Camping Canadian: Mid Canada Line

Showing posts with label Mid Canada Line. Show all posts

November 30, 2013

Mid-Canada Line Site 410 - Cape Jones

From this picture (Credit to Julian Pullara) you can clearly see the landing strip in the background, and the troposcatter antennas in the foreground - along with the buildings which are still standing, and the Diesel storage tanks.

Site Name: Mid-Canada Line Site 410
Location: Cape Jones, Quebec
Built: 1957
Operational: 1957 - 1965
Coordinates: 54.63808, -79.74785
Lot/Concession:
Condition: Abandoned
Current Ownership:Unknown, likely Gov't of Quebec
Distance from paved road: Accessible only by air, perhaps water
Condition of access road: Unpaved

Overview/Background:

A troposcatter repeater station was set up at Cape Jones to transmit across James Bay to Mid-Canada Line Site 415 - Cape Henrietta Maria as well as communicate East to Sector Control Station 400 Great Whale River.

Larry Wilson has pictures on his web site of MCL Site 410
http://www.lswilson.ca/capjones.htm

Here is a video about the environmental impact the MCL sites are having on aboriginal communities.

Directions:

There's a gravel airstrip of unknown condition at (54.63960,-79.70678), but I do not know who has landed on it and what condition it is presently in. Boat access might be easier to arrange.

Trip Report:

I have not yet been to the Mid-Canada Line 410 Cape Jones site, but it is one of the more realistic MCL sites for me to get to. Unlike MCL Site 415 which is extremely far from road access; Cape Jones isn't too far up the coast from the Cree community of Chisasibi. Chisasibi is road accessible and at the end of the James Bay Highway. The general idea being; if I can get that far, what's a little jaunt up the coast in a motor-boat driven freight canoe? (see map below for illustration)

Maps:

Here Maps makes it incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to embed their maps, so here's a link to the best satellite imagery I can find.

http://her.is/L3d7F


Mid-Canada Line Site 410 Cape Jones Troposcatter Site in Red - Landing Strip in Green atlas.gc.ca

Route from Carp, ON to Chisasibi, QC

View Larger Map

Mid-Canada Line Site 415 - Cape Henrietta Maria

Photo: Julian Pullara

Site Name: Mid-Canada Line Site 415
Location: Cape Henrietta Maria, Ontario
Built: 1957
Operational: 1957 - 1965
Coordinates: 54.732, -82.408
Lot/Concession:
Condition: Remediated?
Current Ownership: Unknown
Distance from paved road: Accessible only by air, perhaps water
Condition of access road: Unpaved

Overview/Background:

A troposcatter repeater station was set up at Cape Henrietta Maria to transmit across James Bay to Mid-Canada Line Site 410 - Cape Jones as well as communicate with Sector Control Station 500 Winisk. I'm unclear how the DDS sites between Cape Jones and Cape Henrietta Maria communicated with each other, as I believe there were two on the Bear Islands. Also, I'm unclear how Cape Henrietta Maria communicated with Winisk.

Larry Wilson has pictures on his web site of MCL Site 415
http://www.lswilson.ca/scs400.htm
Here is a very detailed report, including maps, pictures and details of the remains of MCL Site 415
http://www.merc.ontera.net/reports/mclrs-01.pdf

Here is a video about the environmental impact the MCL sites are having on aboriginal communities.

Directions:

There's a gravel airstrip of unknown condition at (54.756213, -82.398964) that is just north-east of where the Cape Henrietta Maria site was. Good luck!

Here is a video from someone who flew in, in spring of 2012.

Trip Report:

I have not visited the site, would love to, but realistically I don't see it happening without major financial backing. This is just a palce-holder for the information I've gathered for a potential trip.

