The airport at Macdonald was established in 1941 under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan as No. 3 Bombing & Gunnery School. The school and the station closed in 1945.
The post-war expansion of the RCAF resulted in several WWII aerodromes being re-activated. Royal Canadian Air Force Station Macdonald re-opened in 1951 as the home of No. 4 Advanced Flying School and No. 1 Air Gunnery School (re-designated two years later as No. 1 Pilot Weapons School). However, this would all be short lived.
RCAF Station Macdonald closed on 31 May 1959.
A storage depot for Air Maintenance Command was established at the former station. RCAF Station Portage la Prairie assumed responsibility for the Detachment which continued operating until 30 November 1963 when the facility was closed. The property was turned over to the Crown Assets Disposal Corporation who sold the property for farming.The abandoned runways were used as a racetrack for sports car and motorcycle racing between 1965 and 1970.
Since 1972, the former aerodrome has functioned as "Airport Colony Farms", a grain and livestock farm run by a "Hutterite Colony", a German speaking Christian religious sect.
Today, some of the PMQs remain, as do assorted buildings like the old recreation building, the maintenance building and transportation buildings, a firing range, a school and one of the hangars, although these are all scheduled to be torn down sometime in the future. The runways are also gone - ploughed under for crops many years ago.
Updated: December 19, 2004