Site: POW-Main

 

DEWLINE HISTORICAL DESCRIPTION

Topography

  • POW-MAIN at POINT BARROW Alaska, is situated about 10 feet above sea level at the northernmost point in Alaska. This Main Radar Station, supporting neither a Data Center nor a sector headquarters support group, occupies 268 acres of an old, tundra covered beach. The prominent topographical features aside from the sea, a salt water lagoon, a large water lake, and long flat fingers of beach like land running into the sea are the man made structures, such as POW-M site buildings, its 4800-foot Marston mat airstrip, the University of Alaska’s Arctic Research Laboratory, and the village of Point Barrow. There is sufficient natural gas at Point Barrow for local commercial purposes and to provide an auxiliary fuel source for the operation of the converter-equipped diesel engines of the POW-M electric power plant.

Climate

  • Annual precipitation, including snowfall is approximately 4 inches, being heaviest from July to October. Snowfall averages about 26 inches a year. mean daily temperatures run from a minimum of plus 4.2 to a maximum of plus 15.9 degrees Fahrenheit above zero.

Water

  • A 2 mile round trip potable water haul is maintained summer and winter

 


PHOTOS

Satellite Image – High level.

Satellite Image – Close-up.

Click to enlarge.

Construction Era Photos for POW-Main.
The pictures below were selected from the extensive collection of Markham Cheever, the DEWLine’s Superintendent of Construction from 1953 to 1957, before the Line went operational. (Click on picture to enlarge.)

The People.
The people in the photos below, also from the Markham Cheever collection, are displayed in the hopes that someone may recognize a father, grandfather, or friend who was involved in the construction of this particular DEWLine site. (Click on picture to enlarge.)