Rowley Island DEW Line Station

Military decommissioning and technological obsolescence. The Rowley Island station was part of the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line, a Cold War-era radar network. In the late 1980s, the DEW Line was replaced by the more advanced and automated North Warning System (NWS). The NWS required fewer stations and personnel. Rowley Island was not selected for integration into the new system and was consequently decommissioned and closed along with many other DEW Line sites.

The site is abandoned and has undergone extensive environmental remediation. After its closure, the station, like many DEW Line sites, was left with abandoned buildings, equipment, thousands of fuel barrels, and hazardous materials, most notably Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs). From the late 1990s through the 2000s, the Canadian Department of National Defence (DND) undertook a massive cleanup project to remediate these sites. The work at Rowley Island involved the demolition of all structures, removal of contaminated soil and hazardous waste, and restoration of the site to as close to its natural state as possible. The gravel airstrip remains as a physical landmark but is unmaintained, not officially charted for aviation, and considered closed and unusable for any regular flight operations.

The Rowley Island DEW Line Station, designated 'FOX-1', was a historically significant 'Main Station' in the DEW Line's Foxe Basin sector. Constructed between 1955 and 1957, it was a critical component of North American continental defence during the Cold War. Its primary mission was to detect incoming Soviet bombers and provide early warning to NORAD. As a Main Station, FOX-1 was larger than auxiliary or intermediate stations and served as a logistical and command hub for its sector. The associated 5,000-foot gravel airstrip was essential for the station's existence. It was built to handle heavy military transport aircraft, such as the Douglas C-124 Globemaster II and later the Lockheed C-130 Hercules, which were used to fly in construction materials, fuel, supplies, and personnel to this extremely remote Arctic location.

There are no known plans or prospects for reopening the airstrip. Its original purpose was solely to support a military installation that no longer exists. The island is uninhabited, and there are no economic drivers, such as mining, tourism, or research, that would justify the immense cost of reactivating and maintaining an airport in such a harsh and remote Arctic environment. The site is expected to remain an abandoned, remediated piece of Cold War history.