[CPEO-MEF] Toxic tug-of-war

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[PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS ARTICLE ORIGINALLY RAN 14 OCT. 2002]

[Alaska]
Toxic tug-of-war
By RINDI WHITE-Frontiersman reporter

GOOSE BAY -- Hulking cement buildings and remnants of walls rise from
amid towering fireweed, birch saplings and tall, marshy grasses in more
than a hundred acres of land it seems time forgot, but with which
vandals, partygoers and would-be ballistics experts have apparently
become well acquainted.

A Cold War legacy

More than 100 acres of land in the once-wilderness borough was, in the
1950s, selected for use by the federal government as a Nike Hercules air
defense artillery battalion. Two launch pads at the Goose Bay Nike site
became operational in 1959, with other batteries moving into operation
the same year in the Anchorage area, one at Site Summit overlooking
Eagle River and one called Site Point, where Kincaid Park is now.

In addition to the two launch pads, the site held a bunkhouse and
administration buildings, weapons storage bunkers, a maintenance control
area with generators and boilers and other infrastructure.

After 20 years of use, the sites were closed down and deactivated. When
the military pulled out of the site, the ownership of the site was split
up several ways. The land housing the launch pads and maintenance
control area -- about 20 acres -- was deeded to the University of
Alaska. A portion of the land is owned by the Mental Health Trust
Authority, and the land surrounding the administrative facilities and
weapons bunkers were transferred to the state of Alaska's Department of
Corrections for use as a minimum-security prison facility, then later
turned over to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources.

This article can be viewed at:
http://www.frontiersman.com/articles/2002/10/14/news/news1.txt

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