Abandoned DEWLine Radar Stations

A photo gallery of abandoned DEWLine Stations (below).

By the mid 1960’s, the 25 Intermediate Sites (I-Sites) had all been declared technically ineffective, taken out of service, and abandoned.

The staff of 4-5 people shut down the generator, closed the door, took their last drive to the airstrip in the Bombardier Snowmobile, climbed onto the waiting DC-3, and were gone.

For an idea as to what it must have been like to walk away from a station for the last time, read the story, “Last Person Out,… Shut Off the Lights.”

Most of these sites were simply left to decay until the mid 1990’s when a massive clean-up of the DEWLine was undertaken. You can read about the DEWLine Do-Do Clean-up here.

Between 1989 and 1992 the majority of the remaining 6-Main and 27-Auxiliary DEWLine sites completed their metamorphosis from being manned DEWLine stations into unmanned North Warning System (NWS) Stations.

The four DEWLine stations across Greenland were similarly abandoned, except in this case, no remedial clean-up was planned or executed. Two of the four DYE sites are slowly sinking into the ice cap that is reported to be several thousand feet thick. Soon those sites will be gone from sight, preserved forever in the frozen land.

With the exception of one station, LIZ-2, no moth-balling efforts were made to preserve any of the sites. That meant that pipes would have burst and ultimately the ravages of time would have taken their toll on the buildings and equipment that was left behind.

Here are some pictures, listed by site, of abandoned and derelict DEWLine Radar Sites.
(Click on an image for a larger picture.)

LIZ-2
LIZ-B
BAR-A
DYE-2
DYE-3
FOX-5
POW-D

LIZ-2: Aux-Site, Point Lay, Alaska. This was the only site where any attempt to preserve a station took place. Reason unknown. Abandoned in 1994.

: Typical single bedroom, looking out to the hallway.

: Mechanic’s office in garage area.

: Vehicle status board in the mechanic’s office.

: Garage interior.

: Another photo of the inside of a powerhouse module.

: Module 4. One of the powerhouse modules.

: Module 11, one of the firebreak modules. Also served as the ‘mailroom’. Personnel pigeon holes above and outgoing mail sack bins below.

: Module 13, the walk-in freezer.

: Module 16 (?). Looking south.

: Module 20, looking out of the laundry area. The door to the photography darkroom is on the left.

: Module 20, looking into the laundry area.

: Inside bathroom #2 looking into the shower area.

: Looking into a typical bedroom.

: Module 21, entry to bathroom #2.

: Typical single bedroom, looking in from the doorway.

: Module 14, the kitchen.

: Module 15, the dining room.

: In module 16, looking towards module 17, the bar and library module.

: Module 16, the recreation module with pool table. Movies would have been shown in this area. Looking north.

: Garage interior.

LIZ-B: I-Site, Icy Cape, Alaska. Abandoned in 1963.

: Attwell building from construction days (1955-57).

: Abandoned main module train.

: Station garage.

: Snow is beginning to engulf the main module train.

: Equipment left behind to waste away.

BAR-A: I-Site, Demarcation Bay, aka Nuvagapak Point. Abandoned in 1963.

DYE-2: Aux-Site, Ice Cap-1, Greenland. Abandoned in Oct. 1988. For even more photos of the abandoned DYE-2 site, check out Andy Kirkpatrick’s Flickr photos here.