Powell AFS (and two good resources)

HI! This is my first post here.

Anyone have any info on Powell AFS, near Lovell, Wyoming? It's supposed to be here:
maps.google.com...,+wy&ll=44.769406,-108.311806&spn=0.105357,0.409653&t=k&hl=en
but the only other place that mentions it is on a site advertising pet-care
www.alphataxservices.com...
which has a surprisingly complete US military base listing.

Originally found it on a map here:
nationalatlas.gov...

Almost forgot to mention: that area is blacked-out on TerraServer/USGS.


Thanks for any info!

Susanne at Lovell Chamber of Commerce (4 miles away) has apparently never heard of it. She advised me to contact Powell Chamber of Commerce.

Annette at Powell Chamber of Commerce confirmed that it DID exist, but "has been closed for several years". No other info.

Bob Johnson at USGS had the best response:
Thank you for your request.
Here is some information that might help you.
The USGS has no information on this feature.

I suspect Bob is a bob-bot. Maybe a human will contact me later.

Still waiting to hear from USAF (F.E. Warren AFB), and I have some further avenues to explore.

There's really nothing there except everything a Secret Giant Blimp Base needs:
good highways, dependable water supply, gobs of electrical power, an active rail line, several near-by airfields, population density near zero, and a ditch big enough to stash a 757. Oh, and lots of mines -- there's nothing like a good mining operation to disguise major renovations.

There's a small mountain just to the east, Little Sheep Mountain, owned -- if that's the right word -- by BLM, as is most of the land in that area (in fact, BLM controls just about everything in the county except PAFS). It's ringed by unworked mining claims, and would make a dandy place to put a hidden underground laboratory. Just to the east there are a number of nice deep strip mines, both working and inactive. The biggest ones look deep enough to drop in an aircraft carrier with space left for a few space shuttles.

(Maybe if I claimed Little Sheep Mountain was connected to Dulce by a tunnel dug by atomic-powered Chrysler minivans...)

Anyway, I heard back from a Real Person at the USGS, cartographer Peg Rawson. Basically, they don't know where the information about Powell AFS came from; they're checking their records and may remove it from maps next spring.

Of course, I already have confirmation that the station was there, from the Powell Chamber of Commerce.

Starting 70 years ago Wyo Ben, a big mining outfit, began filing claims in Big Horn and Hot Springs counties of Wyoming. About 10 years ago they obtained claims all around the base of Little Sheep Mountain. They really started filing in earnest in...1947. From what I can tell most of the claims have never been worked. (Foil hat on) Many of the claims may be there to discourage prospecting in the area and keep other mining companies from having personnel there at, shall we say, awkward times. (Foil hat off) Also, they may have sold or otherwise transferred the claims to some other 3rd party; that's not clear just yet.

The interestring thing is that the claim map* for the Little Sheep area shows a non-mining, non-BLM area which exactly matches the outline of the seeminly non-existant Powell AFS.

*I just rechecked the map site; it's not responding this morning, mayby it's having a lie-in. If I can get a map downlaoded I'll post it later.

(I wouldn't be replying to my own posts if Icould edit the parents )

When I didn't get a reply from FE Warren AFB I wrote to USAF using the inquiry page at af.mil, explaining that I had no reply yet from FE Warren AFB.

Got a reply yesterday from usafinquiries@pentagon.af.mil, suggesting I contact FE Warren AFB.

Off we go, into the wild blue yonder...

She goes on to say she's still researching th matter and asking questions of knowlegable people around the base.

Oh, well, guess it's time to call in the real experts.
www.mer.cap.gov...

Public Affairs Deputy Chief Capt. Nicole Walters, 90th Space Wing, has completed ner investingation and has no further information. She called the Lovell Chamber of Commerce herself, and spoke to the person who didn't have inay information for me, and they didn't have any information for her, either.

She did put me onto a couple of AF history units; they'll make good resources in any case.

I have a query out to a resident of the Lovell area who may be able to illuminate the mystery (actually, I'm hoping curiosity will prompt a stroll over to the presumed spot -- it's less than 5 miles from the office -- and either knock on the door or spit in the dirt, whichever is most apppropriate).

In another bizarre twist, although the Air Force has never heard of Powell Air Force Station, the Army Corps of Engineers has built Base Housing at the non-existant Powell Air Force Base..

The pilots may not have a place to land, but at least they'll have a nice place to stay when they get there, wherever there is.

Thanks goes to the Air Force History Office at the Pentagon for this information.

The FAA maintains an active joint-use radar site at Medicine Mountain, Wyoming, also known as "Lovell", previously known as "Cody", and also known as "Powell AFS". It's located 25 miles from Lovell, Wyoming, and some 50 miles from the real Powell, Wyoming.

