George Harold Finland

George Harold (Mike) Finland, B.Sc., was born in Victoria, British Columbia, on April 21, 1901. He was educated there and at the University of Washington from where he graduated in 1927 as a mining engineer. That same year he joined Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada Ltd. (Cominco) on exploration work along the northern coast of British Columbia. He then moved to supervisory field positions in northern Saskatchewan until 1930.

A chance to train as a company pilot resulted in a transfer to Creston, British Columbia, at the flying school organized by W.M. Archibald, Manager of Mining with Cominco at Trail, British Columbia. Here Finland earned his Private Pilot's Licence in 1930 and became one of Canada's earliest pilot-geologists.  He explored northern Saskatchewan by air for mineral occurrences until late 1931, when economic conditions resulted in a slow-down to further explorations. In 1932 Finland completed an air navigation course with the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) at Camp Borden Military Base, Ontario. During the financial crisis of the mid-1930's he became Advertising Manager for Cominco. He flew agricultural representatives on campaigns advertising and selling chemical fertilizers throughout the prairie provinces and eastern Canada in the company's Gipsy, Puss and Hornet Moth aircraft.

Finland's area of operations was expanded in 1935 to cover the northern sections of the prairie provinces to set up and supply preliminary mining operations. His airborne adventures in locating new mineral deposits, and in airlifting men and supplies to unmapped regions for investigative work, proved so successful that he was transferred to the Northwest Territories to explore new fields. In late 1935 he obtained his Air Engineer's Certificate, a necessity for pilots flying in isolated areas.

Making use of his dual profession, Finland logged thousands of miles flying an open cockpit Gipsy Moth airplane on floats in the North for Consolidated Mining and Smelting. At Yellowknife, where gold quartz had been found, he staked claims CON 1 to 14 in 1936, and these were developed to become the Con Mine. That mine led to the founding of the town of Yellowknife and the birth of the mining industry in the Northwest Territories.

Goldfields, on the north shore of Lake Athabasca, Saskatchewan, was his base of operations from 1937 until the outbreak of the Second World War. In this wilderness locale, Finland pioneered new methods of aerial prospecting, and used aircraft to great advantage to supervise both ground and water transportation of major equipment into isolated areas, opening up hitherto inaccessible mining fields. Interspersed with his aerial management flights over uninhabited and often uncharted terrain were emergency air ambulance flights to distant hospitals with injured workmen.

Finland was asked to help the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP). He joined No. 2 Air Observer School (AOS) at Edmonton, Alberta, in 1942 as assistant to W.R. 'Wop' May, to manage the air training school there. From 1943 until the end of the war he served with No. 8 AOS at Quebec City, Quebec. In 1945 he began to work in mining development, and in 1953 became General Manager of the Alberta and Northwest Chamber of Mines, which served as the hiring hall for mines from Manitoba to the Alaska border. He retired in 1972.

Mike Finland recalled his many hours flying an open cockpit Gipsy Moth in the North. Even in summer, the open cockpit could be cold, but in the winter "you would just about perish".

In 1979 Finland was awarded the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy medal for distinguished service. He died in Edmonton on November 4, 1983.

George Harold (Mike) Finland was inducted as a Member of Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame in 1974 at a ceremony held in Edmonton, Alberta.