Former LIZ-A DEW Line Radar Site

 military, former air force base, early warning radar

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Established in 1957 as an Intermediate or "I" site at the Western edge of the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line, the Cape Sabine DEW Line site was one of three "Gap Filler" sites tasked with monitoring low-level airspace not covered by the long range sites. Serving in this role for the Auxiliary Sites at Cape Lisburne (LIZ-1) and Point Lay (LIZ-2), LIZ-A was a small station with approximately 5 full-time crew which attended to the operation of the site's AN/FPS-23 radar system and tropospheric scatter communication systems.

Equipped with a small airstrip and seaside beaching area to support the resupply and operational needs of the site, LIZ-A operated as part of the DEW Line for seven years before the difficult-to-operate AN/FPS-23 Gap Filler was made obsolete by advancing radar technologies in use at the larger long-range sites. Shut down and abandoned at the end of the 1963 Summer, the site was left relatively untouched for the better part of forty years before being razed and environmentally remediated as part of Operation Clean Sweep in the late 1990s.

lswilson.dewlineadventures.com/liza.htm