Cold Bay AFS

Cold Bay AFS

1952 to Early 1980s*

Name of Ski Area:	Cold Bay AFS (Air Force Station), and neighboring Thornbrough AB
Location:	Cold Bay, near the west end of the Alaska Penninsula
Type of Area:	Natural terrain for mostly cross country skiing
Dates of Operation:	1952 to early 1980s (*downsized in the mid 1980s)
Who Built It?:	The United States Air Force built this Long Range Radar Station.
Elevation:	Base: ~Sea Level
Lifts:	Unknown
Facilities:	A full-service remote Long Range Radar Station camp that would support over 100.
Miscellaneous:	The only information known so far about this ski area is what is mentioned in a 1970 "Welcome to Cold Bay" brochure (of which two page are printed below). Based on the topographic map, it looks like servicemen likely drove to a hill near the Cold Bay Air Force Base to ski. ALSAP has also heard rumor that a National Ski Patrol presence was at Cold Bay. But this has yet to be verified. Originally in the Cold Bay area a forward Air Force base, Thornbrough Air Force Base, for the Aleutian Campaign of World War II was established. After WWII a DEW (Defense Early Warning) site was created to the west of Cold Bay. It was then converted to a AC&W (Aircraft Control and Warning) site in 1969. In 1984 the site was moved inland and again converted, this time to a downsized LRRS (Long Range Radar Site) that is a MAR (Minimally Attended Radar) - only one visit by one person is needed every few months.
Sources of Information:	The Online Air-Defense Radar Museum - www.radomes.org/museum/ ; Doug Smith; D. B. Kline

~ PHOTOS and DOCUMENTS ~ (All Courtesy of The Online Air-Defense Radar Museum, www.radomes.org/museum/) (click on any image to expand it)
The document pages on the right are from a 1970 "Welcome to Cold Bay" brochure. Under the RECREATIONAL FACILITIES / UNIT FUND section there is "The unit fund has numerous recreational items for check-out, some are: Stereo Tape Recorders, musical instruments, archery equipment, fishing gear and ski equipment."
Here are two views of the Cold Bay AFS.
Around the radar station it was flat, but there was lots of vertical to the south.
Here is the patch of the 714th ACWS Squadron. To the right is the MAR (Minimally Attended Radar) that exists in place of the old radar installation.

~ MAPS ~

This large scale topo map shows where the Cold Bay AFS Dew Line installation and AC&W site was. It is now deserted. Frosty Peak is the large mountain (dormant volcano) to the south.

(click on this map to expand it)

A zoomed in view of the topo map shows the location of the old radar site, the new radar site and the airfield of Cold Bay. Skiing likely occurred on the hill near the bottom of the map ... but this has yet to be confirmed.

(click on this map to expand it)

Research Correspondence

[Doug Smith - 02 February 2006 email]

Morning. I did a Google search for Cold Bay Air Force and found your site. I was in the Air Force....a radar operator stationed in Cold Bay from Feb. 1969 to Feb. 1970. First I must say that I really like your web site. Really a good job.

But, as far as skiing at Cold Bay.....I never heard of it or saw it. Especially down hill skiing would have never happened. Once winter came we only had one road that could be used. It went from the radar site to town. No hills. The only hills would have been totally inaccessible with snow on the ground. There were other roads that could be used during the summer months....but never with snow. We had 3 or 4 WWII Jeeps that we could use to drive around. They were real junkers with no tops but adequate for summer use. They did plow the main road to town but none of the others as they were no more than trails across the tundra. Suppose someone could have cross county skied down the road but not very likely across the tundra.

I do not remember any ski's at the radar site. They had a couple beat up guitars, some old shotguns for checking out to hunt with, but skiing was just not being done. Now, at some time during the radar site's life...it may have been possible but if so....I really don't know how.

That year I spent up there was not fun at the time but now, 30 years later, I would love to go back and visit.

