Ramore Air Station was opened by the USAF in 1953. Operations at this site were looked after by the 912th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron equipped with, in 1957 for example, an FPS-3 Search, TPS-502 Height-Finder and FPS-502 Back-Up Search radar. All aircraft in the vicinity would be tracked by these radars and if they were unidentifiable, they would be challenged by interceptors. The Squadron's operating radius was approximately 180 miles, covering an area as far west as Hearst and as far north as Moosonee. The 912th was included in the Ottawa Air Defence Sector, reporting to the Sector's Direction Centre at RCAF Station Edgar for guidance and control.
Ramore had yet another role in the air defence of North America albeit a small one. Another warning line was established at the 55th parallel, the Mid-Canada Line, but instead of using radars, the Line consisted of radio sites beaming signals at each other. If an aircraft interrupted this radio beam, an intruder alarm would be set off. These alarm signals were transmitted to Air Defence Command Headquarters at North Bay (one step higher than Sector Headquarters), first via a tropospheric scatter system to Ramore and from Ramore to North Bay, by land line. This required the installation of extra equipment, such as a large parabolic antenna, nearby on Mount Kempis.
In between operational duties, air defence exercises and official visits, station personnel could be counted upon to perform a number of other functions. In May 1958 for instance, a Timmins resident came across an unusual metallic cylinder on his property. The object was 21 inches long, donned a parachute and antennae and was operated by batteries, which seemed in good order. This attracted several pressmen with one working for a local French newspaper describing the object as a miniature Sputnik. A call to the nearest military base, Ramore Air Station, produced a security officer who promptly seized the object and asked photographers not to release their pictures until the object could be identified. This event reached the ears of the local Member of Parliament, MW Martin, who decided to seek answers from the Minister of National Defence, given the "tense international situation".
One week after Martin raised the matter in the House of Commons, Defence Minister Pearkes provided answers to the mystery. The cylinder was identified as a US weather service radiosonde, an instrument used to measure high-altitude weather. Another had been found near Val Gagne just a few days beforehand. The matter was thus laid to rest and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Pearkes' closing statement on this subject was that residents coming across any more such instruments should contact the RCMP instead of the USAF.
Ramore operated relatively unchanged for a decade. In January 1962, control of the station was transferred from the USAF to the RCAF. The operating unit then became 35 Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron. New equipment was also acquired around that time, first in Search and Height-Finder radars and then in computers as part of the squadron's automation. When Ramore was "SAGEd" in 1963, 35 AC&W became 35 Radar Squadron. Two years later, when the Mid-Canada Line was closed, the tropospheric scatter antenna on Mount Kempis was taken down. In October 1967, all RCAF radar stations became Canadian Forces Stations as part of the armed forces' unification process and 35 Radar Squadron, as an official unit, ceased to exist. Titles and uniforms may have changed, but operations did not, at least until 1974.
On 1 April of that year, CFS Ramore, along with two other stations in Ontario, were shut down as they were no longer considered necessary. CFS Lowther near Hearst and CFS Senneterre in Quebec henceforth handled Ramore's area of coverage. Official disbandonment was the following October and the station was sold to the township of Black Matheson in 1975 for $100,000.
CFS Ramore was located a few kilometers east of the town proper. It's now the Lava Mountain Lodge, a quiet resort town. Most of the buildings still stand, including one of the radar towers on Lavaflow Mountain. This tower and the old operations building now exist as mere shells living in an eerie silence and these can be seen from miles away. A radio antenna has been installed there a few years ago. As for Kempis Mountain, Bell Canada now has a telephone microwave tower there.
-- Paul Ozorak