It was manned in the 1980's by Detachment 16, 1st Combat Evalution Group.

It still doesn't explain how or why a large chunk of Wyoming 20 miles away -- bigger than the town it's named for, in fact -- shows up on government maps as Powell Air Force Station. A mistake? A joke?

But that may be all there is to it...however, now I'm wondering just why USAF (and the FAA, perhaps) needed so may new radar sites in such a relatively small area all of a sudden, just before the great 60's UFO wave hit.

More to come, possibly.

The site is most likely a classified missle silo. There are many in Wyoming, Nebraska and Montana and the Dakotas. The US probably wants to keep it secret so the Russians can't do satelite imagery on the location. However, there are now imagery devices that can sense HOLLOWED OUT hot spots underground. I suspect it could be an alternate site for the President in case of Nuclear War (Offutt AFB). He already has a spot picked out in Nebraska, although this could be his nearest landing site for AF1 to access the rest of the underground tunnels. Having done a study in college of the underground structure of the earth, there are large caverns throughout the northern high plains states. There is a huge massive aquifer called the Ogallala Aquifer. It supplies most of the water for this area. However, the water is being depleted and causing large underground caves to open up for the govt to explore .

Hey RAND, if I were you, I would change your handle. RAND and the word EVERGREEN has always led to trouble, spelled CIA. Not a good word for these pages. Thse people thrive off disinformation.

"Rand" is my name, not an assumed screen identity. The coincidence with the RAND Corporation is just that, coincidence, along with Rand McNally, Ayn Rand, RAND licensing, Ingersol-Rand, the currency of Swaziland and South Africa, the little piece of leather at the back of a shoe, and a few others. I did think once about using "raand", but decided it was just a bit too much.

According to the Pentagon, the Powell AFS is long range radar station. It could be an expermental version of a prototype early warning radar system to detect incoming nukes. Now the Air Force uses a more sofisticated radar at Clear AFB, Alaska. During the Cold War years, they used big golf ball size radomes. There is massive one in Cold Bay, Alaska on the Aleutian chain. I use to work out there in the early 1990-1992 and it was manned by one person that basically took readings. Once of month, a spook plane would fly in with a courier to pick up a briefcase.

The newer radar system which is an element of the missile warning and space surveillance system is the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS). The primary mission of BMEWS is to provide NORAD with Tactical Warning/Attack Assessment (TW/AA) data on all ICBMs and SLBMs penetrating the site's coverage. The secondary mission is to provide NORAD with Launch and Impact (L&I) predictions for attack assessment by NORAD.

Ballistic Missile Early Warning System - BMEWS - The BMEWS sensors consist of an AN/FPS- 120 two-faced phased array radars located at Thule AB, Greenland. Three AN/FPS-50V detection radars, an AN/FPS-92 tracking radar at Clear AFS, AK, and an AN/FPS- 126 three faced phased array radar at Royal Air Force (RAF) Fylingdales, United Kingdom.

Thule Air Base is located 700 miles north of the Arctic Circle. The unit there manages and operates the AN/FPS-120 model solid state phased array radar or SSPAR for short. The radar became operational June 24, 1987, replacing the old system, which was in use for more than a quarter of a century-

Thule (Site 1) was the first UHF phased array radar designed for BMEWS ICBM warning. This dual-faced phased array radar contains 3169 antenna elements per face of which 2560 per face transmit and receive RF energy. Each array provides 870 kW of RF power. The arrays receive target returns, which are processed by the signal processors and sent to the prime mission computers for final processing and transmission to forward users.

The unit is responsible for providing tactical warning and attack assessment of a ballistic missile attack against the continental United States and southern Canada. Located at the most northern US base, it would also provide attack assessment and detection in the event of a sea launched ballistic missile attack.

Warning data from the unit is forwarded to the North American Aerospace Defense Command, Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Base, Colorado. The squadron is also responsible for a portion of the Air Force Space Command Space Surveillance Program and assists in tracking more than 7,000 Space objects currently in Earth's orbit. The SSPARS radar beams can reach out for approximately 3,000 nautical miles in a 240° sweep, and at this extreme range can detect an object in space the size of a small automobile. The radar is capable of detecting smaller objects at closer range.

Clear Air Force Station, Alaska (BMEWS Site II) is 40 miles north of Mount McKinley and 80 miles south of Fairbanks. It manages and operates three AN/FPS-50 detection radars (DR) that cover 120 degrees in azimuth and approximately 3000 nautical miles in range. It also supports a AN/FPS-92 tracking radar (TR).

