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Part of the Pinetree Line of radar stations crossing Canada, this radar base was constructed during the Cold War as a means of early detection of ICBM's and enemy aircraft, as well as to provide guidance to intercepting aircraft. It has been shut-down since the late 70's. The land and buildings were purchased by a private owner, who I believe used the kitchen and barracks as a resort/hotel spot for a few years. It seems it wasn't very successful and eventually fell into disrepair and has since been left completely abandoned. The oldest calendar I found in the place was from 1998, in the old restaurant.
The property has fallen victim to heavy vandalism over the years, as well as damage from people salvaging scrap metal and siding. While there, I ran into several groups of local kids, walking through the property and old buildings. They were all friendly and quite curious to see me on my own with a large camera and tripod wandering about. "Aren't you scared to be here by yourself?" one girl asked me. "I've deen doing this for a long, long time." I replied. "...I started exploring when I was about your age."
I knew about this place for several years. It's been in the LDB for a long time and I've explored other radar bases like it. The trouble is, if you actually want to go there and see it, you'll have to do a lot of driving. From where I live, it was over 900km round-trip to get there. Leaving the nearest City, I drove North for nearly three hours in wilderness before reaching the town that the radar base is located near.
I saw 11 moose, 5 bears, 3 deer and a bunch of ruffed grouse during the drive.
1.
The main street goes through the centre of the barracks and mess area. Following the street leads you past many barracks, a restaurant/bar thing, and down to the machine shops.
2.
A broken sign still hangs from when the property was a resort thing. Most of the buildings all looked the same, with 8 rooms in the bottom, 8 in the top, bathrooms and a common kitchen on each floor.
3.
This common kitchen was the most in tact of any of the buildings. They all have fallen victim to vandalism and theft.
4.
The emergency exit upstairs in one of the barracks buildings. The rooms had virtually nothing in them.
5.
The Laundromat was attached to the old restaurant. I didn't take any pictures in the restaurant because it was extremely dark with awful wood panelling and was rotten with mould and was generally disgusting.
6.
The Laundromat still had a few parts still in it and some random laundry stuffs.
7.
The guard shack at the entrance to the base.
8.
The machine shop and garage bays were at the end of the street. This cool looking super heavy duty trailer was the only thing with wheels still there. The radar towers are located on top of the large hill in the background.
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12.
This radar dish was made into a sign and originally was positioned near the entrance of the base, greeting people who came to the resort.
13.
In the evening, I hiked the road up and around the hill to the top of the radar base. I walked into the tallest radar building and found my way onto the roof to watch the sun set. The next day, I had plans to explore the top some more.
14.
This is looking down from the tallest radar tower towards one of the shorter ones. Three are still standing.
That evening, I made my was back to my car and set up my little camp stove. I started cooking some sausages and set up my bed. I awoke rather upset to hear some heavy rain on the roof of my car. I looked at my watch and it was 6:30am. I groaned a bit, and decided to make my way into down to see if I could get some food and water for the day. I had no idea what the town had to offer for services. It turned out they had nothing. Nothing to offer, really.
I pulled into the gas station at 7:00am, which was closed. A sign read "Winter hours 12:00-5:00pm." "Are you serious!?" I muttered to myself and I looked around at anywhere else that was open. There was nothing. I didn't want to waste half my day waiting for the store to open, so I decided to drive back to the base in the rain to do some exploring.
The rain was constant, so I made a make-shift cover for myself out of some grocery bags and hiked my way up the hill to the radar towers. I probably looked like an idiot, but I was mostly dry. I had run out of water and was getting a little thirsty after the hike. When I made my way inside the buildings, I placed my empty water bottle outside to fill up with rain. On occasion I would step outside and take a sip of the drops in the bottle. It was just enough to stop the thirst.
15.
Some of the buildings were demolished, but not cleaned up. It's pretty crazy just how much trash was left behind.
16.
Walking towards one of the smaller radar towers, which had it's walls violently torn open. I imagine someone nabbed the steel siding and possibly some of the old equipment inside.
17.
These large ducts would have attached to the top and bottom of massive circuit boards, allowing air to cool the vacuum tubes. It's insane to imagine how much energy this station consumed in operation.
18.
Spark gap overvoltage protectors.
