Elliston Ridge, NF

Date: December 13, 1998

Interviewers: Kelly Alexander and Tommy Goodland

When did the Base (American Base on Elliston Ridge) open?

Well, it opened - that’s the 642^nd AC&W Radar Station up on top of Elliston Ridge - that opened up over Christmas in the new year of 1957. They started to build it shortly after the first shipment of materials came in to Bonavista Harbour aboard a ship in the summer of 1955. Shortly after that, a series of contractors moved in and started to build it. They were there the rest of 1955, and pretty well all of 1956, doing it. It opened in 1957. That was a cold winter, that was. There was no snow - freezing rain, wind chill was bearable. Strong winds, no snow around - everything was frozen up.

What year did it shut down?

Well, it closed out gradually, I suppose. People weren’t really aware of the facts - they knew it was going to be fazed out, ‘cause they heard talk of all the Stations going out. But, some were around (in) 1961 - sometime around 1961, I think - pretty well moved the last of the people out. We lost track of it really, because there were not many employees up there - six or seven of them. Gradually, they were getting laid off, or getting transferred to other jobs, and it faded down - casually, I suppose. But, it was somewhere in 1961, I’m sure of that.
Radar Station - DEWline back in the early 1950's. I suppose the Americans started to (sense) that there was a danger from the "Evil Empire", as they called it, coming over the top of the world, up by the Arctic Circle. The best way to do it, I suppose, was to put this line of Radar Stations - a distant warning that the women called a "dewline" - that was for the distant warning. There was another one too, the Mid-Canada Line. They were pretty much all the same. There were two types. There was a Masters, as they called it, which put out a fan-like search signal - inside these fans that went out, there were gaps, as they called them. The smaller stations that filled in under the two shoulders of the fans - were sometimes called "Gap Fillers", and they were the slave stations - returned it to the Masters, the bigger one. Now, Bonavista was a slave. The radars, they didn’t want to talk about them.
We use to go up and watch movies with them (the Americans) - that was up Mark’s Path. We even would have a meal with them - chocolate bars, cigarettes, and everything else. It was dirt cheap. But the radar was never talked about, never. It was kept private amongst them. It wasn’t until after the War, that people got in to the Station down to the Cape in Bonavista that the Coast Guard had down there. That Radar Station - they even kept that a secret until after the War.

Where did they get their gas, food, and other supplies?

Everything they had was pretty much shipped in direct. Christmas Eve they would get their weekly supply of milk from the mechanical cows, they called them. They had to put pepper in it...they use to mix it all up in one machine. I guess it was something like the Notre Dame Dairy had down in Lewisporte some years after. It was powdered milk. It was a really sophisticated system they had - the milk was absolutely perfect.
Another time, it was with the eggs they had coming in, there was something wrong with them. So, anyway, they got so fed up that they came in to Bonavista and bought their eggs. That is the only food I can remember that they would come in to town to buy.
They (the Americans) didn’t have a lot of money - they didn’t spend a lot of money. The American Forces were not highly paid, even then, as the Air Forces were.

Do you know how much they were paid?

No, I don’t. There were some conversations about it, but I can’t recall hearing anything of it. But, I can remember a song they use to sing, the "American Song of the War". Not many years before that - they got $21.00 a month. Apparently, the young recruits going in - that’s what they got, $21.00 a month. Of course, everything was there (at the Base). The best of food, clothes - I must say that the Americans well fed and clothed their personnel.
The Station up there on the hill (Elliston Ridge), that had a kitchen - a big, long steel table they would put all the food on, and kept hot with this steam system. It was cafeteria style. You go and serve yourself with plenty of food, and the best kind, too.

So, you were allowed to go up there on the Base?

Oh, yes. Not for meals all the time, but at night. There were about only 15 personnel total - and six or seven "circulars", who would come and go on a shift.
The building was designed for everything to be under the one roof. Right from the motor pool, and the generator plant - they had their own power supply - right down to the refrigerators, living accommodations, the recreation room, the dining hall, kitchen - all was under the one roof.

