Croker River Airport

Military decommissioning. The airport was the airstrip for the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line radar site CAM-B, also known as Stones River. It was closed when the entire DEW Line system was rendered obsolete by new technology (such as ICBMs and satellite surveillance) and was replaced by the more modern, and much smaller, North Warning System (NWS) at the end of the Cold War.

The site is an abandoned and remediated former military installation. After the DEW Line was shut down, the Canadian Department of National Defence undertook a massive, multi-year environmental cleanup project to remove all buildings, radar equipment, fuel tanks, and contaminated soil (including PCBs) from the site. While the gravel runway's outline may still be visible from the air as a scar on the tundra, it is unmaintained, not certified, and considered permanently closed. There are no facilities or services, and the site is uninhabited.

The airport's sole purpose was to support the DEW Line Intermediate Site CAM-B. The DEW Line was a chain of radar stations built across the high Arctic in the 1950s to provide early warning of a potential Soviet bomber attack over the North Pole. This airstrip, constructed between 1955 and 1957, was vital for the initial construction of the radar site and for its ongoing supply and maintenance. It handled military and civilian contract aircraft, such as the Douglas C-47 Skytrain and Fairchild C-123 Provider, which ferried personnel, fuel, food, and equipment to the isolated station. As a component of this massive Cold War defense project, the airport played a small but critical role in North American air defense for over 30 years.

There are no known plans or prospects for reopening the airport. The original military purpose for its existence is gone, and the extremely remote location has no permanent population, tourism, or industrial activity (such as mining) that would justify the immense cost of rebuilding, certifying, and maintaining an airport in the harsh Arctic environment.