White Alice is a historic communications station on Anvil Mountain at an elevation of 1,134 feet (345 m) on the Seward Peninsula, about 180 miles (290 km) southwest of Kotzebue and 5 miles (6.5 km) north-northeast of Nome, Alaska. David C. Witherspoon, a topographer with the US Geological Survey, named the mountain in 1899 after the anvil-shaped rock formation on its western summit. The mountain is best known for its Cold War-era boxlike antennas, which received and transmitted low-frequency microwave radio communications to isolated and often inhospitable US Air Force distance early warning facilities. Anvil Mountain and most of the rocks on the Seward Peninsula are sedimentary in origin and highly metamorphosed. They consist chiefly of schists and marble, a metamorphosed limestone from the Paleozoic. For centuries, the Iñupiat camped in the lowlands of Anvil Mountain, hunting for game. Recent archaeological evidence suggests that an Iñupiat settlement, known as Sitnasuak, once existed at the mouth of the Snake River in present-day Nome. In the 18th century, Russian fur traders established a trading post at present-day Saint Michael, about 127 miles (204 km) southeast across Norton Sound. Fur traders and whalers from various countries visited the area throughout the 19th century, and a few church missions were established beginning in the 1880s. In 1887, small amounts of gold were found at Council and subsequently in other locations in the Norton Sound area. Gold-bearing, unconsolidated gravel and sand deposits occupy extensive lowlands between Anvil Mountain and Norton Sound, the latter the site of the Nome Gold Rush of 1899–1909. Much of the gold lay in beach sand and could be recovered without a mining claim. Numerous calcite veins are exposed in the limestone on Anvil Mountain; small amounts of free gold occur in some of these veins, and many have been staked as mining claims.

Alaska’s communications projects have a long history of costly, high-profile ventures often marred by setbacks. Between 1865 and 1867, the Western Union Telegraph Company attempted to build a telegraph line from San Francisco to Moscow. Known variously as the Russian-American Telegraph, Western Union Telegraph Expedition, or Collins Overland Telegraph, the line was to stretch from California through Oregon, the Washington Territory, British Columbia, and Russian America, crossing the Bering Sea and the Eurasian continent to connect with Europe’s network. Difficulties in laying cable across Siberia and Cyrus West Field’s successful transatlantic cable in 1867 led to its abandonment. The failure underscored the technical and logistical challenges of transcontinental communication in the mid‑19th century. Alaska’s first operational telegraph was the Washington-Alaska Military Cable and Telegraph System, built during the gold rush to connect U.S. Army garrisons. Wooden poles supported a single wire linking Fort Egbert at Eagle to Fort Liscum at Valdez and Fort Gibbon at Tanana to Saint Michael. A submarine cable later ran from Skagway to Seattle, while a 107‑mile (172-km) wireless section—then the world’s longest—bridged Port Safety near Nome and Saint Michael. After World War II, long‑distance wireless communications depended on 71 line‑of‑sight radio stations. Rapid transmission remained elusive until the White Alice system was introduced. Built from 1955 to 1958 and designed by Western Electric, it used parabolic antennas to beam signals into the troposphere, where part of each signal rebounded to a receiver. Civilian contractors maintained the network, which employed 60‑foot (18-m) parabolic scatter and smaller microwave dish antennas to connect remote defense facilities with command centers. A crucial element of Cold War infrastructure, the system occasionally supported civilian telephone calls. Advanced for its time, it became obsolete within 20 years after satellite communications emerged. In 1976, RCA Alascom leased it; by the late 1970s most of the system had been deactivated. This evolution in communication marked a turning point in Alaska’s connectivity, paving the way for modern satellite networks.

Marks Field was built at Nome in 1941 as a bomber base for Bering Sea patrols and hosted Operation Bingo—the first major airlift of military personnel and equipment intended to counter a perceived Japanese threat following the Aleutian invasion. As that threat receded, Marks Field became an Air Transport Command base. Over 7,800 planes—about 56 percent of all Lend-Lease aircraft delivered to the Soviet Union during World War II—passed through the base. By the late 1940s, as the Cold War intensified, a new defense doctrine excluded Marks Field, which was deemed too far forward to defend. In 1951, however, work began on remote radar sites to provide early warning of a Soviet attack and on a communications system known as White Alice. Because these sites were so remote, a staging area was required; Marks Field filled that role. Downsized and renamed Nome Field, it was operated by the 5001st Composite Wing at Ladd Field in Fairbanks, supporting coastal radar sites and White Alice for five years. In late 1956, the Alaskan Air Command deemed Nome Field unnecessary, and the base closed. White Alice on Anvil Mountain was built in 1957 and began operating in 1958. Its main facility—a large equipment and power building—has since been removed. Lodging in Nome obviated the need for dormitories. The station provided a critical link between Granite Mountain in the Alaska interior and Northeast Cape Air Force Station on Saint Lawrence Island. Two parabolic antennas faced Northeast Cape, 126 miles (203 km) away, while another pair pointed to Granite Mountain, 136 miles (219 km) distant. The station was deactivated in 1978. A short video on White Alice is available here. Read more here and here. Explore more of White Alice and Anvil Mountain here: