Hopedale Air Force Station, United States Air Force (1953-1968)

November 21, 2012

Students in the class of AVC 2013, travelled to Hopedale as participants on the Chinook Project. As part of the experience, the students craft various pieces of writing. Unfortunately, this photo essay from 2012 was separated from the photo, so no image is avaialable.

If you were asked where this stairway leads, you may answer “nowhere”. It’s understandable - our eyes tell us there is nothing tangible beyond the 11^th step. Boarding the plane to Hopedale, Labrador, I felt I was climbing a staircase, whose top landing appeared to fall into an abyss. 

RCAF Station in Hopedale 1960's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hopedale_Air_Station

It seems to me that Canada’s North is what is beyond that top step. When I learned I would be traveling to Hopedale, I didn’t know what to expect, because I’d never seen it; I couldn’t see it. I hadn’t before considered that there were communities in Canada that were inaccessible by road; where access to facebook on your ipad was possible, but cell phone reception was not; where tuberculosis isn’t the eradicated disease known only to past generations or to developing nations. 

The top of this staircase revealed a presence one has to see to believe: to the left a stunning bird’s eye view of Hopedale; to the right the beginning of a glorious sunset: bright pinks and blues over a landscape of rocky islands. However, if you look a little further, you’ll see another abandoned military base, a large polluted lake, and an area whose game and vegetation is off limits, due to contamination from the chemicals left behind by the military. This is the juxtaposition that is Canada’s North. It is a reality that is difficult to imagine before experiencing it, but now I can see the “somewhere” at the top of the stairway.

Sunset in Hopedale