Canadian Civil Defense Museum resumes tours at Alsask Radar Dome

By Joan Janzen
joanjanzen@yahoo.com

The Canadian Civil Defense Museum is conducting tours once again this summer on a designated date during each long weekend. The next date will be Sunday, August 1, from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m., with tours held every hour. Fred Armbruster, Executive Director of the Canadian Civil Defence Museum and Archives, will be on hand to conduct the tours at the site on the Alberta-Saskatchewan border at Alsask.

Fred said they’re still doing more work on the museum, and it took almost two years before enough work was completed to have it ready for public tours. Board members and local volunteers conducted the work. Tours had been planned for the July long weekend, but no one turned out because it wasn’t publicized.

“Normally, our tours are completely full,” Fred noted, saying they had people come from all over, including Medicine Hat, Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon, North Battleford and Kindersley.

The tours start on the west side, where it’s explained how things used to look and the ongoing work being done. Fred goes through a safety review before climbing two flights of stairs into the tower leading into the main room. The tour also includes the fourth storey and then goes on into the dome, where people can take photos and rotate the antenna. This is the last of forty standing radar towers in Canada. Originally there were three domes on the site, along with other facilities.

“Hopefully, going forward, we’ll have full tours all the time. It really helps us to support our restorations,” Fred explained. “We don’t operate by any government grants on any level; our operation is completely funded by donations. At this point in time, we want to make the tours affordable for everyone, but we do suggest a minimum donation of $5 per person.”

Fred noted that children would enjoy the tour as it has an adventurous aspect to it, and they can learn things about something they didn’t even know existed.