Did they have any parties?

That’s mainly why we went out there. I guess they wanted a little more company than they were use to. (They) would have parties frequently - if you wanted to attend - they would have one at least once a week. The thing that was so attractive to most of the local people was the low cost of the liquor and the beer. See, when the Stations were opened - the Coast Guard Station and the one at Mark’s Path - during the war, can beer was only seven cents a can. Everybody loved can beer then because it wasn’t very strong. American beer traditionally is 3.2%, wherefore Newfoundland beer is 5 or 6%. But, it was a nice beer. Even when the Ridge, the 642^nd, opened in 1957, can beer in the various lounges was only 20 cents a can. That’s why they had so many parties.
Liquor, a 40 ounce bottle - there were no taxes on it - Whiskey was $2.00 a bottle. Now, you wouldn’t allowed to bring it (alcohol) up to the Station, although someone would sneak one in occasionally. You could drink all you want when you were out there. The strongest they had there was the 151-proof "Lemon Heart". You could slice that off with a knife when it would come out of the neck of the bottle. That was $1.40 a bottle. Understand, you were welcome to drink all you want. Even if you were paying for it, it didn’t cost you very much.
They had their parties pretty much once a week. Whenever they wanted one. They were pretty hospitable people, no question about that. I guess one reason was they were lonely out there - 15 or 20 men up on top of a hill with the wind blowing mad, and all kinds of weather. Snow whistling around your ankles most of the time. They (the Americans) were glad to see anybody come, and put a bit of time with. The biggest time they had is when we got stuck up there on New Year’s Eve. I guess you heard about that in The Packet (the local newspaper), did you?
We went up there New Year’s Eve to a party, about 10:00 at night. No wind, no snow down, just a little light snow that was falling for the last few days. The party started at 10:00. The music was going, the glasses were tippin’, people were laughing, joking, and carrying on. The building was pretty sound proof too. About 1:00 in the morning, Ruf Baker came in and bawled out in a loud voice, and said, "if any of you people are going home tonight, you better forget it". Someone asked him why. He said, "go and look". So, he went out and opened the main door of the building, and there was nothing only a wall of snow. The snow was piled up against the doors, but the doors opened inward, which is probably not allowed today. Today, all doors must open out if you have a fair number of people in there (in a building).
There was quite a sound, there was no doubt about that. I don’t know what the wind was now (what direction) - I forget now. I’d say it was easy around 100 miles per hour, up there. It continued all New Year’s Day, New Year’s night, all the Second, and all the Third. The morning of the Fourth, the wind had tapped out, and the sun came out. Two machines left Bonavista, D7 plows like the one they had up on Elliston Ridge, and the Highway grader. Two of them left Bonavista on the morning of the Fourth, to get to Elliston. They got to the Northside in the evening of the Fifth day, and it was just about dark. Two days it took them to go four miles. The car we went up in, we left up there. We walked down - from the Ridge to the Northside of Elliston. We then got a taxi and went back to Bonavista. That car stayed up there until April. The personnel found the car, after a while, and dug her out. They put her in the motor pool for the winter. We couldn’t use her.
Bonavista was blocked with snow. There was no council in Bonavista, nowhere else either. We had to wait for the Highroad snow plow to open the main roads. That’s all was opened - nothing else was opened, so you couldn’t go nowhere. There was none of this nonsense of looping around Bonavista like it is now - all night long, and all day long.
The American plows left the top of the hill (the Ridge) to come down, to open the road and connect up with the road plowed by the Provincial system. They had a GI on the plow, who was the plow operator. Well, he wasn’t experienced in plowing snow. We got down to the bottom of the hill, and got in to a rather deep drift of snow and ice. The tracks of the plow got bungled, and they came off in ten feet of snow. So, then everybody was down to the bottom of the hill with shovels, trying to dig out the tractor (the plow) so they could work on it. After that, Ruf Baker was their official snow plow operator. He was an old time Highroad man himself, before that. He was a good "dowser" man, all right, but he hadn’t plowed snow. One thing you don’t do in the snow is spin your tracks, ‘cause they are bound to come off. I don’t know how they got on the rest of the winter, ‘cause I went on back to Bonavista late on the Fifth day (of the New Year), and I had to go to St. John’s.