Maps:

View Larger Map | View Bird's Eye

November 27, 2013

The Mid-Canada Line was a radar fence set up West-East across all of Canada to supplement the Pinetree Line. The fence proved too remote to be economically feasible, and was shut down only years after it was set up. While it was working, tens of thousands of enlisted personnel and civilian employees constructed and maintained a line of refueling stations and radar outposts across the country. The radar signals gathered were bounced from Fort Albany to Kempis Mountain via Troposcatter Repeaters. Each of the "hops" along the troposcatter repeaters required enormous amounts of power, and because of the remote location of these bases, they were fueled by massive diesel generators. Unfortunately Diesel and lubricants were spilled at many of these locations and left to fester for decades. As a result of the environmental contamination the federal government has started to clean up these locations, dig up the contaminated soil, and the surrounding area, truck off the soil for "disposal", and return the land to as it used to be - more or less. This is unfortunate for me (perhaps the only person in the world who would complain about an environmental cleanup) because the structures, roads, foundations, etc. are being dug up - leaving less for me to see when I go these locations! I'm still visiting these "cleaned up" sites, as the buildings themselves are only one aspect of the location. The view from the tops of the mountains, the journey, the roads, the airstrips, the wildlife, and so forth, make the rest of the adventure for me.

A pair of troposcatter antennas (pointed at the horizon) were on top of Mount Kempis; as well as generators, living quarters, and reportedly even a baseball diamond. I am not completely certain about all of what was where because it has been so well scrubbed from the site. A trip to the National Air Photo library is needed, once again, to see aerial imagery from the time.

Directions:

If you are coming from Ottawa, take Highway 11 North from North Bay until you reach the North Butler Lake Road turn off (48.3728, -80.2567). North Butler Lake Road is well maintained, but I wouldn't do this trip in the winter. Once on North Butler Lake Road there will be several turn offs to the right (North). The first before the hydro line, the 2nd after the hydro line leads to the microwave repeater site, and the 3rd turn to the right leads to the fire tower.

Trip Report:

I have personally visited this site twice. In late August of 2012, on the way to Northern Ontario, I arrived shortly after dawn and had a look around; after driving there in my 2WD 1999 Dodge Ram. In 2013 I visited with Mike Milinkovich and stopped in to get a picture of him in front of the plaque commemorating the remediation of the site. That time I did less driving around on the mountain, but had brought my 1999 (then 2WD) GMC Suburban. As mentioned above, this is an easily accessible site, there is no 4WD-requirement.

Maps

Mount Kempis
atlas.gc.ca

Google Maps (Pre-Remdiation)

View Larger Map

Bing Maps (Post-Remediation)

View Larger Map | Get Directions | View Bird's Eye

Photographs

The images in the below slideshow are the pictures I took in August of 2012.

I'm very thankful to Mike Milinkovich for introducing me to Raymond Fortin who took the following pictures in the late 1950s while he was at Mount Kempis.

Electronic Test Equipment - MCL Site 070 Mount Kempis
Photo by Raymond Fortin

Equipment Room - MCL Site 070 Mount Kempis
Photo by Raymond Fortin

Test Board - MCL Site 070 Mount Kempis
Photo by Raymond Fortin

Entrance to Equipment Room - MCL Site 070 Mount Kempis
Photo by Raymond Fortin

MCL Site 070 Mount Kempis
Photo by Raymond Fortin

Power House, Diesel Tanks, Living Quarters - MCL Site 070 Mount Kempis
Photo by Raymond Fortin

Troposcatter Antenna @ MCL Site 070 Mount Kempis
Photo by Raymond Fortin

Troposcatter Antennas - MCL Site 070 Mount Kempis
Photo by Raymond Fortin

Site Up North
Photo by Raymond Fortin

January 04, 2013

Mid Canada Line DDS Site 409

MCL DDS Site 403 - March 1957
Courtesy of Larry Wilson & John Rowe - http://www.lswilson.ca/

A little bird put a bug in my ear this afternoon... He suggested a trip to James Bay, to the end of the road; the end of the James Bay Road (around 53.9736, -79.0698) and now I'm wondering if I could get to a nearby Mid Canada Line station during the same trip... After all, when are you going to get that close to the 55th parallel?

