Inside the Abandoned Fortuna Air Force Station

[boblevene]

My dad was stationed here 70-73. Such a great place to live as a kid. Road bikes around a big circle street, learned to play baseball, my parents where scout leaders for our Cub Scout troop, every took care of everybody. Best years of my life - ages 7-9 years old.

[steverollins]

I was in the FPS/26 tower in 73-75 about age 20. They called off the war and let us go home. I lived in the barracks and used to play basketball and tennis in the gym. That missing wall was similar to a gym floor, it was wood and had a tennis line on it for hitting against. They would flood the outdoor tennis court in the winter for ice skating. I remember all the parking spots had electrical outlets to plug in car heaters. My first day there they issued 3 pairs of gloves including elbow length leather mittens (over the gloves) and parkas and mickey mouse boots (inflatable). One night it was 35 below and the wind was blowing hard so the windchill was around 70 below. I used to call home by asking the base operator to connect me to NORAD then they could connect me to OKC air station who would call my parents house. The 2 or 3 barracks had about 14 rooms each. The first barracks was for the girls of which there were only 3 and they had the entire building. Used to eat midnight chow in the chow hall because all the young guys worked night shift in the towers usually alone. No mistake it was very isolated but we met people in Crosby and usually ran around there or in Plentywood, rarely in Westby it was small but that's where our mail was addressed to. The town of Fortuna was just a trailer park a few homes and a laundramat. A few of us worked our free time for local farmers during wheat harvest driving trucks or combines. I think they had these sites every 200 miles along the border, one was Finley on the east side of the state. The stars at night were amazing and the northern lights sometimes covered half the sky.

[uttered]

Thanks for posting. That brought some memories back. I was stationed there 66-67. Worked in the FPS/26 tower. I believe it was spring of 67 there was some excitement with UFO sightings. We were on duty playing cards with the scope dopes. I believe it was Minot that called the operators for verification of UFO and sure enough we had it on the FPS/35. Some time later we were interrogated by security from Malmstrom AFB. We didn't know at the time but some missile silos were disabled. That's why security was so concerned.

[garygriffin]

Nice video. Fortuna was my last assignment in the AF from 3/75 to 3/76. Lots of fond memories of Plentywood, MT and Crosby, ND.. The people around there are extremely nice. I worked on the FPS-35 search RADAR. I still get shivers going down my spine when I think about that cold Winter I spent there.

[marshallwoodworking]

my father was actually stationed there and I have some early memories of the place. Thank you fo posting this video.

[CharlesWinegardnerimnd]

I was stationed at Fortuna in '64-'65 [came from Dickinson ND when it closed]. The tower you are 'touring' at 8'45" is the FPS-26 height finder. Had an hydraulic drive for azimuth and height...hard to say just how many hydraulic fluid showers I got, but more than a few! And even though AVCO said the 'bubble' was heated, we somehow found it more than a little difficult to believe when it was -20 F ! We frequently ran up the stairs just to help with conditioning - and see who was fastest. Ah, those were the best of times, and the worst of times.

[voylerutledge]

It is very interesting, thank you for going there and sharing the experience with us.

[byykkonen]

7 years ago I commented on this video and to this day, the tower still makes me feel queasy in my stomach when I see it. Nice revisit it just the same. That tower remains, to this day, the only place I have ever visited that truly scared me.

[davidmeinz]

Was my first assignment out of Tech school. What a shocker it was. Met some great people and have many good memories of the year spent there. loved the way they looked at us when we had to get supplies or parts at Minot AFB.

[mojostevo]

This place was decomm'd in 1984, it was odd to see those new'ish looking bottles in the door of that fridge. Neat to see a place that hasn't been completely thrashed by vandals.

[Torrath]

Always wanted to see beyond the fence. Thank you for the vid.

[louisvarre]

I love Urban Exploration. I have pics of a decommissioned facility in New York operates by Griffiths AFB. It was strategically important because we had several SAC bases in NY. Titans too. It was an early warning site, that tracked every piece of space and atmospheric junk. It was a space surveillance outfit. Radar domes are still erected. It’s such a look into Cold War 80’s.

[MilePost]

Had to look that up, cool to see pictures from back in the day when this was in operation.

[josemoreno]

I visited some of AC&W sites up in Alaska back around 1981-82 just before the removed all the Air Force personal. Now the sites have a few people manning them or there automated. There were a lot of radar sites like Fortuna across the U.S. and Canada that many people never new existed. You can find a list of these sites on Wikipedia. Also you can find a list of SAGE sites as well. This is a grate video. Thank you. From a Cold War Warrior USAF.

[consferacy]

Great Video Troy Amazing Stuff Like a Time Capsule.

[Racmaster]

I was stationed at the Dickinson, ND. The 706th radron. We were closed in 1965. I remember Fortuna AFS. I heard that FPS-35 antenna broke off. Some of those airmen there lost there jobs.

[spartanx]

In your B&W image it shows the AN/FPS-35 SAGE Radar Antenna. 5 Megawatts of microwave. At The brick building that held that radar was connected to a District Command Center which contained the worlds first parallel process computer system of the vacuum tube type. I forget but I think those system were built by IBM and Honeywell. The SAGE system was also the first use of the "light pen" which read from a large CRT display. The display was really sophisticated for the day. It display everything we now have in our TACON systems. And everything was fed into NORAD at Cheynne Mountain, CO and to SAC Command in Omaha, NB. There is tons of info on SAGE out there and outstanding videos here on YouTube also. A final thouight. The biggest problem with SAGE was the drive transmission on the roof. That had to move a 75 ton antenna PLUS withstand the wind loading of the local area. The drives failed quite often. There were three of them just for these events. When you went up to service the antenna or the drive there was HUGE sign at the top of the stairs warning you NOT to be exposed to an active radar, You had to be really sure that the system was shut down. Otherwise you would be cooked in no time. There is only one, remaining, AN/FPS-35 at the former Montauk AFS (773rd SAGE) on Long Island, NY. It is listed as a National Treasure and there are activities going on to restore the site. SAGE was a huge part of radar and computer development as a national defense. THANKS for keeping this site in our hearts and minds.

[KillercatRadio]

With the SAGE radar building and the radar platforms, the layout is very similar to Camp Hero in Montauk

[dieselscience]

comments? 
This was one of the many "SAGE" radar systems - *S* emi *A* utomatic *G* round *E* nvironment. The large one in the photo was (IIRC) 5 megawatts and the smaller 'range and altitude' were much less power output. The SAGE system formed a perimeter around the continental US and was quite sophisticated for it's day.

[abez]

Nice video!  This site is on my bucket list to visit.