This 1953 film by Hugh Randolph Productions shows life in the Arctic at Fort Churchill Arctic Test Station on Hudson’s Bay. The film begins by showing a map of Fort Churchill on Hudson’s Bay (2:05). A train pulls into Churchill station from Winnipeg. A Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) plane lands (2:22), then a US Air Force one. An aerial view of the town, containing a railroad, grain elevator, port facilities, Hudson Bay store, police station, and two hotels. The RCAF building is shown (3:01). Fort Churchill is a Canadian army post operated under joint command with the United States Army as an Arctic test and training station. There is also an RCAF station and Royal Canadian Navy radio station. A view of the sports arena (3:26) hospital, staffed by Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps, mess halls; Roman Catholic and Protestant chapels; Royal Bank of Canada (3:54); Eaton mail order store; K-12 school. The camera pans over the snowy Arctic landscape (4:28), showing the tree line. Canadian Army troops march on a trail at dawn (4:53). Men in parkas from the 27th regiment, a French-Canadian unit head out for a training exercise around the airstrip (5:13). Men cut and stack snow blocks with a saw to form a wind break (5:42). Signs for “Headquarters U.S. Signal Corps Test Team” and “QMC Test Team CRL Detachment” (6:11). Defense College representatives watch a climatic test demonstration on an artillery range (6:53). U.S. Army Corps of Engineers headquarters, the only permanent test team at the fort, are shown (7:09). Engineering equipment is tested at the development laboratories in Ft. Belvoir, Virginia, before being shipped to the Arctic test station (7:28). Austin Morrow from the Sanitary Engineering branch loads equipment into a truck for a mosquito-spraying campaign (7:53). Soldiers measure surface tension pressures with a pentameter before starting a Peterson low ground pressure tractor (8:18). The Peterson tractor tows a train to Goose Creek, accompanied by a D8 CAT bulldozer (9:20). In the summer, dump trucks bring supplies and dump dirt to start building a test road (10:15). In winter, a blizzard causes a whiteout (11:38). Engineers test a water purification laboratory at Lake Roosevelt Reservoir (11:53). The packaging branch examines a case exposed to the elements (13:15); a man drills holes for a mine test with an air compressor (13:22). A mans tests a rams head gun to modify it for Arctic use (13:49). Two men in parkas set up detonation tests in a field (14:40). A platoon of quartermaster troops tests blasting caps by marching through a field (15:08). An ordinance court tank is guided into a field of Russian mines to test mine depth (15:22). Firefighters test water seals in an expandable van (16:15). A fire burns that destroyed the army service car garage and hangar on the landing Lake South Camp Road (18:37). The film ends with sunset on the tundra. Photographed on Kodachrome; Recorded on Webcore; Sound by Reevestripe; Music by Webster. Produced with the facilities of the Climatic Test Branch, Engineer Research & Development Laboratories The Engineer Center Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Filmed with the cooperation of the Canadian Army, Royal Canadian Air Force, units of the US Army, Climatic Field Test Team, US Army Corps of Engineers, Major Edward E Zimmerman Jr. Photography Director: Hugh Randolph.

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