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One of the radar towers had an old aircraft fuselage inside it. I am not sure what type of aircraft this was from. It was hard to identify because of how crumpled it is.
21.
I've been in other radar stations where absolutely nothing was left behind. My jaw dropped when I saw what still remained here.
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Inside one of the massive circuitry cabinets. They had layers of panels you could remove and even drawers you could slide back to access all sides of it.
27.
There's a trailer park beside the base, that still as around 9-10 old trailers rotting and left behind. It was kind of interesting to see an entire abandoned trailer park.
28.
In the late afternoon, I made my way back into town to try and get some water. I pulled into the gas station, which was thankfully open. I put a little gas in my car and walked inside to pay and buy some water. When I opened the door I looked around, and noticed a mostly empty store, with 3 large empty coolers in the back. No shelves of food or snacks or anything were inside.
"Um... do you sell any beverages?" I asked the cashier.
"Yeah, they're over in that cooler." He replied, pointing to another mostly empty cooler in the corner. I walked over to it and was disappointed to see just 5 cans of Iced Tea inside it, and nothing else at all.
"Is that all you have?" I asked. He nodded. "Can I just fill my water bottle from your tap?" He agreed. After filling my water bottle I went to pay for gas with my credit card. He noticed the card and asked, "Hey where do you get those Visa cards? I've seen a few people with them... they're cool."
"Uh... I got mine from my bank." I answered.
"Oh cool, thanks." He replied. I was very puzzled at our exchange and wondered just HOW remote this town actually was. After paying for gas, I made the three hour drive back to the nearest city, where my next adventure was waiting.
Thanks for viewing! There's a few more pictures here:
https://flickr.com.../with/52142682277/
"The time of getting fame for your name on its own is over. Artwork that is only about wanting to be famous will never make you famous. Fame is a by-product of doing something else. You don't go to a restaurant and order a meal because you want to have a shit."
-Banksy
The work of FuriousD: https://www.flickr...photos/opdendries/ | |
Really nice to see the stuff that is left, like you said usualy its bare bones!
Il y a toujours un moyen. | |
Looks very sick. Very funny that those guys have never heard of Visa.
dont dead open inside | |
Posted by Furious D
The property has fallen victim to heavy vandalism over the years, as well as damage from people salvaging scrap metal and siding.
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Clearly, you're using the Canadian definition of heavy vandalism, not the US version!
/-/oolie
There are no stupid questions, just stupid people. | |
Posted by /-/ooligan
Clearly, you're using the Canadian definition of heavy vandalism, not the US version!
/-/oolie
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If the local kids bought spray cans instead of booze, there might be more tags. Most things that could be smashed were smashed though. This is the best I found among nearly two dozen buildings!
[last edit 6/21/2022 10:20 PM by Furious D - edited 1 times]
"The time of getting fame for your name on its own is over. Artwork that is only about wanting to be famous will never make you famous. Fame is a by-product of doing something else. You don't go to a restaurant and order a meal because you want to have a shit."
-Banksy
The work of FuriousD: https://www.flickr...photos/opdendries/ | |
Glorious stuff. All that vintage electronics sends me straight back to my childhood days, playing with the 60s surplus electronics my dad's strange friend from his office collected up in his basement. He had dozens of shelves full of the stuff. He was what you would call a hoarder today.
Thanks for sharing.
It's great to be alive! | |
Amazing shots! I especially loved #2, #9, and #13, though frankly it's hard to pick just three favorites out of all these. And damn, so remote the cashier didn't even really know what Visa was? That's impressively behind the times lol.
"Sorry, I didn't know I'm not supposed to be here," he said, knowing full well he wasn't supposed to be there.
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really nice work here!!
Kabbalah is an undramatic tradition that requires great patience and stability. One of the reasons for this tempo is that everyone has to mature his potential gradually and thoroughly at his natural pace. In this way his life's work unfolds at the right moment in his own and the cosmos's time.
Z.B.S. Halevi -- Kabbalah | |
This was one of the highlights of my trip last year. It’s been on my list for years. Did you notice all of the cigarette machines in the bar? I also found a receipt for a pack of cigarettes for $2.80. There was also the catalogue for selecting which wood grain you would like in your apartment.
Nice pics!
"Adventure is the respectful pursuit of trouble." - Expedition Overland |
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