Cape Lisburne Air Force Station
| Cape Lisburne Air Force Station Cape Lisburne Long Range Radar Site   
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| Part of Eleventh Air Force (PACAF) | |
 Cape Lisburne AFS
Location of Cape Lisburne AFS, Alaska
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| Coordinates | 68°52′12″N 166°09′00″W / 68.87000°N 166.15000°WCoordinates: 68°52′12″N 166°09′00″W / 68.87000°N 166.15000°W |
| Type | Air Force Station |
| Site information | |
| Controlled by |
 United States Air Force
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| Site history | |
| Built | 1953 |
| In use | 1953-Present |
| Garrison information | |
| Garrison | 711th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron (1953–1983) |
Cape Lisburne Air Force Station (AAC ID: F-07, LRR ID: A-19, DEW ID: LIZ-1) is a closed United States Air Force General Surveillance Radar station. It is located 276.5 miles (445.0 km) west-southwest of Point Barrow, Alaska.
The radar surveillance station was closed on 1 November 1983, and was re-designated as a Long Range Radar (LRR) site as part of the Alaska Radar System. Today, it remains active as part of the Alaska NORAD Region under the jurisdiction of the 611th Air and Space Operations Center, Elmendorf AFB, Alaska.
Cape Lisburne AFS was a continental defence radar station constructed to provide the United States Air Force early warning of an attack by the Soviet Union on Alaska. It was one of the ten original radar surveillance sites constructed during the early 1950s to establish a permanent air defense system in Alaska.
An assignment to the station was one of the most remote tours which an Airman could serve during its operational lifetime.
The station was located at Cape Lisburne, a bleak, treeless location in the most northwestern point in Alaska between the Arctic Ocean and the Chuckchi Sea, some 570 miles northwest of Fairbanks. There are no permanent residents at the site, and Point Hope is the nearest community, 25 miles to the southwest. The site is accessible only by sea and air. "Summer" lasts only three months, as does the appearance of the sun.
The first western explorer to arrive at Cape Lisburne was Captain James Cook in his search for a Northwest Passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. He gave the location its name (Cape Lisbourne), the reason for the name being lost in the passage of time. A small Eskimo settlement, Wevok, existed for a short period of time in an area on the western side of what would become the Air Force Station. Wevok was a stopover point for Eskimos from Point Hope who followed the winter trail to Point Barrow in search of polar bears. A missionary lived with the Eskimos at Wevok in the late 19th, early 20th century. He, along with several natives, are buried in a small cemetery on the western side of the Air Force station. Wevok was abandoned early in the 20th century, and other than the cemetery there is nothing which remains of it.
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Wikipedia