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Cottonwood Air Force Station | |
|---|---|
| Part ofAir Defense Command (ADC) | |
| Cottonwood Butte, Idaho County, Idaho,  United States | |
 Cottonwood AFS, c. 1964, with large FPS-24 radomedwarfing FPS-6 radome alongside. | |
| Site information | |
| Type | Air Force Station |
| Code | ADC ID: SM-150 |
| Owner | State of Idaho (1974-present) |
| Controlled by |  United States Air Force |
| Condition | Closed; now a minimum-security state correctional facility[1] |
| Location | |
  Cottonwood AFS Location of Cottonwood AFS, Idaho | |
| Coordinates | 46°04′01″N116°27′51″W / 46.06694°N 116.46417°W /46.06694; -116.46417 (Cottonwood AFS P-46) |
| Site history | |
| Built | 1955-1958[2][3] |
| In use | 1958-1965 |
| Events | Cold War |
| Garrison information | |
| Garrison | 822d Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron |
| Occupants | 135 |
Cottonwood Air Force Station is a formerUnited States Air Force General Surveillance Radar station. The radar site was located at the summit ofCottonwood Butte, 5.7 miles (9.2 km) west-northwest ofCottonwood inIdaho 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.[1]
Cottonwood Peak Air Force Station was initially part of Phase II of theAir Defense Command Mobile Radar program. The Air Force approved this expansion of the Mobile Radar program on 23 October 1952. Radars in this network were designated "SM."
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 ofCottonwood. The 822d AC&W Sq operated usedAN/MPS-7,AN/MPS-14, andAN/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 theSemi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) system, feeding data to DC-07 atLarson 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 anAN/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 anAN/FPS-90 and Cottonwood AFS was shifted to feeding data to the SAGE Data center DC-12 atMcChord AFB.
In addition to the main facility, Cottonwood operated anAN/FPS-14 Gap Filler site:
The closure of the base was announced in November 1964.[4] 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 aJob 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.[1][5] 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.
This article incorporatespublic domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency
