The early missions were all volunteer and were equipped with whatever could be cobbled together with little resources available. Their strongest 'weapon' in the search was an incredible amount of enthusiasm. Although without specialized equipment and without extensive archival research, it cannot be forgotten that their 'persevering' effort maintained a momentum that ultimately led into the more structured and finally more professional searches that ultimately succeeded in bagging the Ghost.

Special thanks go to Gordon Emberley, one of the founding members of the Western Canada Aviation Museum who got the ball rolling on the search for G-CAJD in the 70s, and Shirley Render who maintained its momentum in the 80s.

Pat Madden, who was the RCMP Dive Team Supervisor for Manitoba, was invited to join the search in 1991 by Gord Emberley. His first trip to the site was in 1993; he made numerous trips to find the Ghost following that. In 2001, Pat invited Gord Nowicky to join the team. Now, Pat, with his wife Annette, and many others, work to bring the Ghost home.

The Museum is grateful for these efforts and considerable contribution to the project. Without them and many others who play supporting roles, the Ghost of Charron Lake would have remained just that, an apparition.

1975

1976 to 1992

1993 to 2003

2004

2005

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Tales from the sky

As technology began to develop, more and more sophisticated attempts to locate the ghost were employed.

The technology of choice became a narrow beam dual frequency side scan sonar which 'paints' the lake bottom with an acoustic signal that reflects off objects with higher density than the surrounding material. This reflected signal creates images that allow an experienced interpreter to identify the object and determine its height above the bottom and distance from the survey vessel.