Mostly we hunted geese and got drunk in the little Airman's Club. I turned 21 up there. 80 men on that little site for a year.

Quite the place.

[Tim Kelley - 02 February 2006 email response to Doug Smith]

Hello Doug,
Thanks for the email. I’ll put your note on ALSAP tonight.
I’m starting to wonder if when the Cold Bay AFS was first established in the 1950’s, if the Air Force shipped out standard entertainment gear (as mentioned in their old AC&W brochure) – and this stockpile included skis. Even though there may have been skis at the site when it started up … there seems to be no evidence, yet at least, that folks there ever used them. If we go another year or so without hearing of anyone skiing at Cold Bay … I will likely downgrade the site on ALSAP to a “potential lost skiing area” – not enough evidence to be a true lost skiing area.
Thanks again,
Tim

[Doug Smith - 02 February 2006 email]

Tim

That brochure was probably an Air Force trick to make Cold Bay sound like a resort :) It was far from that !!! Either way...I still enjoyed seeing your site and the photographs of the radar site. I looked at literally 100's of web sites regarding Cold Bay and the Air Force...and yours was the ONLY one with photos of the old place. And I for one really appreciate your work. Just wish I could have had actual skiing memories for you.

Thanks again

Doug

[D. B. Kline - 01 July 2007 email]

I was stationed at Cold Bay in 1952/1953.

I was assigned to the AACS ( Airways and Air Communications Detachment) as the NCOIC of Flight Facilities which consisted of The Control Tower and the GCA (Radar Ground Controlled Approach Facility).

I would have gone batty if it had not been for the excellent fishing in a stream a mile or so South of the runway intersections. Sometimes I would have to leave the stream due to the Bears that also wanted to fish.

I also hunted geese and ducks. We basically furnished emergency services for Airline traffic from Japan to the U.S. The only females we saw were the Airline Stewardess's. We cut cards in the Tower to see who was in charge of the binocular. Reeves Aleutian Airways had a man and his wife stationed somewhere near the base. They ran radio communications for the Airline. We talked to her at times copying flight plans but we did not ever see her the year I was there.

An Aleut with the name of Mike Utek used to come over on his fishing boat from King Cove. We helped him get his fishing boat off a sandbar one time and he was ever grateful. Seems like the tide went out and left him high and dry. He would sometimes bring king crab legs to us . That and Hunting/fishing is the only thing I will ever miss about the place.

Two weeks before rotating to the U.S. a friend and I drove a jeep as far as we could to Old Frosty Peak and we climbed it. We got to the top which was above the clouds and I got one of the worst sunburns that I ever had.

Again, a week or so before rotating back to the States I used the Detachment Jeep to go out to our Transmitter site about 5 miles off the end of the runway. There was a Low Frequency radio beacon located there plus our ATC radio transmitters. We had a few men that lived there around the clock in a large Quonset hut . What I wanted to do was take some pictures of the bears that raided the garbage cans from time to time. As luck would have it they did not appear that night and I left around 10:00 pm. The next day a couple of guys from the site came in to our detachment HQ all shaken up. Everyone was asleep and the cook heard a noise out in the kitchen area. He got up and went in to the kitchen and opened the door of the dining area ( This was a structure that was built on to the Quonset Hut) and turned on the lights. A bear had broken through the wall and when the lights came on he ran out and the Cook ran the other direction. That morning they stretched an electric wire around the hut . Our Detachment Commander said No to that and made them take it down. As you know with all of the dampness we had there that would have probably electrocuted some one besides and animal.

I have more stories like when our food warehouse burned to the ground at the same time the food warehouse on the mainland burned. We still had an old C-47 on base and this was around Christmas. We flew over to Umnak and shot a Caribou and that is what we had for Christmas and New Years dinner. The meat of the caribou was a ugly purple before cooked and after cooking it was jet black and tough as hell.

D.B. Kline

CMSgt USAF Retired

Do you have further information, stories or pictures that you would like to contribute about this ski area?



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