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Point McIntyre DEW Line Station, Alaska

Three people could live and work inside this small Arctic radar post, with an airstrip and a few support buildings connecting it to the wider DEW Line.

Map showing location of Point McIntyre DEW Line Station, Alaska
Map 1: Showing location of Point McIntyre DEW Line Station, Alaska
Latitude: 70.403333
Longitude: -148.679167

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Base Opened August, 1957
Base Decommissioned July 21, 1963


Site Number: POW-C

Current Role: Former DEW Line station; Navy-managed property with airstrip and gravel surfaces, buildings removed in 2004.

Point McIntyre, code POW-C, was an intermediate station on Alaska's Beaufort Sea coast in the Point Barrow sector of the Distant Early Warning Line. Its AN/FPS-23 gap-filler system watched for low-flying aircraft between larger radar stations. The Air Defense Command recorded manual operations beginning in August 1957 and inactivation on July 21, 1963. [1] [2]

Illustrative reconstruction of Point McIntyre POW-C with three low station buildings, fuel tanks, a slender Doppler radar tower, gravel runway and Beaufort Sea tundra
Point McIntyre during its DEW Line years, reconstructed from the Corps building inventory and the documented airstrip. Building arrangement and radar tower details are illustrative. [1] [3]
DEW Line code
POW-C.
Station type
Intermediate gap-filler radar station.
Radar
AN/FPS-23 continuous-wave Doppler system.
Operations
August 1957 to July 21, 1963.
Accommodation
Living space for three people in the operations building.
Airstrip
Gravel, approximately 1,636 by 70 feet in a 1977 federal inventory.
Location
Near Point McIntyre on the Beaufort Sea coast; approximate site coordinate 70.403333, -148.679167.

Building POW-C

The Air Force placed Point McIntyre along a remote, flat stretch of coast northwest of today's Deadhorse Airport. An airstrip was built in 1955 to serve the construction and operation of the station. The finished post was part of the original northern warning chain, with Oliktok Point POW-2 to the west and the Bullen Point area to the east. Point McIntyre added a low-altitude detection segment between the larger sites. [1] [2] [7]

Builders laid a gravel pad about five feet thick over the permafrost before erecting the station. This raised platform held the operational camp above the wet tundra. The Corps later described the site as roughly 12 miles north of Deadhorse Airport on the Beaufort Sea coast. [1]

Station sequence from Oliktok Point through Point McIntyre to Bullen Point in the Alaska DEW Line
Point McIntyre in the coastal station sequence. This schematic shows relative order and station class, rather than measured distance or the exact AN/FPS-23 beam path. [2]

The Warning Mission

POW-C operated an AN/FPS-23 continuous-wave Doppler system, often called Fluttar. The equipment was intended to detect aircraft crossing a low-altitude gap between the search radars at larger DEW Line stations. Its fixed antenna and associated electronics served a different role from a rotating long-range radar under a radome. [2] [4]

An alert from a gap-filler post mattered only if it could reach the larger warning network. The Point McIntyre operations building combined the radar-related communications equipment with on-site electrical generation. The three-person accommodation placed the crew beside the machinery they had to keep operating through Arctic weather. [1] [4]

Buildings and Airstrip

The Corps recorded a 2,700-square-foot operations building with living quarters for three, communications facilities and power-generation equipment. A separate 1,500-square-foot garage and shop had another generator. A 1,500-square-foot warehouse, fuel tanks and the airstrip completed the listed installation. These spaces supported both the radar mission and the routine work of maintaining vehicles, power and supplies at an isolated post. [1]

A 1977 federal inventory described the gravel airstrip as approximately 1,636 feet long and 70 feet wide, with no runway lighting or navigational aids. It also counted three small, deactivated DEW Line buildings. Aircraft had provided the practical connection for construction, deliveries, repairs and crew travel; the strip still mattered after the radar stopped. [3] [1]

