CFS Shelburne

Canadian Forces Station Shelburne

Top secret SOSUS site

Closed March 1995


Photographs of
Memorial

Shelburne
Shelburne County
Nova Scotia

Located at Royal Canadian Legion Branch 63




Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Shelburne was established during the Cold War as a top-secret SOSUS listening post to track Soviet submarine movements in the North Atlantic Ocean.  The Cold War period was from the late 1940s to about 1990.  When the Cold War ended the nuclear submarine threat diminished, and CFS Shelburne was closed in March 1995.

The land and buildings of the former military site were transferred to local civilian control through the Shelburne Park Development Agency.  In April 1999 the park ownership was transferred to the South West Shore Development Agency.


Royal Canadian Legion Branch 63, Shelburne

Photographed on 19 November 2002



Royal Canadian Legion Branch 63, Shelburne

Photographed on 19 November 2002






Links to Relevant Websites

SOSUS SOund SUrveillance System
With the onset of the Cold War (in the late 1940s) and the
growing danger of a Soviet submarine force based on the best of
German World War Two technology, the application of underwater sound
specifically to anti-submarine warfare became a top priority.
By early 1950, the U.S. Navy had come to believe that
Soviet submarines posed the greatest threat to the United States...
Born of a three-way marriage of early Cold War strategic necessity,
World War Two progress in underwater acoustics, and an extraordinary
engineering effort, the U.S. Navy's pioneering Sound Surveillance System
– SOSUS – became a key, long-range early-warning asset for protecting
the United States against the threat of Soviet ballistic missile submarines
and in providing vital cueing information for tactical, deep-ocean,
anti-submarine warfare...
    http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/cno/n87/usw/issue_25/sosus.htm


History of SOSUS posted 30 April 2005
The first NAVFAC built by the Caesar program was commissioned in
September 1954 at Ramey Air Force Base in northwestern Puerto Rico.
Before the end of the year, similar stations were in operation at Grand
Turks and San Salvador in the Bahamas, and by late 1957, additional
NAVFACs had been established at Bermuda, Shelburne (Nova Scotia),
Nantucket, Cape May, Cape Hatteras, Antiqua, Eleuthera, and Barbados...
    http://oceanengineering.blogspot.com/2005/04/history-of-sosus.html


Undersea Warfare First-Generation Installations
The primary threat against which SOSUS was originally designed was
snorkeling Soviet diesel submarines at the surface, and the system's key
technical characteristics – such as frequency coverage – were established
accordingly.  Fortunately, the resulting capability proved even more effective
against deep-running Soviet nuclear-powered submarines when the first of
these went operational in 1958...
    http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/cno/n87/usw/issue_25/sosus2.htm


South West Shore Development Authority
    http://www.targetnovascotia.com/IPPDF/ShelburneComPark.pdf


Shelburne Film Production Centre
    http://www.swsda.com/direction.cfm







Photographs of War Memorials, Historic Monuments and Plaques in Nova Scotia
    http://ns1763.ca/remem/plaques.html



Shelburne war memorial Shelburne war memorial Shelburne
    http://ns1763.ca/shelbco/shlbrnmon.html


Clark's Harbour war memorial Clark's Harbour war memorial Clark's Harbour
    http://ns1763.ca/shelbco/clarkswarm.html


Green Island cannon Green Island cannon Centreville
    http://ns1763.ca/shelbco/greencann.html


Barrington war memorial Barrington war memorial Barrington
    http://ns1763.ca/shelbco/barrmem.html


Barrington: Old Meeting House 1765 Old Meeting House 1765 Barrington
    http://ns1763.ca/shelbco/barrmeethse.html


Cape Sable Settlers 1761 Cape Sable Settlers 1761 Barrington
    http://ns1763.ca/shelbco/sable200.html


Fort St. Louis monument Fort St. Louis, 1630 Port LaTour
    http://ns1763.ca/shelbco/fortstlouis.html


Donald McKay memorial Donald McKay memorial Jordan Falls
    http://ns1763.ca/shelbco/dmckay.html


Birchtown Black Loyalist memorial Black Loyalist memorial Birchtown
    http://ns1763.ca/shelbco/birchtown.html


Allendale Shipyard plaque Allendale Shipyard plaque Allendale
    http://ns1763.ca/shelbco/allendalem.html


Kempt war memorial Kempt war memorial Kempt
    http://ns1763.ca/qrm/kemptmem.html


Carleton Village war memorial Carleton Village war memorial Carleton Village
    http://ns1763.ca/shelbco/carletonvill.html


Carleton war memorial Carleton war memorial Carleton
    http://ns1763.ca/yarmco/carletonmon.html


Woods Harbour war memorial Woods Harbour war memorial Woods Harbour
    http://ns1763.ca/shelbco/woodshbrwar.html


Woods Harbour fisherman's memorial Woods Harbour fisherman's memorial Woods Harbour
    http://ns1763.ca/shelbco/wdhbrfisherm.html


Arcadia war memorial Arcadia war memorial Arcadia
    http://ns1763.ca/yarmco/arcadiamem.html


Korean War memorial Korean War memorial Yarmouth
    http://ns1763.ca/yarmco/koreamem.html



Go To:   Index to other online Nova Scotia History
    http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/205/300/nova_scotias_electronic_attic/07-04-09/www.littletechshoppe.com/ns1625/histindx.html

Go To:   History of Railway Companies in Nova Scotia
    http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/205/300/nova_scotias_electronic_attic/07-04-09/www.littletechshoppe.com/ns1625/railways.html

Go To:   History of Electric Companies in Nova Scotia
    http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/205/300/nova_scotias_electronic_attic/07-04-09/www.littletechshoppe.com/ns1625/electric.html

Go To:   History of Automobiles in Nova Scotia
    http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/205/300/nova_scotias_electronic_attic/07-04-09/www.littletechshoppe.com/ns1625/automobiles.html

Go To:   History of Telephone Companies in Nova Scotia
    http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/205/300/nova_scotias_electronic_attic/07-04-09/www.littletechshoppe.com/ns1625/telephone.html

Go To:   Home Page
    http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/205/300/nova_scotias_electronic_scrapbook/ns1763.ca/index.html



First uploaded to the WWW:   2005 May 29