Elliston Ridge, NF

A survey for the defense project was carried out in July 1955.

Several loads of equipment and building supplies, for the defense project on Elliston Ridge, arrived at Bonavista on board the MV Placentia. It was stored in a large warehouse owned by Mr. Edwin Baker of Elliston. Additional boatloads of material continued to arrive until work started in the month of October. Also in September, earlier in the month, heavy equipment, bulldozers and shovels arrived by train at Elliston Station (now where Paradise Farm is situated). It was put off there, and the equipment traveled by road to the ridge. Operators of equipment, foremen and other people stayed in rented homes and with residents until the project got underway and staff houses were built.

The first oil tanker arrived with oil for the base on the ridge. A pipeline went all the way from Norder Cove to oil tanks under the ridge (Mark’s Path), to tanks on the ridge. Several boatloads of supplies arrived later when work was started.

Terminal Construction was the contractor for building the defense base on Elliston Ridge. Early in the month, high winds and drifting snow closed the roads in the area for 5 days with snowdrifts 5-10 feet high. Plows from Terminal Construction contractors on the base at Elliston Ridge spent 5 days opening the road from the Ridge to Bonavista with help from the highroads equipment starting at Bonavista.

In late March 1957, American personnel at the base helped a pregnant woman, Mrs. Reverend CD Evans, get to the Bonavista hospital. Base officials were to be very cooperative and assisted on many occasions when needed.

Work on a new school began in Elliston in May 1957. The basement was dug out by bulldozers from Terminal Construction on the base at Elliston Ridge. Wilfred Hobbs of Elliston operated the bulldozer.

Work on the base was finally completed in June 1957. American personnel were living there when Terminal Construction completed the project. The base had 15 to 16 GI's and six civilian employees in the 1957 to 1961 time period. It was under the command of Captain Bob Hampson. Base personnel were very friendly with local civilians. They showed films in the Orange Hall and held parties on the base for residents. The base and Radar station was part of the early warning system and was operated by the 642^nd AC&W Squadron located at Red Cliff near St. John's, NF.

The Gap Filler Radar Station at Elliston Ridge was closed in 1961.