Camp Fistclench Camp Fistclench ( Fist Clench ) was a U . S . Army research camp on and inside the Greenland Ice Cap east of the Army base camp at Camp TUTO east of Thule Air Base . It was in use from 1957 to 1960 . It served to prototype techniques used at the much larger Camp Century . History . The U . S . Army initiated a research and development program to facilitate sustained military operations in the far north in 1953 . This included a Greenland Research and Development Program . Northern latitudes acquired strategic importance during the Cold War owing to their being the shortest path between the Soviet Union and the United States for bombers and missiles . The purpose of the Greenland Research and Development Program was to identify solutions to " engineering and associated problems " required to develop , maintain and supply camps on the Greenland ice cap . In 1953 , a team of Army scientists visited Greenland to consider the specific problem areas for construction of camps on the ice cap . These problems included the use of snow as a construction material , foundations on snow , the control of snow and issues of habitation including power , water supply and wastewater . Field investigations began in 1954 at Site II ( designated " Fistclench " ) , located east of Thule Air Force Base at an elevation of 6 , 800 feet on the ice cap . The investigation explored the feasibility of using a Swiss snow removal machine ( the Peter Snow Miller ) to bore into the ice cap . The success of this effort led to the establishment of a subsurface camp , called " Camp Fistclench " in 1957 . The Corps of Engineers assigned the following U . S . Army research organizations to the project : Snow , Ice and Permafrost Research Establishment ( SIPRE ) , Arctic Construction and Frost Effects Laboratory ( ACFEL ) , Engineer Research and Development Laboratories ( ERDL ) , and the Waterways Experiment Station ( WES ) . SIPRE and ACFEL were the antecedent organizations to the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory ( CRREL ) . In 1955 , the USAF had prepared a compacted snow runway near Site II . In may of 1957 a crew of one officer and 27 men arrived and began setting up camp to support the construction of Camp Fistclench . Heavy supplies arrived over - ice in convoys of tracked vehicles . The engineers used a Peter snow miller to tunnel through the ice . The largest of five trenches , 600 feet long , contained living quarters and utilities and was 20 feet wide and 8 feet high . Prefab buildings were installed inside . Corrugated steel arches covered the ceiling , and snow was blown back over the trenches to form the roof . Jamesway huts were used as additional shelter both above and below ice . There were two diesel generators . As a trial operation , Fistclench was not used for overwintering troops , but it housed several dozen during the summer . The large amount of fuel needed to operate Fist Clench influenced the choice to use a nuclear reactor at Camp Century . Construction of Century began in 1959 , and Camp Fistclench was abandoned , having served as a prototype for the larger camp . In 1957 a group of scientists came to Camp Fistclench to observe sunspot activity as a part of the International Geophysical Year studies .