When you and the (rest) of the people were stuck on the Base, did they feed you?

Oh good Lord, yes - the best of food. They managed to find accommodations for everybody, of course. There were a lot of women there, and quite the number of single girls. (There were) some single girls that kept company with some of the boys there. There were 27 people from Bonavista. The ones that had the roughest time was the cooks, because they had extra people to cook for, which was more than double than what they were use to. They were running short of things because supplies came in every week - perishables came in every week. Pepperrill Air Force Base was the command headquarters for Newfoundland, and that’s where all the supplies came in to. The Navy, of course, was in Argentia.
During the war, the Americans didn’t have a separate Air Force. They had an Army Air Force and a Navy Air Wing. It was after the war that they made separate use of the Air Force and got the blue uniforms.

Was there much interaction with the local people? Would the Base personnel come in to the communities?

Oh, there were a number of houses that they visited, oh yes. People went up to the Station on the Ridge to see them, and every now and then, they would come down. Especially in the winter, when the weather was bad, and they didn’t have any particular place to go. Several would drop in my house, and they had a number of houses to go to. Yes, they were all pretty decent people. There were a few small problems, but generally speaking, that’s only the young people. The Commanding Officers was pretty good people, too.

Do you know any names of people that worked up there?

Well, the fellow that was in charge of the civilian crew up there was Cyril Whiffen. Working with him was Ruf Baker from Elliston, and Cyril Lane from Melrose. There was Andy Power from Chapel Arm.

Are any of these people alive?

I don’t believe any of them are now. I know all the rest are gone...I tried to find Andy Power a couple of years ago. I went down to Chapel Arm, and I seen a sign on the highway saying "Andy’s Esso Gas Bar". I went down to the service station and asked. The gas attendant said, "there are two Andy Power’s in Chapel Arm, and neither one is the one you are looking for." We think he may still be in Stephenville, and the people didn’t know - so, I guess he hadn’t been home. He would be in his 70's now - but, I’m pretty sure all the rest of them are passed away.
They had quite a few of Commanding Officers out there. There was only one Lieutenant; the rest were all Captains.
The fellow that was best remembered was Captain Robert N. Small. He came here regularly. He was a big man, six foot two and very friendly. We got a Christmas card from him every year, right from 1961 to about three or four years ago. We sent cards, but we never got one back, or heard from him. Probably his wife got the cards and never bothered with them. He was old because he served in the Second World War. So, he would have been 80 today.

You have his address, do you?

I have the last address, yes.

Do you have any old pictures of the Base?

