Construction of the original Pinetree Line radar station on Resolution Island commenced in 1951. The 920th AC&W Squadron eventually arrived from Argentia, Newfoundland, and the site became operational in November 1954. The USAF manned this location for seven years before the site was phased out in November 1961.
As has been the case in so many other similar situations, it appears that the American military dismantled the radomes and took the radar equipment with them -- but everything else was left totally intact. It was simply too expensive to move any of the other items out of the radar station. In other locations along the coast, locally based communities would ultimately "clean things out" but in the case of Resolution Island, everything remained intact -- mainly due to the fact that there wasn't anyone else living in this area.
There is no way of knowing whether the unit was totally unused after the 920th AC&W ceased operations in November 1961. Some sources indicate that other military agencies continued to make use of the facility – but this is unconfirmed. Perhaps the base was used in a communications or a weather base status.
The next apparent step in progress took place in 1987 -- some 26 years later -- when an advance group of Canadian military personnel went to do some site reconnaissance for the purpose of constructing and installing the replacement North Warning System (NWS) radar complex. I am advised that the advance party found everything intact at the original radar station -- just as it had been left some 26 years earlier. The piano, pool table, dishes, even the mattresses on the beds were still there. It must have seemed very similar to the "Twilight Zone". We have been very fortunate in obtaining four photos which were taken by this advance party on August 26, 1987.
There was no radar coverage or any other activity that can be officially verified on Resolution Island between November 1961 and August 1987. We were originally led to believe that the Pinetree Line radar station was demolished and literally razed to the ground in the 1988/1989 time frame. This would have allowed a razing of the original base, and then the construction of the replacement NWS base in the same location. It now appears that this was not the case. We have been recently advised that there was an attempt to demolish the original site, but plans went amuck. It seems that those involved decided the easiest thing to do was to simply use explosives, and literally blast the buildings to the ground. There is no way of knowing what went wrong, but it appears that their attempts to demolish the first building resulted in not only demolishing the building itself, but also a great amount of rock and soil. As a result, it was decided to leave the remaining buildings and equipment intact.
The existing North Warning System (NWS) radar site was constructed at the same location as the original Pinetree Line radar station. Photos taken in the 1990s show a combination of the existing NWS radar equipment such as satellite dish radomes and the AN/FPS-124 radar on a 100 foot tower - constructed right amongst the original buildings and troposcatter antennae. The fact that the original radar station still exists in 1998 makes it the best, and probably the only remaining radar station of the original Pinetree Line locations.
The existing NWS complex is a Short Range Radar (SRR) installation and it was established in September 1991. The site is unmanned and it is supported by a nearby Logistic Support Site (LSS) which is resident at Frobisher Bay. The complex is known as Resolution Island, NWT and the site number of this NWS complex is BAF-5. Resolution Island is one of 36 existing SRR locations which forms the NWS. The SRR complex at Resolution Island makes use of the Unisys AN/FPS-124 radar.
The NWS military complex at Resolution Island is a restricted military site and permission must be obtained from the Director General Aerospace Engineering Program Management (Radar and Communications Systems) - also known as DGAEPM (R&CS) before going there.
--Ren L'Ecuyer
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