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facilities:military:lamar_hf [2026-04-03 23:18] – created J. B. Crawfordfacilities:military:lamar_hf [2026-04-03 23:41] (current) – J. B. Crawford
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 ===== Construction ===== ===== Construction =====
  
-While many have speculated this site to have been built alongside Cheyenne Mountain, a 1941 route map showing a K-carrier cable from Denver to two sites at Lamar (where it terminates) suggests that there was some type of important communications infrastructure at Lamar prior to the 1960s. Whether that was telco or military is unclear, but it's possible that this site dates originally to the Second World War.+While many have speculated this site to have been built alongside Cheyenne Mountain, military records show it to have been activated in March of 1956 as "Colorado Springs Comms Facility Annex." Based on a 1941 route map, AT&T already had a K-carrier long distance cable to Lamar at that time. 
 + 
 +Formal DoD records on this site, such as real property cards, have proven elusive. The lack of clarity over the site's formal name is no doubt a factor.
  
 ===== History ===== ===== History =====
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 >  > 
 > US AIR FORCE OL A  NORAD COMBAT OPERATIONS CENTER  HF  TACTICAL RADIO STATION   LAMAR COLORADO > US AIR FORCE OL A  NORAD COMBAT OPERATIONS CENTER  HF  TACTICAL RADIO STATION   LAMAR COLORADO
 +
 +Tim Tyler also quotes the 1985 book //Nuclear Battlefields// by William Arkin & Richard  
 +Fieldhouse:
 +
 +> Lamar AFS:  NEACP/SAC airborne command post ground entry point.  Terminal 
 +> node of buried blast resistant coaxial cable providing communications  to 
 +> Cheyenne Mountain, 165 miles away, linked to AT&T hardened central office  and 
 +> and [sic] transcontinental hardened cable.
 +
 +We know that the "terminal node of the blast resistant coaxial cable" part actually refers to the neighboring AT&T site, and the ground entry point probably does as well (AT&T operated the GEPs on contract). So, this quote is mostly useful to illustrate that there has been some historic confusion between these two adjacent facilities.
  
 The site was clearly abandoned by the late 1990s, and went through a series of private owners before it was purchased by the county for use as an emergency operations training site. The site was clearly abandoned by the late 1990s, and went through a series of private owners before it was purchased by the county for use as an emergency operations training site.