That’s funny, I’ve been wondering about that. There don’t seem to be very much in the way of pictures. Perhaps they didn’t encourage cameras.
The Station up on the Ridge had about 15 or 16 personnel. Mark’s Path, in the 40's, had abut 50 or 60 personnel. It (Mark’s Path Base) was more sophisticated because of the radar. It took more people to watch it. They had a big warehouse, with the supplies, that was heated by space heaters. They had them space heaters in the Rec. Hall, the bunkers. The warehouse had a great big coal shed; they would shovel coal with a shovel the size of a one you would mix cement with now.
They had their own generator station, and a big fuel tank, down on Mark’s Path. You can still see the foundation where the big tank was. That was the intermediate tank they had for the 50's (Elliston Ridge) Base. The boats use to come in down to Norder Cove (in Elliston), and tie up with the two big steel knobs on each side of the cliff. (They would) pump the fuel up the hill, in pipes, to the tank.
The Americans claimed it (the Elliston Ridge Base) was obsolete before it was completed. They started to build it in 1955, and by the time they got it built, it was obsolete. They decided to open it for a few years, to make it look good. (From) the time they started to build it until they finished it, it cost them about four million dollars. That was a lot of money, back then. It wouldn’t be so much now, because the Matthew has cost them that much now.
They had their own cars. They didn’t pay for any licenses. I believe they had Newfoundland licence plates on them, in those days. All the officials, like the Navy, Army, Police - they got their licenses for the cost of the plates. We pay $140.00 for a car today, with taxes. They didn’t pay for any taxes. They used the road, but they didn’t pay any taxes.
They didn’t buy their own gas, it was shipped here. That was a part of the deal they made in the Second World War with the American Government, when they got the 99 year lease. They (the Americans) got the rights for all of the Bases. I don’t know what the process is, if they had to pass them back or not. They took over the Coast Guard Station down to the Cape. They only took it down about a year ago. I think that was a shame. They shouldn’t have done that.
The Federal Government, in particular, destroyed things so quickly. (They) destroyed a lighthouse on the "head", by the breakwater. I don’t know of the first lighthouse that was put there, but I know in my time, it was washed away twice. It washed away in ‘47 - the root cellar and the lighthouse came right down on top of the rock. It crashed down and they rebuilt it, and I believe it washed away again in the 60's. So, then they decided on a diesel and propane operating lights. Then, they decided that a solar panel lighthouse system would fit their needs. What do you think they did with it then? I didn’t see it, but they tell me they set fire to it and let it burn on the rock where it ‘twas. All is out there now is a couple of stakes stuck up. I haven’t been out close to it. You can’t get out there anyway, because there’s a large ocean out there. A big concrete block use to be out there. Now, there’s a battery pack that is recharged by solar power. I don’t know what happens when there’s no sun!
They built a couple of houses down to the Cape (Bonavista) for the lightkeepers. You look at Peggy’s Cove - the pictures - you look at all the rocks. There’s not a rock out of place, is there? Peggy’s Cove is not half the size as Bonavista. When they went out to build the houses (on the Cape) in the 50's, they went out with the jack hammers. They drilled the rock to put (in) basements. They could’ve easily went down around the turn and built the houses. There was a lot more shelter. The rock that they drilled and blasted, it’s still behind the houses there now. They didn’t even clean it up.
They blasted down to White Rock (in Bonavista) during the war, to build two meter breakwaters. They wouldn’t allowed anywhere else.
That big open mound up there on the south side of town, it’s only a pest there now. That was a nice looking hill. They went up and blew the hell out of it. A lot of what they dug out wasn’t any good ‘cause the breakwater washed it away two or three times. What they used to build the breakwater with was too small, and the sea use to come in and wash it away all the time. There’s a tunnel in that now (White Rock), I’m told. Way under the rock on the old Catalina Road side. I don’t know if they filled it in or not, but there’s a tunnel under that rock in there now. I don’t know exactly where it is, but I heard the older people talking about it.

Did you ever work on the Base?

No, but when they built the Base, I opened a shop for drygoods, for 12 or 13 years. The railway use to keep breaking up the furniture I use to get coming in those days. I got sick of it, and closed down. I got a liquor licence and opened a lounge.
A lot of local people worked on building the Base. Contractors were local, some of them. I’m not sure, but I believe that an American contractor helped build the Base; I don’t think they had them to build a lot of them. I don’t know if I’m right or not, but a name comes to mind - Trevor Brace. There were a lot of sub-contractors there. I know there was one from Nova Scotia called "Atlantic Bridge". I think they were responsible for laying pipe and (drilling) artesian wells. I know that there’s still one (a well) out there now.
There was a fellow here from Montreal; he worked for the electric company.

Were there any major snow storms beside the one you described earlier?

