04/22 runway by a further 2,000 feet. A weather station was also added by the Americans. No doubt the Americans were there as part of the Alaska Highway effort, but, just exactly what role they played is lost to antiquity.
On May 28, 29 of 1949 the Peace River Airport played host to one of the first airshows in the region. The Air Cadets of the region played host to the R.C.A.F. who brought with them a helicopter, two Harvard trainers, an Avro Anson, a Beech Expeditor out of which two parachutists jumped.
All reports indicate that people were quite taken with the helicopter and folks from miles around attended. Unfortunately Sunday's performance was cancelled due to rain.
In June of 1960 the Peace River Airport closed down in order to complete extensive construction to the airport. The runway was paved and an air terminal was built. Peace River Airport re-opened its runway for major airline service in January of 1961. The official opening was held August 9, 1961. This date marked the signing of a long term lease (40 years) between the Department of Transport and the Town of Peace River whereby the Town, with subsidization from Transport Canada, would operate the Airport.
During 1964 the first Flight Service Specialists were hired to man the radio at the Peace River Airport. Prior to this, the pilots spoke to the radio operated by the Weather Office at the airport. Even before the Weather Office, the agents of Pacific Western Airlines and Canadian Pacific Airlines had a radio in their homes which they used to communicate with the pilots. PWA did build a small radio shack for their agent.
A New Terminal building was opened September 8, 1984. The estimated cost of construction being 4.5 million Heritage Fund dollars.
The airport was purchased from Transport Canada in 1996 by the Town of Peace River."
http://peaceriver.govoffice.com/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={862853A9-A506-4976-A583-60157D5DD593}&DE={0F6774AF-9CB0-466A-8ECF-A869036F49F7}