Falconbridge Radar Station

History

Conceived during the Cold War, the Pinetree Line was a series of radar station stretching along the northern US and southern Canada when fears of a Soviet air attack against North America were high. During the late 1940s, U.S. and Canadian defence chiefs put their heads together and developed joint plans which included a series of 33 prime radar stations stretching from coast to coast across Canada. Their main purpose was to detect and identify unknown aircraft and then direct interceptor aircraft to their targets.

Construction of No. 209 RCAF Falconbridge began in late 1950. The station, located 14 miles north of the nickel centre of Sudbury, officially opened in August 1952. Shortly after opening it became known simply as RCAF Falconbridge.

Falconbridge, like many other similar facilities was a fully self-contained community. In addition to shared quarters, the station included 101 homes (PMQs), water and sewage facilities, a school, library, church, an infirmary, and a slew of recreational facilities including a bowling alley, recreational hall, gymnasium, sauna and children’s wading pool. A post office operated from 1955 to 1960.

In the mid-1960s, when NORAD switched scanning over to computers, they re-designated Falconbridge as a radar scanning station. Following unification of the Canadian Armed Forces, they re-designated Falconbridge once again, this time as CFS (Canadian Forces Station) Falconbridge. During the 1970s they used it as a training facility, specializing in basic and advanced instruction of Air Defence Technicians’ courses. It also assumed additional radar scanning duties following the closure of CFS Foymount in 1974.

On November 11th, 1975 CFS Falconbridge achieved fame of a different sort following reports of a group of four bright lights, alternately hovering and darting around at high speed, sighted about 24 kilometres southwest of the radar site. The objects were first observed around 3:00 a.m. and tracked on height-finding radar for approximately six hours. According to the radar reports, they shot up from 26,000 feet to 45,000 feet, stopped, and then made a rapid ascent up to 72,000 feet.

Visual descriptions of the objects varied. In one report descriptions read as appearing like brilliant stars when viewed from the ground but very different when viewed through binoculars. Another referred to them as 100-foot diameter spheres that appeared to have craters around the outside. Yet a third described one of the objects as resembling a gem with coloured lights around it. According to observers at the base, they were circular, well lighted with two black spots in the centre.

Once the reports started rolling in, NORAD became nervous. The reports from observers at the Falconbridge station coincided with similar reports from other ‘reliable’ witnesses, which included seven Ontario Provincial Police officers, engaged in a hot pursuit of the objects. The U.S. Air Force immediately scrambled two NORAD F-106 aircraft to the scene. Later on Air Guard and SAC helicopters joined the F106s. None ever positively identified the source of the mysterious objects.

The military later released two reports purporting to offer explanations of the unusual event. One attributed the lights to the planet Jupiter, which said to be unusually bright that particular morning. Another cited the frequently used “atmospheric phenomena” explanation. Neither of the military reports made any mention of at least seven similar incidents of UFO activity reported over NORAD bases in the preceding two weeks. Whatever happened that night over the Falconbridge skies will forever remain a mystery, but ufologists give little credence to the military’s standard party line.

As a result of technological changes, the DND downsized and closed the facility in November 1986. Following appraisal, the government tendered it for sale to the highest bidder. Appraisals based on rental income of the PMQs alone came in at between $1.3 and $1.6 million. Not included in the appraisal were the extensive sports and recreational facilities.

Promotional literature described the base as having a library, recreational building with snack bar, theatre, bowling alley, sauna, medical building, school, church, garage, office building, 97 family units, pump station, driving range, soccer field, two ball parks, ski tow and downhill ski area and a football field. In effect, the government offered a complete townsite, built with public money, for sale.

Controversy followed when General Leaseholds, a publicly traded company, eventually won the bid for a paltry $140,000. The day they took possession they flipped it to a numbered company who eventually sold it to Henry Shepherd, a local trailer camp owner, for $190,000. They rejected Shepherd’s earlier bid of $210,000. Shepherd in turn sold the base in 1988 for well over a million.

When last seen, the base still existed but with a new name, Valley View Developments. Although most of the homes have been renovated and rented, the remainder of the facility sits crumbling. They demolished the radomes and the sports field, park and playground were weedy and overgrown. Many of the buildings still stand – shabby and vacant – slowly deteriorating year by year.

The present status of the former base is unknown. It is now behind lock and key and no longer accessible to the public.