Illustrated inventory of the Point McIntyre operations building, garage and shop, warehouse, fuel tanks, radar tower and gravel airstrip
Documented POW-C components and sizes. This is an inventory diagram, not a surveyed site plan. [1] [3]

Life at Point McIntyre

Point McIntyre's operations building had room for three residents. Their living quarters shared the station with the communications and power equipment, so daily life took place close to the working radar. The separate shop and warehouse held the tools, parts and stores needed to keep the site supplied. Fuel tanks fed the generators and other station needs. [1]

The setting imposed its own routine. The crew lived on a raised gravel pad amid permafrost and wet tundra, with the sea nearby and a short, unlit strip for air access. Keeping electrical power, heating, communications and equipment serviceable was part of maintaining the warning mission. Aircraft brought people, parts and supplies to the remote station. [1] [3] [6]

After the Radar

On July 21, 1963, the Air Force inactivated the intermediate AN/FPS-23 stations, including POW-C. The Point McIntyre property passed to the Navy in 1965 for an Arctic research role. Later, seismic and biological field parties used the remaining buildings as a seasonal base and staging point. Navy activity at the site ended around 1980. [1] [2] [6]

The Navy removed the former buildings and other debris in 2004. Coastal erosion later drove a separate landfill remedy, with waste moved to a new inland cell in 2013 and 2014. The former radar camp has gone, but its gravel surfaces and airstrip trace the brief period when a three-person station helped guard an Arctic gap. [5] [6]

Chronology

  • 1955: An airstrip is built to support the Point McIntyre DEW Line station. [7]
  • August 1957: POW-C begins manual operations with AN/FPS-23 equipment. [2]
  • July 21, 1963: The intermediate radar mission is inactivated. [1] [2]
  • 1965: The former Air Force property transfers to the Navy for Arctic research use. [1] [5]
  • 1977: A federal inventory records three deactivated station buildings and an unlit gravel airstrip. [3]
  • Circa 1980: The Navy's active use of Point McIntyre ends. [6]
  • 2004: The Navy removes the remaining station buildings and known contaminated soil. [5]
Current Google Satellite Image of Point McIntyre DEW Line Station, Alaska
Aerial View 1: Current Google Satellite Image of Point McIntyre DEW Line Station, Alaska Source: Google Maps - Click to View
Information sources (7)
  1. PDFU.S. Army Corps of Engineers, The Cold War in Alaska: A Management Plan for Cultural Resources, 1994, p. 203

    Source for the POW-C identity, 1963 inactivation, gravel pad, three-person operations building, shop, warehouse, fuel tanks, airstrip and later field use.

  2. PDFAerospace Defense Command, Historical Data of the Aerospace Defense Command, 1946-1973, DEW Line station table

    Source for POW-C manual operations in August 1957, AN/FPS-23 equipment, July 21, 1963 inactivation and the coastal station sequence.

  3. PDFBureau of Land Management, Baseline Studies of the Physical and Manmade Environment: Beaufort Sea Region, 1977, p. 69

    Source for the Point McIntyre airstrip dimensions, lack of lighting and navigational aids, and three deactivated station buildings in 1977.

  4. PDFF. Robert Naka and William W. Ward, Distant-Early-Warning Line Radars: The Quest for Automatic Signal Detection, Lincoln Laboratory Journal, 2000

    Source for the AN/FPS-23 continuous-wave Doppler low-altitude gap-filler design and fixed-antenna role.

  5. WEBAlaska Department of Environmental Conservation, Point McIntyre / DERP site report, hazard ID 1717

    Source for the approximate coordinate, 1965 Navy transfer, 2004 building removal and later landfill remedy.

  6. PDFU.S. Navy, Integrated Natural Resources Management Plan: Northern Alaska Sites, August 2021

    Source for the Navy's later management of Point McIntyre, the end of active Navy use around 1980, and its former airstrip and gravel surfaces.

  7. WEBCoastView, Point McIntyre, Stefansson Sound, August 24, 2026

    Source for the 1955 airstrip construction date and Point McIntyre coastal setting.


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