As I recall, there must have been about 250 military personnel at Tofino during my tour. Most of the personnel were single and were provided with accommodation in the barracks at the airport. There were no PMQ's per se, but some of the barracks had been renovated into suites to accommodate the few military families that were stationed there at that time. I recall that the roads had not been paved, even though there were cement curbs along side of the road edges. We were told that the roads were going to be paved at any moment, but they never were paved to the best of my knowledge. There were no personally owned vehicles to speak of, so we single types spent the majority of our time making use of the facilities at the airport. There was a large recreation center that also housed a snack bar and the station theater. I seem to recall that there was an excellent hobby shop available for those that had an interest in that past time. There was no television reception at that time, and radio reception left a lot to be desired.
Locally, well I remember that there were tall poles sticking in the sand that is now known as Long Beach. These were remnants of World War II, when the poles were placed on the beach to ensure that enemy aircraft or gliders could not make use of the beach as a landing area. Some of these poles were still in position, even though the war had been over for more than 10 years.
There were three operational areas associated with the radar station. On leaving the airport and heading towards the town of Tofino, the first left hand turn would take you to the Transmitter site (which is where I worked). A little further down the road, the next left hand turn would take you to the Operations site - the area now referred to as "Radar Hill". The next, and last left hand turn would take you to the Receiver site. The Operations site was somewhat unusual in that they never did get a radome for the radar antenna. In an attempt to protect the antenna from the elements, they obtained long poles, placed them into the bedrock, cemented them into position, and they then constructed a protective wind screen (for lack of better words) around the antenna - hopefully, to provide protection against the strong westerly winds. I departed Tofino for St. Margarets in May 1957, and it is my understanding that this radar station was closed in December 1957.
-- A. J. (Bud) Hall, Communications Technician (submitted in 5 April 1998).