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"Alert Wireless Station - the 1960's"
Alert, Nunavut
Canada
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Photo provided by Irv Finkleman
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During the 1960's and 1970's Alert Wireless Station continued to expand. By the mid 1970's it had grown to 32 buildings, including GP Huts, Quonset and Butler buildings. The Mens Mess (Junior Ranks) had been expanded, a new Kitchen facility had been built. As well, the recreation facilities had been expanded with the construction of a 2 sheet curling rink, a 2 lane bowling alley and a large full size gymnasium all inter-connected. The gym eventually contained such assets as a weight room, 2 sauna's, 1 for females and 1 for males, camera club, ham shack and AM Radio Station "CHAR", not to mention the full size basketball court which also provided for badminton and volleyball. This was a far cry from rec facilities that had previously been provided, ie., a couple of dart boards, a shuffleboard table and a ping pong table located in the Men's Mess. I believe the Sgts Mess also had a shuffleboard and a couple of dart boards. In the winter months when it was dark for approximately 6 months you got to know your peers extremely well! At least in the spring, summer and fall periods when there was light you could get outside where hiking was popular, as well as outings to such places as Crystal Mountain, the Dumbell Lakes for fishing, the Ice Caves and the various cairns located in most cases, some distance from the Station.
Up until circa 1971, the curling rink had natural ice. This made for extremely cold curling at times. No one ever went near the place without an almost full compliment of Arctic gear on. It wasn't uncommon to see the guys curling with their mukluks or shearling boots on! I say circa 1971 for natural ice since I was there in 1972 and the rink had acquired a refrigeration unit and was producing artifical ice.
I was also in Alert in 1964 during the summer. New antenna towers were being constucted at the transmitter site. I was on duty in Operations one afternoon when an (80 foot) tower collapsed with a man in it and up about 75 feet. This happened during a Boxtop resupply and there was a C-130 Hercules aircraft on the runway. The injured person was placed into a Bombardier vehicle and it was driven directly onto the Herc. Unfortunately the individual died on way to hospital in Thule Greenland.
"The gymnasium was constructed in 1967 as a centennial project. Again I was in Alert during the spring and summer of '67. This construction also had its minor problems. The photo at left shows some of the prefabricated steel for the gym after it had shifted and slid off the stone boat carrying it up to the Station from the airstrip. As a matter of interest, this photo was taken at approximately 0230 hours.
Click here for another centennial project.
In 1968 the main power plant burned to the ground. This resulted in a new main power plant will 4 diesel generators. Two would be operating at any given time, with 2 standbys. A #2 power plant contained 2 generators and was of course the necessary backup system. 1986 saw the completion of a brand new main power plant featuring the most up to date equipment all operated and monitored by computer.
"One of Alert's biggest headaches during the early years was the disposal of sewage. The problem was solved with the use of empty 45 gallon drums. Each building had a small outside door in which a drum was placed beneath the "throne". This photo shows a full drum from one of the accomodation GP Huts being placed on a stone boat along with several other drums from other buildings. The CE Cat driver is seen placing an empty drum into the space below the throne. Also note another stone boat towed behind the honeybuckets. Garbage from each building was also picked up on this same detail. The garbage was off loaded at the dump on the way to "Shiwailets Hill" where the full drums were placed out to freeze. The next time around the frozen drums would be kicked over and rolled down the hill onto the ice of Shiwailets Bay and the "fresh" drums placed out to freeze. Of course the summer posed another problem - the contents of the drums didn't freeze. It was hummy around there for sure!!
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