Former Naval Security Group Activity Winter Harbor - Winter Harbor, ME
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NorStar
N 44° 20.197 W 068° 03.487
19T E 575086 N 4909692
The Schoodic Institute, which occupies the present location, has an exhibit about the activities of the Naval Security Activity Group Winter Harbor, which was here before the institute.
Waymark Code: WMPTCT
Location: Maine, United States
Date Posted: 10/17/2015
Views: 6
In Winter Harbor, within the present boundaries of the Schoodic Point entrance to Acadia National Park, is the Schoodic Research and Education Institute (Schoodic Institute), which was the location of the Naval Security Group Activity Winter Harbor.
This part of Acadia National Park is accessible from U.S. Route 1. From Route 1, take Maine Roure 186 going toward Winter Harbor. At Winter Harbor, turn left, then about 500 ft further, turn right at the sign for Schoodic Point, Acadia National Park. Follow the road to the turnoff for Schoodic Point and the turn right at the sign for the Schoodic Institute.
I saw no visible sign for the former Naval installation at the entrance - only a sign for the present facility. Many of the buildings still stand, however. One of them Rockefeller Hall, is a building that the public can enter and walk through the exhibits about the research institute and the former Naval installation. Also, to one side of Rockefeller Hall, is a flagpole and anchors, with a plaque memorializing those who worked at this facility.
The web site for the Schoodic Institute has the following about the Naval installation:
"Schoodic Institute’s Schoodic Education and Research Center Campus is on the site of the former Naval Security Group Activity Winter Harbor.
The Navy first arrived on Schoodic Point in 1935, shortly after the National Park Service acquired 2,000 acres from the heirs of John G. Moore. A Navy listening station at Otter Cliffs on Mount Desert Island was built in 1917 but became an obstacle to the Park Loop Road being planned by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Mr. Rockefeller persuaded the Navy to relocate to Schoodic Point.
The purposes and uses of the listening station varied over the years, and the technologies evolved. According to the site Cold War Relics:
The mission of sites like NSGA Winter Harbor was to use their Wullenweber Antenna Array in conjunction with ELINT satellites to triangulate the location of foreign warships. Not only did this enable the US Navy to track foreign warships, but it provided ships equipped with cruise missiles with a means of over the horizon targeting…. The site’s Wullenweber Antenna Array was probably the feature by which it was most commonly identified. Often called an Elephant Cage because of its ring shape and tall antenna poles, the Wullenweber was a Circularly Disposed Dipole Array (CDDA) that used vertical radiator elements in a ring with vertical reflector elements installed behind them in a smaller diameter ring for high frequency direction finding (HF/DF).
When the Navy closed the base in 2002, it was a major economic blow to the community. It left vacant housing in town, and dramatically reduced the school population. See an article by Sandra Dinsmore from the Working Waterfront, published in 2005."
There is a room with exhibits about the Naval activities. One shows some of the equipment that were on the base including a typewriter. The other exhibit is an interactive display that has you trying locate signals by changing the direction of the antennae.
Era: WW II
Related web site: [Web Link]
General Comments: Not listed
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