Shirleys Bay is a bay of the

Ottawa River The Ottawa River (french: Rivière des Outaouais, Algonquin: ''Kichi-Sìbì/Kitchissippi'') 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 ...

, about sixteen kilometres (10 miles) from downtown

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. Shirleys Bay also includes a significant wetland and nature preserve that is part of an

Important Bird and Biodiversity Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

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; french: Recherche et développement pour la défense Canada, ''RDDC'') is a special operating agency of the Department of National Defence (DND), whose purpose is to provide the Canadian Armed Forces ...

, Communications Research Centre, the

Canadian Space Agency The Canadian Space Agency (CSA; french: Agence spatiale canadienne, ASC) is the national space agency of Canada, established in 1990 by the ''Canadian Space Agency Act''. The president is Lisa Campbell, who took the position on September 3, 2020 ...

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 aeros ...

Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal police, federal and national police service of ...

Firearms Training Unit, Department of Defence firearms training area, and the

Connaught National Army Cadet Summer Training Centre Connaught Cadet Training Centre (Connaught CTC) (French: ''Centre d'instruction des cadets de Connaught''; ''CIC Connaught''), is a training centre for Royal Canadian Army Cadets, Royal Canadian Air Cadets, and Royal Canadian Sea Cadets since 198 ...

. 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), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are id ...

(UFO) study program established by the

Department of Transport The Department for Transport (DfT) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have not been devolved. The d ...

(DOT) on 2 December 1950, under the direction of Wilbert B. 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, 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.
* http://www.virtuallystrange.net/ufo/mufonontario/archive/wbsmith.htm * 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