Canadian Forces Station Lac St. Denis (also CFS Lac St. Denis) is a former

Canadian Forces Station A Canadian Forces base or CFB (french: links=no, base des Forces canadiennes, BFC) is a military installation of the Canadian Armed Forces. For a facility to qualify as a Canadian Forces base, it must station one or more major units (e.g., army r ...

that was located by Lac St. Denis, 60 miles north of

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

in the

Laurentian Mountains The Laurentian Mountains ( French: ''Laurentides'') are a mountain range in southern Quebec, Canada, north of the St. Lawrence River and Ottawa River, rising to a highest point of at Mont Raoul Blanchard, northeast of Quebec City in the Laurentid ...

Construction

The base, at 1674 feet above sea level, was 315 feet higher in elevation than the town one mile away. Lac St. Denis was midway between

Morin Heights Morin-Heights is a town in the Laurentian Mountains region of Quebec, Canada. It is west of Saint-Sauveur and north of Lachute; municipally, it is within the Regional County Municipality of Les Pays-d'en-Haut. It is primarily a tourist town, ha ...

and St. Adolphe d'Howard on highway 329. The radar station (Site C-2, callsigns Largo, Firefly and Crystal) was one of the oldest of the

Pinetree Line The Pinetree Line was a series of radar stations located across the northern United States and southern Canada at about the 50th parallel north, along with a number of other stations located on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic and Pacific coasts. ...

sites. Construction had begun in 1949. During this time, there was a veil of secrecy imposed by the

RCAF The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; french: Aviation royale canadienne, ARC) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environme ...

as to the real reason for the site. This sparked rumours and speculation among the local inhabitants, including one that the RCAF was building air defence weapons in a huge underground hangar.

RCAF Station Lac St. Joseph

An advance party arrived to open up No. 202 RCAF Radio Station Lac St. Joseph, as it was known in March 1952. It officially opened the following month, and was fully operational by July of the same year. On September 15, 1952, 1 AC&W Squadron transferred its headquarters from

RCAF Station St. Hubert Canadian Forces Base St. Hubert was a Canadian Forces Base in the city of Saint-Hubert, Quebec. The base began as a civilian airfield in the 1920s and was later also used by RCAF auxiliary (reserve) squadrons, beginning in the mid-1930s. It beca ...

to Lac St. Denis. In October 1952, the site became RCAF Station Lac St. Denis while 202 RCAF Radio Station became 11 AC&W Squadron. At the same time, 1 AC&W Squadron was re-designated 1 Air Defence Control Centre and remained as such until its disbandment, as the Montreal

NORAD North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD ), known until March 1981 as the North American Air Defense Command, is a combined organization of the United States and Canada that provides aerospace warning, air sovereignty, and protection ...

Sector, on 15 September 1962. The station terminated manual operations on 15 September 1962 when it was

SAGE Sage or SAGE may refer to: Plants * ''Salvia officinalis'', common sage, a small evergreen subshrub used as a culinary herb ** Lamiaceae, a family of flowering plants commonly known as the mint or deadnettle or sage family ** ''Salvia'', a large ...

capable, and began to report to the Bangor Sector at Topsham AFS, Maine. In September 1963, 11 AC&W began reporting to the Ottawa Sector at

CFB North Bay Canadian Forces Base North Bay, also CFB North Bay, is an Canadian Forces base, air force base located at the City of North Bay, Ontario, North Bay, Ontario about north of Toronto. The base is subordinate to 1 Canadian Air Division, Winnipeg, ...

. At one time a detachment of 1 Radar and Communications School RCAF Station Clinton Ontario were training enlisted personnel as Fighter Control Operators at the station. In September 1965, a new basic trade school to train Air Defence Technicians was formed to meet the forecast trade shortage. By 1973, over 25 courses had been run with almost 500 graduates. 11 AC&W was the operation responsible for the control of all test flights of the CF-104 Starfighters being built at

Canadair Canadair Ltd. was a civil and military aircraft manufacturer in Canada. In 1986, its assets were acquired by Bombardier Aerospace, the aviation division of Canadian transport conglomerate Bombardier Inc. Canadair's origins lie in the establishm ...

in Montreal. The aircraft would leave the Cartierville Airport and proceed to the testing area under positive control of Lac St. Denis.

CFS Lac St. Denis

The station, operating as 11 Radar Squadron, changed its name on 10 August 1967 to Canadian Forces Station Lac St. Denis (CFS Lac St. Denis) as a result of unification. In March 1972, CFS Lac St. Denis became a detachment of the North Bay-based Air Weapons Control and Countermeasures School (AWC&CS). Eventually Lac St. Denis acquired the Air Weapons Control and Countermeasures School and they carried on training Air Defence Technicians for two more years. The school was later moved to CFB Falconbridge and then to its current location at North Bay, Ontario. The Canadian NORAD Region's ROCCs, both Canada East and Canada West, commenced operations in August 1984, with Lac St. Denis attached to Canada East.

Closure

The station carried on with its assigned duties until it ceased operations in December 1985. CFS Lac St. Denis was closed on 1 August 1986. Since then various business ventures have tried using the site without ever achieving any long-term success. The site is now abandoned, left open and easily accessible. The old concrete shell, graffiti-covered and in desolate state after fires and water infiltration, is often visited by

paintball Paintball is a competitive team shooting sport in which players eliminate opponents from play by hitting them with spherical dye-filled gelatin capsules called paintballs that break upon impact. Paintballs are usually shot using low-energy ai ...

and

Airsoft Airsoft is a team game in which participants eliminate opposing players by tag (game), tagging them out of play with airsoft pellets, spherical plastic projectiles shot with mock air gun, air weapons(usually powered by an electronic motor) call ...

enthusiasts.

External links

Descriptive Record for CSF Lac St. Denis, Library and Archives Canada
{{Canadian Forces Bases Lac St. Denis Lac St. Denis Buildings and structures in Laurentides Transport in Laurentides Cold War sites in Canada 1952 establishments in Quebec 1986 disestablishments in Quebec

Construction

RCAF Station Lac St. Joseph

CFS Lac St. Denis

Closure

See also

External links