Murphy Dome - From Someone Who Was There
In my last blog entry, I posted a few photos I took while up on Murphy Dome with my friend Lori. The information I posted about the radar station, was found online. While the internet offers us the opportunity to expand our knowledge base, not everything we read online is accurate.
Mr. Henry (Hank) Brand, a gentleman who actually served on Murphy Dome, commented to my last entry with additional information and corrections to what I found online. I am quite appreciative of this, and wanted to share his information in this blog entry, along with several photos that Hank took while he was stationed up on Murphy Dome.
Here are the comments he left on my last entry:
Susan…I continue to admire your work. Murphy Dome! 744th AC&W Squadron (Murphy Dome Air Force Station) Was stationed there 1963-64 when it was much larger with 250 Air Force and some Army personnel (Nike Hercules Missile). To find much more images & stats, check out http://www.radomes.org/museum/ insert 744 for the Unit/Squadron search and then you can search for photos of the Radar Station, as well as rosters of personnel stationed there. I have a number of images posted from my stay and my visit in 2002. Included are photos I shot ‘63-’64 of Mt McKinley 154 miles in the distance.
I drag some out there, dragging & screaming, to come and rejoice in your imagery. Beautiful!
Hank Brand
and:
Parting shot….I worked on the old (1963) equipment inside the tower you portray in your photos of the Dome.
Hank
Here is information he sent me via email:
I am making a few corrections here to your comments. Murphy Dome was not named for a Capt Murphy (I believe Murphy was actually a LT), rather, for a gold prospector by the name of Murphy, who also is the namesake of a 2 foot wide creek in the valley on the north side of the Dome. Also Murphy Dome AFS was not an actual part of the DEW Line, the DEW Line was primarily radar stations along the US and Canadian shores of the Arctic Ocean, including the Aleutian Chain. We had about 250 personnel on the site with some Army who supported a Nike Hercules Missile Battery a few miles closer to Fairbanks on the (Old Murphy Dome Rd).
There were several thousand of us who served on that Dome over the years. The basic tour of duty there was 365 days….exactly. It is owned by the Air Force and operated by the FAA. It is scheduled to receive a FAA webcam sometime this year.
Regarding Lt Murphy, I was led to believe, while I was stationed there, that indeed he was the sites’ namesake. I was corrected by a History of the Alaskan Air Command website at Elmendorf. The site was very important as the back-up command center for the Alaskan Air Command, and served as the AAC Command Center for a period during 1964 with the Good Friday Earthquake (while I was there). I am not sure, but I think the Army Nike Hercules Missile Site down the road was known as “D Battery” attached to Ft Wainwright.
Unfortunately, I did not see too much of the Northern Lights, although I did take some photos with Ektachrome 200 and Anscochrome 500 film (Ansco left the long-exposure images with a brown cast). I would go outside during my midnight shift to capture the images. Many of the images were damaged due to improper storage over the years.
BARRACKS AT SUNSET:
HenryBrandBarracksSunset.jpg)
MT MCKINLEY FROM MURPHY DOME (154 MILES DISTANT)
HenryBrandMtMcKinleyFromMurphyDome.jpg)
MCKINLEY AT SUNSET
HenryBrandMtMcKinleySunset.jpg)
LT. MURPHY’S HELICOPTER WRECKAGE AS IT APPEARED IN 1964
HenryBrandMurphysHelicopter1964.jpg)
THE RADOME YOU SEE IN THE BACKGROUND IS THE SAME DOME YOU SEE NOW (WITH NEW EQUIPMENT) ATOP MURPHY DOME:
HenryBrandTwoRadomesMurphyDome.jpg)
Thank you so very much, Hank, for the information and the photos! They are beautiful, and I appreciate you taking the time to share with me - and my readers - your knowledge about Murphy Dome. I find it very interesting, and I’m sure many of my readers will too!
Thats very interesting. I mentioned before that my husband was born and grew up in Fairbanks but I found out that his mom worked at Murphy Dome sometime in the 60s or 70s not sure when…I’ll have to ask her.
Its a small world
[Reply]
Comment by Liz McCollough — March 3, 2010 @ 6:34 am
Check out out http://murphydome.tripod.com/index.html and the subpages/links there for many more old photos of the Murphy Dome site. In addition to lots of outdoor pics there are other interesting photos of old electronics, an abandoned cabin the air force folks rehabilitated, etc.
During random web surfing I’ve found other websites like this that have been set up by folks that used to work at sites, most now abandoned, across Alaska. Every time I do I think how cool it would be to have a central website/directory to all of these. They capture a part of Alaska that is largely getting lost to history. Not as well known or preserved as the gold rush/pioneer days but very interesting in their own right.
My wife and I grew up in Fairbanks, and still consider it home even though we left over 20 years ago now. Murphy Dome is particularly interesting to me because of a minor connection I have to the site. Back when I was playing city league basketball in Fairbanks, we went up to the Murphy Dome site a couple of times to scrimmage the air force personnel that worked/lived up there. Pretty nice place; in adddition to a gym they had their own bowling alley (with 2-4 lanes I recollect, although it’s been a lot of years). Think this was around 1974-1975, since I was driving a Dodge Colt at the time that I bought in 1974 and I’ve been told the site was switched over from air force personnel to a civilian contractor or the FAA around 1975.
