RCAF Station Beaverbank

RCAF Station Beaverbank is a former radar facility in Beaver Bank, Nova Scotia, that once covered about 430 acres with separate residential and operations areas split across the Halifax and Hants county line. The installation originally included barracks, administrative buildings, and radar equipment housed in supporting structures throughout the grounds.

The facility opened in 1954 as part of the Pinetree Line, an early warning radar system built during Cold War tensions. It closed in 1964 when an automated radar network took over the manual operations that had been running there.

The station shows military teamwork between North America, as the United States Air Force provided funding while the Royal Canadian Air Force ran daily operations. Visitors can see how nations worked together during the Cold War to watch the skies.

The site now sits on private land partly used as a retirement home, while most original military structures have been demolished or left to decay. Visitors should arrange access beforehand since the former base is not fully open to the public.

Radar operators worked by hand at the equipment here until 1964, when a semi-automatic computer system took over their tasks. This shift marked a turning point in how Canada tracked aircraft during the Cold War.