CFS Lowther Canadian Forces Station Lowther ( ADC ID : M - 119 / C - 119 ) is a closed General Surveillance Radar station . It is located east - southeast of Mattice - Val Côté , Ontario . It was closed in 1987 . It was operated as part of the Pinetree Line network controlled by NORAD . History . As a result of the Cold War and with the expansion of a North American continental air defence system , Lowther was selected as a site for a United States Air Force ( USAF ) radar station , one of the many that would make up the Pinetree Line of Ground - Control Intercept ( GCI ) radar sites . The original plan was to build the base in Oba , Ontario , but the location was changed due to Oba ' s poor road access . The USAF initially considered Lowther to be part of a planned deployment of forty - four mobile radar stations , to support the permanent ADC network of seventy - five stations around the perimeter of the United States . For that reason the station was initially designated as " M - 119 " . This designation was later changed to reflect its Canadian location and was re - designated as " C - 119 " , in line with the other Ontario Pinetree Line sites being constructed . In July 1957 , the USAF Air Defense Command ( ADC ) 37th Air Division moved the 639th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron to the station . Initial radars installed were AN / MPS - 7 , AN / FPS - 4 , and AN / MPS - 14 sets . Lowther Air Station , as it was referred to by the USAF , was declared operationally ready on 1 July 1958 . In early 1963 the 639th AC & WS was inactivated and preparations were made to transfer the station to the Royal Canadian Air Force . This was part of an arrangement with the United States that came as a result of the cancellation of the Avro Arrow . Canada would lease 66 F - 101 Voodoo fighters and take over operation of 12 Pinetree radar bases . In March 1963 , Lowther AS was connected to the Semi Automatic Ground Environment ( SAGE ) system and the station became a long - range radar site . It would no longer guide interceptors but only look for enemy aircraft , feeding data to the Sault Sainte Marie Air Defense Sector SAGE DC - 14 Data Center of the 30th NORAD Region at K . I . Sawyer AFB , Michigan . On 1 July 1963 , the station was turned over to the RCAF , the final Pinetree Line site to be transferred . Under RCAF jurisdiction , the station was renamed RCAF Station Lowther . The RCAF ' s operating unit was No . 36 Radar Squadron . It was also upgraded with the following radars : On 1 April 1966 , Lowther began feeding SAGE data to the 29th NORAD Region at Duluth , Minnesota ( later re - designated the 23d NORAD Region in November 1969 ) . With the unification of the RCAF , Royal Canadian Navy and Canadian Army into the Canadian Forces , the station was re - designated simply CFS Lowther in 1968 . Beginning in 1983 , the station began reporting to Canada East ROCC . In July 1986 , plans to decommission CFS Lowther along with 17 other sites were in the works and on 1 April 1987 CFS Lowther was officially decommissioned as part of the shut - down of the Pinetree Line . Post closure . As part of a process that would take more than two years to complete the radar station , a ground - air transmitter receiver ( GATR ) site and recreational and living facilities would be completely removed and the land returned to its natural state . By 1988 CFS Lowther had become somewhat forsaken . Though there were still buildings and radar towers present only three commissionaires remained to guard the once vibrant base . By 1992 everything was gone including the guards . The old gymnasium had been moved into the nearby town of Opasatika where it was turned into a mushroom growing facility , and the remote radio site was taken over by Hyundai for use as a winter test facility . As a memorial an AN / FPS - 26 Height Finder antenna was relocated to the main throughway in Kapuskasing , ON where the many children who lived on base went to school and the majority of the families shopped and carried out other business . The closure of the base had a large impact on many of the surrounding communities and the memories of CFS Lowther will live on even in its absence . Other than the abandoned roadways , nothing remains of CFS Lowther today .