Lots of those! There was a real bad one in the 60's. I remember it was that bad the Highroad brought in a snow blower, which was mounted on the drive unit behind the loader. The bucket was taken off and the snow blower was attached on the front. I remember who was driving it, if he was here now he could tell you more about it - Oscar Ryder. I can see Oscar up there now, trying to get all the snow up the hill there where the old Bank was. That was in the early 60's. That was the only time I can remember that the snow blower was in Bonavista. They only had one in Clarenville up there. I don’t know if they use it now, or even if they still got it.
We use to go down to Mark’s Path occasionally, to see movies and drink a few beer. They (beer) were only 13 cents a can then. (Chocolate) bars were two for 10 cents, and cigars were two for 10 cents too. Cigarettes (were) 10 cents a pack; sometimes they were free. You could stay for meals too. We use to go out in the winter, especially ‘cause there wasn’t much to do in the winter. The roads wouldn’t (be) plowed, so we went on dog slide. We put five or six dogs on, and four or five of us would take off.

How would you get down (to Elliston)?

The Elliston Road was there then. It was very early on that the road went through Spillar’s Cove, and around to what is called (the) Klondike (a trail) between Elliston and Spillar’s Cove. I don’t know that it was ever a road. It was a path people used for walking. Elliston Ridge Road has been there as long as I can remember, probably in the early 40's. I think it was put there earlier than that though, I’m sure.
I can remember, probably in the 50's, that the old theater was going full tilt. Saturday afternoon, coming up from Elliston at the right time, you might stop (a) half of dozen times to pick up people coming from Maberly. By the time you get to Bonavista, you’d have a truck load. (The) theater was called "Matinee", that was a big thing back then. People (were) dying to get in. (They) would pay a dime for coke and a nickel for the "Five Star Bars". You would have the afternoon entertainment for 25 cents. Not only Saturday evening, but in the morning too it would be blocked. Most people would be standing up, going around talking to others. They (the owners) only took in 30 to 45 dollars, the most.
The Matinee wouldn’t survive now, because kids and young people got their own videos, video games, and Nintendo. Back then, comics was a deal too. If there was a comic you didn’t see, you could trade your old ones and see the others. That was real business then.
Now, the food that was left over that was on the Base, they wouldn’t allowed to give it away. Probably they were afraid (that) it was outdated or something. They hired out a long-liner and took it all out to sea and dumped it.

Was there anyone killed upon the Base?

Not on the top of the Ridge, but down Mark’s Path. His name was Anderson. I was never clear if it was off an Army truck or his own. Apparently, he was aboard his truck, and the truck hit a rock. He fell off and broke his neck. There was very little talk about it. It was war time again, so they shipped him back home. His name was Anderson. I didn’t know him, but I seen him a fair bit. He was only in his mid-20's.
There was a man on the Coast Guard Station some years ago, in the 50's. They found him shot there, but they never talked of that either. I suppose the police were involved in someway. That’s the only two I can remember.
I don’t remember seeing any pictures of that Base (Mark’s Path), or of the new (Elliston Ridge) either. The Americans were paranoid of the Russians, back then.

Do you know any of the names of the people that were stationed to the Elliston Ridge Base?