The reason I remember driving the Dodge Colt up there was because of the ride back to town I gave one of the air force folks after one scrimmage. Nearly put him and me in the hospital (or worse) when I came down to the end of Murphy Dome Road, which t-bones into Goldstream Road. You can’t see this intersection until you’re nearly on top of it because of the hilly terrain. So I came up over a rise probably going 35 mph or so and saw the intersection close ahead down the hill…which was very icy at the time. All I could do was hit the brakes, twist the steering wheel hard to the left and slide through the intersection, probably still going 20-30 mph. Somehow we managed to stay on the road.
Even 30 years later I’m still amazed given the road conditions and how fast we were going; must have had an angel riding in the back seat with us. Ever since I’ve been a firm believer in front wheel drive cars…and am much more open on the subject of whether angels are real. The Colt was not front wheel drive, which makes it even more amazing I made it through the intersection.
I sometimes wonder what the air force guy said about the ride to his buddies…he was very quiet the rest of the trip before I dropped him off in town.
[Reply]
Susan Stevenson Reply:
April 26th, 2010 at 6:13 am
Hi Richard and thank you for your very informative comment. I’m sorry for the delay in responding; my husband and I were out of town.
I completely understand the fear you must have had coming down that hill and hitting the intersection on a sheet of ice. I always put my car in low gear to come down from Murphy Dome as it’s easy to pick up speed quickly!
Whenever I go up to Murphy Dome (more frequently in the summer months to hike), I wonder what it must have been like up there when it was still active with personnel. Thanks for sharing your story.
Regards,
Susan
[Reply]
Comment by Richard Joy — April 22, 2010 @ 10:01 am
Was stationed at Murphy Dome 1973 to 1974. Was part of the powehouse group of guys both civilian and Air Force Civil Engineers. Murphy Dome was a great place and these pictures bring back a lot of memories.It has been a long time now. Was in Fairbanks June 2008 and went to Murphy Dome and found all gone but the fantastic view was still there. My time was a great experience as Powerhouse work is what I did for a career after getting my degree.
[Reply]
Susan Stevenson Reply:
April 30th, 2010 at 4:44 pm
Hi Jim, and thank you so much for sharing your story about Murphy Dome with me.
I do love going up there, and I agree that the views are astounding, especially on a clear day or starry night.
I know it must have been so different back in the 70s, and I imagine being stationed up there, especially in the middle of winter, had to feel like you were in the middle of nowhere.
It’s such a quiet and peaceful place to go, and generally I only run into one or two other people up there (if at all), when I take my pup up for a hike in the summer months. I haven’t been up there yet since our snow has melted. I need to though… the first glimpses of alpine wildflowers is sure to be any day now (if not already).
Thank you again, for taking the time to comment.
Warm regards,
Susan
[Reply]
Jim Barnhart Reply:
May 7th, 2010 at 5:32 pm
Yes the winter was brutal but really beautiful. Worked in the powerhouse and worked in the fire station. drove the pumper to the helo pad for in coming choppers. that was fun. It must be really great to live in the area. I wanted to when I got done with my tour but I needed to get home to my young wife and start a life in michigan. Alaska is an awsome place. Such beauty and serenity. I miss it alot.
[Reply]
Comment by Jim Barnhart — April 30, 2010 @ 4:20 pm
I was stationed at E Battery (not D battery)down the road from Murphy Dome. Attended some parties at the dome.
Let me know if you want some folklore and stories about about the dome and its role in defending Alaska in the 1960’s.
[Reply]
Comment by Bob Raichle — May 16, 2010 @ 11:44 am
Sites like this bring back many memories. I was stationed at Murphy Dome in 62-63 and was there when Kennedy was shot. I can remember it like it was yesterday. There was a raging Blizzard going on when I was awoken from a sound sleep with the news. We were put on alert and (pretty funny now) assigned security posts. Only problem was we couldn’t see the end of our noses and some super bright individual had us tie rope around our waist and go into the storm. That didn’t last long I can assure you. All in all it wasn’t a bad assignment and I spend many a night at the old miners cabin and hiking the area. When I got there we left Anchorage on the Alaskan Railroad and it was a fun trip. Stopped at a siding about 5 miles from the Radar Site and pretty much said; And I have to stay here how long ? Beautiful place though and the trip to Fairbanks was long and cold in the Winter months riding in the back of the mail truck. Also use to be many bubble checks by B-57’s and any other A.C. that happened to be passing my. Quite a thrill standing on the real steps of the barracks and looking down at the planes coming up the valley. Thanks for letting me share and I’ll keep checking back for any further memories. Herb Wild Retired MSgt USAF….
[Reply]
Comment by Herb Wild — June 18, 2010 @ 2:32 pm