Each AN/FPS-50 detection radar consists of three antennas and associated equipment, which monitors three areas; each area is 40° in azimuth. The DR antennas are 165 feet high by 400 feet long. They continuously watch a fixed area of space for missile launches and orbiting satellites. Radar beams at two elevation angles repetitively scan each of the DR areas. The upper radar fans radiate at 7.0° elevation and the lower radar at 3.5° elevation.

The AN/FPS-92 tracking radar is a mechanical antenna 84 feet in diameter, housed in a 140 foot high radome. Radar signals are sent out and processed for targets. This radar also performs space surveillance functions.

The unit is responsible for providing tactical warning and attack assessment of a ballistic missile attack against the continental United States and southern Canada. Warning data from the unit is forwarded to the North American Aerospace Defense Command inside Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Base, Co. The squadron is also responsible for a portion of the Air Force Space Command Space Surveillance Program and assists in tracking more than 7,000 Space objects currently in Earth's orbit. Prime power at Clear Air Force station is obtained from the station's coal fired power plant, which is capable of producing 22.5 megawatts of power.

Clear AFS's detection radars (DRs) consist of transmitters, reflectors, receivers, and the Detection Radar Data Take Of f (DRDTO). The transmitters supply two 4 megawatt beams (upper and lower) of RF energy to each of the DR reflectors. The reflectors are positioned to reflect the lower beams at 3.5 degrees elevation and the upper beams at 7.0 degrees elevation. The reflectors receive target returns, which are routed to the receiver channel for amplification. The signals are then routed to the DRDTO, which performs analog to digital conversion. The signals are next processed by the mission computers and sent to forward users. The Clear AN/FPS-92 tracking radar utilizes multiple transmitters to supply 8 megawatts of RF energy to an 84 foot diameter parabolic dish antenna. Target returns are processed in much the same way as those of the detection radar.

The Fylingdales phased array radar (Site III) became operational in 1992. With the exception of the additional array face, it has many of the same features of the Thule system.

Lovell, aka Powell AFS was an Air Route Surveillance Radar (ARSR) facility housing a ARSR-2 Joint-use FAA/USAF radar that fed information to the Air Defense Command radar network. It was manned by the 1 Combat Evalution Group, Detactment 16.

The ARSR is a long range surveillance radar, primarily operated and maintained by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). These radars are used in the Joint Surveillance System (JSS) that provides data and communications to both FAA and U.S. Air Force operational centers. The most recent long-range search radar in the JSS is the Air Route Surveillance Radar Model 4 (ARSR-4), fielded in the mid 1990's. These systems provide air defense and air traffic control for the continental United States, Guam, and Hawaii.
The FAA maintains several versions of Air Route Surveillance Radars (ARSRs) for air traffic control. These radars include the ARSR-1, ARSR-2, ARSR-3, and the ARSR-4.

I doubt that its any more than just that. Much of the FAA equipment is old and decrepid. In the early 90's, the FAA started infusing cash into new systems and and abandoning other sites including flight delivery systems. The Air Force has basically funded many of the new projects dealing with space and has made it clear that it is the Air and Space Force.

Where did you get your information?

Besides copying verbatim from "AFQTP 2EXXX-201LB COMMUNICATIONS-ELECTRONICS (C-E) MANAGER’S HANDBOOK", I mean

If you were a radar tech your insights would be quite valuable. For instance, do you know who originally designed/built/funded/manned the FAA joint-use stations in the midwest? That's one of the things I'm interested in now.

According to radomes.org, there were 4 turned on in 1962, a dozen in 1963, and another 10 in 1964 (that's like 20% of all the military radar sites at the time!), and -- if I'm reading it right -- operated by USAF for just two more years before all 26 were "abandoned" and turned over to the FAA until the mid-80s. There just seems to be too many coincidences: military builds lots of radars, US has major UFO wave; military turns radars over to civilians, UFO wave ends.

Rand,

Yes, much of the information came from the AFSC 2EXXX Handbook. An OLD book at that, but good basic overview of developing radar systems. I'm not an expert in radar construction or development. However, I do have experience with electrical magnetism in regard to magnetic fields. Here are some links if you still interested in the historical significance of long range radar development. If you read into the book, you will discover classified sites still in activation today. GOOD READ!

www.kiewit.com...
www.lswilson.ca...
www.fas.org...

I spent 90 days TDY in 1984 at what was called Powell RBS (Radar Bomb Site), or Powell Bombplot. It is/was located about 5-10 miles south of Powell, Wyoming. We stayed in a motel in Powell and drove out in the morning to the site; it took about 15 minutes. My permanent station was Det 1, 1st CEVG at La Junta, Colorado.

I also went the the Belle Fourche RBS once a month during the TDY. We actually stayed in Gillette, WY because the RBS was actually in WY, just north of I-90

[edit on 7-9-2007 by romad275]