Cottonwood Air Force Station Cottonwood Air Force Station is a former United States Air Force General Surveillance Radar station . The radar site was located at the summit of Cottonwood Butte , west - northwest of Cottonwood in Idaho County , Idaho . It was closed in 1965 and transferred to the state of Idaho in 1974 , when it was converted to its present use as a minimum - security correctional facility . Cottonwood Peak Air Force Station was initially part of Phase II of the Air Defense Command Mobile Radar program . The Air Force approved this expansion of the Mobile Radar program on October 23 , 1952 . Radars in this network were designated " SM . " History . The station became operational on 1 July 1958 when the 822d Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron ( AC & W Sq ) was assigned to the new station . The station consisted of 66 buildings , including operation and administrative facilities , 3 dormitories , 27 family housing units , 3 radar domes , and the normal support facilities / utilities . The site was divided into three general areas : the operations area at the summit , cantonment area at mid - mountain , and a family housing area at the north end of the city of Cottonwood . The 822d AC & W Sq operated used AN / MPS - 7 , AN / MPS - 14 , and AN / FPS - 6 radars , and initially the station functioned as a Ground - Control Intercept ( GCI ) and warning station . As a GCI station , the squadron ' s role was to guide interceptor aircraft toward unidentified intruders picked up on the unit ' s radar scopes . During 1960 Cottonwood AFS joined the Semi Automatic Ground Environment ( SAGE ) system , feeding data to DC - 07 at Larson AFB , Washington . After joining , the squadron was redesignated as the 822d Radar Squadron ( SAGE ) on 1 September 1960 . The radar squadron provided information 24 / 7 the SAGE Direction Center where it was analyzed to determine range , direction altitude speed and whether or not aircraft were friendly or hostile . In 1962 the 822d began operating an AN / FPS - 24 search radar and an additional AN / FPS - 6B radar , as the AN / MPS - 7 and AN / MPS - 14 units were retired . In 1964 the AN / FPS - 6B was upgraded to an AN / FPS - 90 and Cottonwood AFS was shifted to feeding data to the SAGE Data center DC - 12 at McChord AFB . In addition to the main facility , Cottonwood operated an AN / FPS - 14 Gap Filler site : The closure of the base was announced in November 1964 . A catastrophic bearing failure in the AN / FPS - 24 antenna pedestal led to an early shutdown of the station and the inactivation of the 822d Radar Squadron on 25 June 1965 ( only two or three years after the AN / FPS - 24 radome was installed over the antenna ) as part of fiscal year 1965 cutbacks . The Cantonment Area was used from 1965 to 1974 by the Office of Economic Opportunity as a Job Corps Center . The State of Idaho Dept . of Corrections acquired the property in 1974 , and has occupied the site ever since as North Idaho Correctional Institution . This is a program - specific prison designed for male offenders sentenced to a retained jurisdiction commitment by the court . It provides a sentencing alternative for the courts to target those offenders who might , after a period of programming and evaluation , be viable candidates for probation rather than incarceration . Today most of the radar site on the mountain summit is torn down . The AN / FPS - 24 tower still stands but little else , as only building foundations and deteriorated streets remain .