When the RCAF’s Pinetree radar line was erected in the early 1950s to detect oncoming Soviet bombers, a few stations were placed in southern Ontario and southern Quebec to give industrialized Canada and the United States a greater interval warning. Stations near Barrier and at Foymount Ontario, covered the Toronto and Ottawa regions respectively while the Lac St.-Denis unit was responsible for Montreal. These three stations formed a straight tangent that connected with the main radar network at the 50th parallel at St.-Margarets, New Brunswick, and a distance check on a map will show that there should have been a base south of Quebec City. There was indeed one such site west of Ste.-Marie.
Named after the nearest town with a post office, RCAF Station Ste.-Marie took two years to build and was opened on 15 September 1953. Its main operating unit, 13 Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron, was activated four months later and began operations with two CPS-6B radars to which were added in 1955 one TPS-502 back-up Height-Finder and one FPS-502 back-up Search radar. Ste.-Marie was one of the many stations along the line financed by the USAF. Thirteen Squadrons prime functions were to detect enemy aircraft and guide friendly interceptors towards the, fighters based at Dow and Loring Air Force Bases in Maine or temporarily re-deployed at Ancienne Lorette near Quebec City. For one year in 1954-55, Ste.-Marie had the additional job of giving practical training to new radar operators through a detachment of 1 Radar and Communications School of RCAF Station Clinton, Ontario. In August 1955, RCAF Station Ste.-Marie was re-named Station St.-Sylvestre.
The St.-Sylvestre radar station was a town in its own right. The base consisted of over 25 assorted buildings and, by the early 1960s, approximately 60 Permanent Married Quarters all spread over a large acreage. Most of these were grouped together on the east side of St.-Sylvestre road but by necessity, the Operations block was set on the highest point in the area, Mont Ste.-Marguerite. In fact, its size made it visible for four miles. Less discernible were remote transmitter and receiver sites in the woods on the west side of the road and the water filtration plant further east of the operations site.
RCAF Station St.-Sylvestre was typical of Pinetree sites in that it had all the facilities required for the sustenance of its personnel. If the operations building was the stations heart, the headquarters was its nervous system. This is of course where administrative offices, including the paymaster, were found. The headquarters also contained the Commanding Officers bureau. Throughout its life-time, St.-Sylvestre had four Commanding Officers, one of which, Wing Commander Lucien Lecompte, had been the highest-ranking French-Canadian airman during the war.
But even before reaching station headquarters, all had to pass by the guard house at the main gate. Passes to get on the base were a necessity and all visitors had to explain their presence to the commissionaire. The guard house contained security offices and living quarters for the guards as well as a detention cell for short-term incarcerations.
One of the more popular buildings at St.-Sylvestre was the recreation hall. This included all the services not found in other buildings such as the post office, barber shop, grocery store, snack bar, library and a small theatre. It was also the location of the swimming pool, a two-lane bowling alley and the gymnasium. As was the practice at Pinetree sites, many, if not most, of the employees there were civilians. Since it had the largest paved surface, its parking lot served as a parade ground.
Other buildings making up the base included a church, partitioned to respect both major denominations, two schools for dependents (again to respect both denominations), a fire hall, base hospital, boiler room, stores, maintenance workshops, sewage disposal plant, water filtration plant and water pump huts. On the Tower road near the headquarters was four H-huts erected by and for the station builders. These later served as bachelors quarters. The garage housed buses used to shuttle civilian employees to and fro along with other station vehicles. There was also one dining hall, called a Combined Mess, divided into sections for enlisted men, NCOs and officers. Apparently, underneath it was a hardened basement to be used during a nuclear strike.
The number of personnel employed at St.-Sylvestre varied somewhat. A large fraction of the base population was uniformed and filled all the important roles: Commanding Officer, Station Administration, Telecommunications, Operations, Intelligence and Engineering. Civilians were hired to serve supporting functions most likely because it was always cheaper to hire locally than having someone transferred in. These were employed as cooks, secretaries, caretakers, school teachers and clerks. By 1963, the station counted 185 military personnel and 89 civilians.
As with Parent, Quebec and Edgar, Ontario, RCAF Station St.-Sylvestre only survived a decade. Several squadrons and stations of the RCAF were closed in the new Liberal governments budget of 1964 and as the main Pinetree network at the 50th parallel was capable of detecting all aircraft attempting to cross it, there was no reason for a station this far south to be kept open. RCAF Station St.-Sylvestre was therefore shut down on 31 March of that year.
After its closure, plans were naturally made for the stations sale. The town of St.-Sylvestre voted to acquire it but for reasons unknown, the base proper was rather sold to Domaine St.-Sylvestre Inc. for $120,030. Some speculate that it was sold to a businessman whose ideology matched more those of the government. Domaine had plans to turn the site into a recreational centre but this was not to be. Six years later, in 1970, it was sold to the International Sportsman Club but by then, much of the base had gone. The operations site was sold separately to the Quebec Telephone Company for $25,692.
Today, there isnt much left at RCAF Station St.-Sylvestre. A Combined Quarters seen by the author in 1989 has since vanished. The schools, garage, headquarters and married quarters are also all gone. There remains only the guard house, recreation hall and a ghostly medical building. One supply hut has been turned into the Fort West restaurant and a workshop has been moved and turned into a residence. The concrete operations block still stands but its interior has been thoroughly vandalized. For a small fee, one can drive up to the top of Mont Ste.-Marguerite and admire the scenery but the author warns to watch out for rabbits on the way there. So high is this point that it has been used by astronomers and radio buffs. One resident, Jean-Marc Deneau, still has plans to turn whats left of the ex-base into a tourist centre. One of his projects is to unearth the nuclear shelter that lay below the mess hall.
-- Courtesy Paul Ozorak. Submitted in May 1998.