Fort Morrow/Port Heiden Air Force Station (Site)

USA / Alaska / Chignik /
 Second World War 1939-1945, Cold War 1947-1991, tropospheric scatter station, former air force base, early warning radar
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Fort Morrow was constructed in 1943 for air defense with two runways, air navigation support, and facilities that could support as many as 5,000 men. Approximately 450 structures were erected over several square miles. Fort Morrow was inactivated on 07 October 1945.

Port Heiden Air Force Station was constructed in the 1950s on the site of the earlier Fort Morrow. A White Alice Communications System (WACS) site was constructed here in 1955, and later followed by a Distant Early Warning radar station in 1959. Port Heiden AFS initially functioned as a co-related DEW line and White Alice facility until 1969 when it was converted to a radio relay site. The radio relay site was abandoned in November 1979 and the entire station was left in an abandoned state.

Over the next two decades the remaining structures were badly damaged by both vandalism and the harsh climate, and as part of Operation Clean Sweep the Port Heiden site was selected for environmental remediation by the 11th Air Force. Declared complete in 1998, the remediation saw all structures razed and removed and all dumpsites cleaned up and either removed or reinterred in an environmentally responsible manner, leaving the site in natural state.

lswilson.dewlineadventures.com/cob5/
www.radomes.org/museum/showsite.php?site=Port+Heiden%2C...
dec.alaska.gov/spar/csp/sites/portheiden.htm
whitealice.com/
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Coordinates:   56°58'11"N   158°38'30"W
This article was last modified 7 years ago