Dickinson Air Force Station
closed United States Air Force General Surveillance Radar station
Dickinson Air Force Station is a closed United States Air Force General Surveillance Radar station. It is located 3.8 miles (6.1 km) northeast of Dickinson, North Dakota. It was closed in 1965.
History
Dickinson Air Force Station came into existence as part of Phase III of the Air Defense Command Mobile Radar program. On 20 October 1953 ADC requested a third phase of twenty-five radar sites be constructed. It became active in April 1959.
The 706th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron activated with AN/FPS-3 search and AN/FPS-6A height-finder radars, and initially the station functioned as a Ground-Control Intercept (GCI) and warning station. As a GCI station, the squadron's role was to guide interceptor aircraft toward unidentified intruders picked up on the unit's radar scopes. A second AN/FPS-6A height-finder radar was added in 1960.
During 1961 Dickinson AFS joined the Semi Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) system, initially feeding data to DC-20 at Malmstrom AFB, Montana.
“Dickinson Air Force Station” enters the record as closed United States Air Force General Surveillance Radar station. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Dickinson, Force and Station can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Dickinson Air Force Station” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Dickinson, Force and Station provides the most credible route into that argument.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5273722. Authority coordinates are 46.935, -102.732. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1965, 1953, 1959 and 1960.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
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Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Dickinson Air Force Station” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.