Paxson Lake Maintenance Annex, Alaska

The little-known repair and power facility that kept unmanned White Alice relay stations serviceable along the Richardson Highway.

Location: Near Denali Highway junction / Richardson Highway mile 185.5, Section 8, T22S R12E, Fairbanks Meridian. Coordinate intentionally blank pending georeferenced parcel verification.

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Current Role: Current structures and land control not verified. The 1989 BLM index records termination of a proposed withdrawal, not demolition or station closure.

Paxson Lake Maintenance Annex supported the Air Force's White Alice Communications System in central Alaska. Its heavy-equipment and automotive shops maintained unmanned repeater stations along the Richardson Highway. An attached prime-power plant served the annex. This was a separate support installation from the nearby Paxson Lake Radio Relay Station, which carried the microwave signal itself. ^{[1] [4]}

Military role

Mechanical maintenance for unmanned White Alice repeaters along the Richardson Highway.

Facilities

Heavy-equipment shop, automotive-maintenance shop and attached prime-power plant.

Location

Near the Richardson and Denali highway junction, about 70 miles north of Glennallen; separate from the Paxson relay near Richardson Highway mile 181.

Documented period

Listed in 1967; described in continued use in 1977 and in a 1983 Air Force study. Exact opening and closure dates are not established.

White Alice Support

White Alice linked Alaska's aircraft-warning sites and later provided rearward communications for the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) radar at Clear. On the A Route, line-of-sight TD-2 microwave repeaters carried that traffic along the road-accessible interior. The Corps dates construction of the rearward-route station group to 1960 and its opening to 1960 or 1961. Keeping an unattended chain in service also meant maintaining the vehicles and equipment needed to reach those stations. Paxson Lake Maintenance Annex supplied that mechanical-maintenance function. ^{[1] [2]}

An Air Force installation directory named Paxson Lake Maintenance Annex by September 1967. ^[3]

Shops and Power

The Air Force's 1983 study describes a heavy-equipment shop, an automotive-maintenance shop and an attached prime-power plant. It says the annex provided mechanical maintenance to unmanned repeater stations along the Richardson Highway. The source does not give the shops' floor plans or identify individual vehicles and crews, but it makes clear that maintenance was an organized part of the White Alice operation, not an occasional visit to one isolated relay. ^[1]

Two Paxson Facilities

The Paxson Lake Radio Relay Station stood near Richardson Highway mile 181. It was an unattended microwave repeater between Aurora and McCallum. The maintenance annex stood several highway miles away, near the Richardson and Denali highway junction. The Air Force described the relay and annex in separate entries, and the federal property inventory listed them separately as well. ^{[1] [4]}

Later Record

RCA Alascom began operating White Alice under a system-wide lease in 1976. In June 1977 a federal notice described the Paxson annex as a vehicle-maintenance facility in continued use and proposed withdrawing 0.93 acres near the Denali Highway junction for that purpose. The figure applies to the proposed land action, not necessarily the full historical installation. The Air Force still described the annex's maintenance function in its October 1983 sale study. ^{[1] [5]}

BLM terminated the proposed withdrawal in 1989. Alaska's later facility list separately names AT&T - Paxson Annex and AT&T Paxson Microwave Repeater. Neither record supplies a precise date when the annex's military role ended. ^{[6] [7]}

Historical Appearance

The illustration above conveys the annex's documented work, not a verified as-built layout. Unlike the nearby radio relay, the annex was defined by shops and power support rather than a microwave tower. Original annex photographs or plans would allow a more precise visual history. ^[1]

Chronology

• 1960-1961 White Alice's BMEWS rearward-route TD-2 station group is built and opened; the annex's opening date is not established.
• September 1967 An Air Force directory lists Paxson Lake Maintenance Annex.
• 1976 RCA Alascom begins operating White Alice under a system-wide lease.
• June 24, 1977 A federal notice describes continued vehicle-maintenance use and a proposed 0.93-acre land withdrawal.
• October 1983 An Air Force study records the annex's shops, power plant and highway-repeater maintenance role.
• June 26, 1989 BLM terminates the proposed land withdrawal.

Information sources (7)

1. PDF[1] A Special Study of the Sale of the White Alice Communications System, U.S. Air Force (1983)

   Source for: annex location and functions; separate Paxson relay; system-wide lease and 1983 description. PDF pages 255 and 258.

2. PDF[2] Historical Overview and Inventory: White Alice Communications System, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (1988)

   Source for: White Alice mission, Clear BMEWS rearward A Route, construction and opening period, and Paxson relay links.

3. PDF[3] United States Air Force Installation Directory, September 1967

   Source for: contemporary identification of Paxson Lake Maintenance Annex.

4. WEB[4] U.S. General Accounting Office, Alaska Formerly Used Defense Sites Inventory

   Source for: separate listed Paxson Lake Maintenance Annex and Paxson Lake Radio Relay Station properties.

5. PDF[5] Federal Register, June 24, 1977, proposed withdrawal AA-12404

   Source for: continued vehicle-maintenance use, proposed 0.93-acre tract and Denali Highway junction description.

6. PDF[6] Bureau of Land Management, Alaska Orders Index

   Source for: June 26, 1989 termination of proposed withdrawal AA-12404.

7. WEB[7] Compliant Underground Storage Tank Facilities, Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation

   Source for: later AT&T - Paxson Annex facility name, distinct from the Paxson Microwave Repeater entry.