Canadian Civil Defence Museum’s Alsask Dome
This post has been retired for an updated version, which can be found here: RCAF/CFS Alsask Radar Dome.
Still, we’ll keep some of the photos not transferred to the new piece up for your enjoyment and comments will be retained as well.
They’re saying…
“Love your pictures, comments, and articles. I would be sad to lose them. That said, I’m sure so much time goes into doing this, Wow! But I, for one, truly enjoy them.” Irene Storteboom.
Random awesomeness…
Molly Hughes by the Lake (Ag-Pb-Zn-Au).
CC Snowdon Building Calgary.
New Horizon Mall is Strange!
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Date of Adventure: April, 2019
Location(s): Alsask, Saskatchewan.
Inside the “Alsask” Dome.
Endless prairies near the Alberta/Saskatchewan border.
Steel girders underneath.
Property of the Canadian Civil Defence Museum.
Razor wire and some nice colours in the sky.
On select days you can tour the dome.
My dad went in nwt in 1964.
Way up north!
Great photos!
Thanks Connie!
This place is super neat. I read one of your blog posts about it some time ago to my husband and when he was working in the area he stopped to check it out.
It is so cool!
This dome can be seen from my family’s land. Just saw it on the weekend. Thanks for the article!
It can be seen for miles around.
Drive by there often and always wondered what was left inside. Did you know there was a Cold War bunker at the train station in Big Valley?
No much inside really. And with all the pigeon poop gone (done not all that long ago), there’s even less. Still, that rotating antennae thingy is cool. While we knew some train stations had shelters underneath, we did not know that specifically about Big Valley’s. Interesting! Now let’s grab a shovel and see if it’s still there!
We see that all the time.
You must drive that highway a lot then? Thanks for commenting.
Wow, that’s so amazing.
Thank you, we try hard to impress.
They may need to fire that thing up again.
With the US and Russians butting heads, you might be on to something. No, if the bombs were to drop, there’d be no hope anyway so why bother.
I worked on that antenna when it was configured as an FPS 107 search radar, this photo shows it configured as an SIF antenna (selective identification feature) 🙂
Ohh, technical stuff? Love it! Thanks for adding to the story.
This is the most amazing website. Photography that’s top notch and writing that engaging and compelling. I’d kill to visit the places you get into.
Aw shucks, we appreciate all the kind words. Thank you, thank you, thank you. We are so blessed to get all the places we do – even we’ll admit that.
I always thought it was a giant golf ball…
It sure looks it!
I have drove by this many times
It always gets a double take from us.
Part of the DEW line.
Pine Tree Line actually. The DEW line was a similar network of installations but much further north. Pine Tree was the lowest. Between them was the Mid-Canada Line.
Is it still there? I thought it was being moved to a museum or something like that?
It’s in the hands of a museum group, the Canadian Civil Defence Museum (great guys), but there’s no plans to move it. They hope to fix it up and offer tours in the future.
Don’t quite understand why early warning radar sites are being abandoned or closed down
Advances in technology made them redundant. They still monitor the skies.
My uncle was an Air Force Colonel there in the 70’s. I remember visiting, but don’t remember seeing this. Maybe he wasn’t allowed to show anyone then??
Cool! More than likely it was off limits. The dome was a high security installation.
I like the shot of the dome with the razor wire in front.
Thank you! That’s the classic shot and is a reminder of just tight the security was at the dome back when it was operational. That stuff is incredibly sharp.
Interesting! And nice dome long exposure stuff.
It is such a cool place. And thank you for liking what we do. I think we went thirty seconds for those shots which nicely softened the fast moving clouds.
It looks much like the dome along 36 St NE in Calgary – which I always understood was for weather – or was that just rumor?
If you mean the ones by the airport I believe it was true that they monitored weather.
I love radomes!
Love military and Cold War history here. A write up to accompany these photos will appear soon.
I would be interested in seeing this beauty up close! Look forward to hearing more about it!
Maybe you’ll get the chance. If plans go well, we should be hosting a small evening photo workshop at the dome sometime soon. We’ll let you know when it happens.