"The Mid-Canada Line refers to a Doppler radar detection system for aircraft (Early Warning System), nicknamed the McGill fence, stretching across Canada from Labrador to British Columbia, along the 55th parallel. The Mid-Canada Line was built by the federal government between 1954 and 1957. The 42 stations located in Québec (35 sites north and seven sites south of the 55th parallel) were operated by the Department of National Defense (DND) from 1958 to 1965. The sites were abandoned in 1965. At that time, all equipment, buildings, fuel tanks, barrels, pipelines, pumping stations, machinery, as well as hydrocarbons and contaminated soil were left behind. The detection antennas, some of which were longer than 100 m, were lowered to the ground to eliminate aviation hazards. After the federal government abandoned the Mid-Canada Line, the 42 sites in Québec were ceded to the Government of Quebec in 1966. In Québec, there are 22 Doppler radar detection sites located approximately 40 km apart and 20 supply sites, each generally located less than 2 km from a detection site." -Kativik Environmental Advisory Committee, Work Necessary To Complete The Mid-Canada Line Clean-Up Project (May 2012)

From the map below, you can see the Mid Canada Line stretched across Canada, in some very remote areas of Labrador, Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba. While it stretched across Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia as well, they were arguably less remote. The locations in Labrador, Quebec and Ontario were built in the middle of "nowhere", using only helicopters to bring supplies in. You'll notice that some of the buildings and antennas used look remarkably like Gap Filler Annexes or Pinetree Line equipment. After all, they were all built at about the same time, by the same countries, with roughly the same government contracts for supplies.
The Fort Albany, Relay and Kempis Mountain sites, where Troposcatter repeaters were placed to feed the aggregated Mid Canada Line (MCL) feed South to North Bay, have already been rehabilitated; spilled diesel, lead acid batteries, and other nasty environmental containments have been dug up, and shipped to safe storage or incineration sites. Unfortunately (environmentally speaking) with limited money to undertake these clean-up projects, the Government of Canada has prioritized the clean up operations. Each of the cleanups will cost many millions of dollars, so the clean-up of all Mid Canada Line stations will take many years. In the meantime, PCBs and other containments are still leaking into lakes, rivers, and the soil surrounding these bases, many of which are on aboriginally controlled land. As it turns out, MCL site 409 and 410 haven't been cleaned up yet, and the local Cree aren't pleased with the priority they have been given. A barge laden with fuel drums sank in James Bay and to this day leaks causing oil sheens that wash up on the local shore. There are still hundreds of (mostly) empty 55 Gallon drums of fuel sitting at site 409 and 410, as well as other gear.

MCL DDS Site 410 - Winter 1964 / 1965
Courtesy of Larry Wilson & John Heselton - http://www.lswilson.ca/

Since the latest report (below) is from 2012, at least I know the sites are still there, and I could get pictures of them, if only I could get to them.
~~One problem... I don't know where Mid Canada Line Site 409 is... I have a good idea where 410 is, and it's farther north... but 409 I can't find any info on. Suggestions?~~

~~I expect that site 409 looks much like 403, which is why I posted the picture of 403...~~
~~The Google Maps view and Bing Maps view is pretty poor or the area I'm interested in, so they're not a lot of help...~~ If I understand correctly, Mid Canada Line DDS 409 and 410 were right beside each other; one was the airstrip and pump station, and the other a couple of kilometers away was the tropo repeater shown in the picture. I suspect another trip to the Air Photo Library will be required to get some better imagry.

Location of Mid Canada Line Sites in QuebecCourtesy of DND

Location of Mid Canada Line Sites
Courtesy of Larry Wilson - http://www.lswilson.ca/

Site of "Cape Jones" MCL DDS Site 409 and 410

Reference:
Ms. Elaine Feldman - Federal Administrator, JBNQA - Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency
Brief Regarding the Complete Restoration of Mid-Canada Line sites in Nunavik
http://www.keac-ccek.ca/documents/memoires-avis/Mid-Canada%20Letter%20to%20MDDEP%20eng.pdf

What's all this about anyway?

My intent by making this blog is to provide information for others who are interested in visiting and exploring the sites of former Cold War military facilities in Canada, and their surroundings.

My personal goal is to visit (and camp when possible) at all of the locations where the Pinetree Line stations were across Canada, and along the way visit the microwave repeaters, troposcatter repeaters, airstrips, and other supporting facilities. As a lot of these places are far from civilization, and often on the top of local hills or mountains, I hope to see the relatively the same view the men and women of the USAF and RCAF saw in from the 1950s to the 1980s.

If you would rather reach me directly than comment on an individual blog post, email me at steffan.watkins@gmail.com