Shirleys Bay is a

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

of the

Ottawa River The Ottawa River (, ) is a river in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. It is named after the Algonquin word "to trade", as it was the major trade route of Eastern Canada at the time. For most of its length, it defines the border betw ...

, about from downtown

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. Shirleys Bay also includes a significant wetland and nature preserve that is part of an Important Bird and Biodiversity Area the Lac Deschênes-Ottawa River IBA. It is also the name of a Canadian military and civilian telecommunication research campus that is located on the shore of the bay. Organizations with facilities at the site include

Defence Research and Development Canada Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC; , ''RDDC'') is the science and technology organization of the Department of National Defence (Canada), Department of National Defence (DND), whose purpose is to provide the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), ...

Communications Research Centre The Communications Research Centre Canada (CRC; ) is a Canadian government scientific laboratory for research and development in wireless technologies, with a particular focus on the efficient use of radio frequency spectrum. Its mission is as fo ...

, the

Canadian Space Agency The Canadian Space Agency (CSA; ) is the national space agency of Canada, established in 1990 by the ''Canadian Space Agency Act''. The President of the Canadian Space Agency, president is Lisa Campbell (civil servant), Lisa Campbell, who took ...

David Florida Laboratory The David Florida Laboratory is the Canadian Space Agency's spacecraft assembly, integration and testing centre, in Shirleys Bay, just west of central Ottawa. It is operated by the Canadian Space Agency and rented out to Canadian and foreign aerosp ...

Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; , GRC) is the Law enforcement in Canada, national police service of Canada. The RCMP is an agency of the Government of Canada; it also provides police services under contract to 11 Provinces and terri ...

Firearms Training Unit, Department of Defence firearms training area, and the Connaught National Army Cadet Summer Training Centre. In October 1952, the Canadian government set up an observatory at the site to attempt to measure magnetic or radio noise disturbances.Canada's Unidentified Flying Objects: The Search for the Unknown
at Library and Archives Canada The area includes the Innis Point Bird Observatory and the Shirley's Bay Crown Game Preserve, which is managed by the Ottawa Duck Club.

Project Magnet

Project Magnet was an

unidentified flying object An unidentified flying object (UFO) is an object or phenomenon seen in the sky but not yet identified or explained. The term was coined when United States Air Force (USAF) investigations into flying saucers found too broad a range of shapes ...

(UFO) study program established by the

Department of Transport A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government a ...

(DOT) on 2 December 1950, under the direction of Wilbert Brockhouse Smith, senior radio engineer for the DOT's Broadcast and Measurements Section. It was formally active until mid-1954, and informally until Smith's death in 1962. The station,

Project Magnet Project Magnet may refer to: * Project Magnet (UFO), a Canadian unidentified flying object (UFO) study * Project Magnet (USN), a U.S. Navy geomagnetic survey project using aircraft and ships 1951–1994 {{disambiguation ...

, was equipped with radio monitoring equipment, Geiger counters, and cameras. It allegedly recorded a suspicious signal on 8 August 1954, which some presume was from a UFO. Although no pictures were made because of fog, all further results were declared secret.

Footnotes

References

Canada's Unidentified Flying Objects: The Search for the Unknown
at Library and Archives Canada

External links

Historical Background on the creation of the Shirleys Bay research campus.
* * https://web.archive.org/web/20050211153908/http://www.ufoevidence.org/documents/doc1799.htm * http://www.ufoevidence.org/documents/doc1800.htm {{coord, 45.375121, -75.897846, type:waterbody_region:CA-ON, format=dms, display=title Landforms of Ottawa Bays of Ontario

Project Magnet

See also

Footnotes

References

External links