We didn’t know them by their real names. Up there, they all had their own nicknames. The most common name was "Ski", (which) was short for Forskenski (?). They had nicknames like "Whitey", "Blackie".
I can remember a fellow on the Coast Guard Station years ago. They nicknamed him "Blondie"; you can guess why they called him that. We didn’t know them, only by their nicknames. You would never hear anybody call them by their right names. If they introduced theirself to you, it would never be their real names, always nicknames.
It is too bad Lloyd Keats is not around now. He spent a lot of time on the Coast Guard Station. He would have known a lot of their names. There was a Canadian fellow; they nicknamed him "Diesel". He would be on the power plant, so he was called "Diesel". So, it wasn’t only the United States (that) had nicknames.
Not that it was talked about, but there was a story going around during the war, when they were building the Station down in Mark’s Path. They had seven long bunk houses. One of them got burned down during the summer. They were opened in the Spring of 1943, but that building was a total loss. There was always a rumor going around during the war. They said there was a man there, he was a German. He was an American that turned, maybe, to the other side. He was a general foreman, and his name was Derek. There for awhile, he boarded (resided) at Cyril Mifflin’s, while Cyril was away in Goose Bay. (Cyril’s) wife took boarders in. There was no hotels here at the time. He (Derek) had an old green truck at that time. It had a house-like box on the back of it. I guess he had to carry it around for his tools and stuff like that. I heard a couple of times, that he was the one that burned the bunk house down. After awhile, he disappeared. I don’t know if he left on his own, or (if) he was sent back. You will never get the truth about that.
Can you remember a dance in St. John’s where 99 people lost their lives in a fire? The doors opened in, so a lot of people was stepped on. They couldn’t get the door opened at first. Cyril Hicks lost his life. He was helping people get out; he went in again, and never came out alive. I heard there were hundreds of (sheets of) toilet paper soaked in gas.
The Americans had the (water) well in on Catalina Road. I don’t know why people don’t use the well now. There is enough to supply a lot of (people with) water.
I remember they had five generators. They always had two going all the time, two off, and one just in case one of them broke down. They didn’t trust the power here. I can see why, we couldn’t trust it either. In the power plant, there was two large tanks. I don’t know about how big the tanks were...they were about 20 feet high, and maybe 20 feet each way (across). One (tank) was for "power protector" services; that one was not to be used.
The other one was for "demo" services. They kept them full all the time. They had no fire extinguishers.
They had their own chlorination system, and they had their own artesian well, and a damn good one. It didn’t have a pump, just a tap. They had their own fire fighting equipment. They had a wonderful building that had no windows in the middle; that was used for their storage area. There was seven washrooms. They had a place to put their cars - it held four to five cars in there.
Down on the bottom of the hill a little bit, there was a "D" shack, by "George’s Droke". It was a mini building in case the other place got bombed. They would still have a place to go; they would put some main material in there. Money didn’t matter to the Americans; that’s something you had to learn to appreciate. The Canadian government wasted a lot of money sometimes, then (they would) wonder what happened to their money! What the Americans wanted, they could do it. (It was) just a way of living.

Did they have a Doctor up on the Base (Elliston Ridge)?

The only services they had up on the Base was a Sick Bay. They had no doctor. It was a great building. When the Americans moved out, they took most of it back with them. I don’t know who took the kitchen equipment. I think they took that with them, too. I remember, before anyone else got to the Jeep, Joey Smallwood’s son came and got it. I’m not sure if they left the vehicles, but that’s what they were saying.
At the Base, the deal was that the sight had to be cleaned up, but it wasn’t. There is still signs of the building there now. There was a "Caterpillar Diesel" left there; J.T. Swyers got that, and sold it. CJN got the tower, but then the tower was taken down. CJN got an outdoor tower up there now. Swyers got the building, and sold it to people in Burgeo. It was later used to house people that worked in the Fish Plant down there. I haven’t been down there to look at it, but I guess it’s still down there. Before Swyers sold it, I know that they took all of the equipment out, even all the plumbing. There was a mess.
I believe that the radar equipment was recycled. The radars in Newfoundland had "bubbles" on the top of them. I don’t know why they had that. They didn’t have to go outdoors for anything. Everything was done indoors; it was a great place to spend the winters, I know that. They had their own road, parts of it was pretty deep. There was a concrete wall up there, it use to be there to keep the oil. In case they had a leak, that wall was there to keep the oil from getting out.
There was a helicopter pad up there, just up from the building. It was covered with Class A soil, but people came up with trucks and took it all.
I was up there a few years ago. I went there on a Sunday drive. There are trees growing up all over the place. You can still see where the building was. After it (the Base) closed, we didn’t have any need to go up there. Just that once, I got curious and went up there.
The Americans were a good bunch. I was sorry to see them leave. They were giving people jobs - there was more money around. You will never see another Base here again. I remember an officer named Sexton. He thought Newfoundlanders were crazy - the way they drove. He said to me one time, "how long do it take you to go to Clarenville?" I said, "one hour". He said that anybody who drives that way in that length of time got to be crazy. I asked him how long it took him, and he said, "five hours".
They had parties up there. They had records. They were supplied (with) everything. I remember one time, there was a guy that would be out on the floor drawing pictures. That’s what he did for relaxation.

Thank you for your time, Mr. Bradley.