Military installations include Fort Michilimackinac, the fort on Mackinac Island, Fort Brady and Kincheloe Air Force Base near Sault Ste. Marie, K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base near Marquette, Fort Wilkins at the tip of the Kewanee Peninsula, numerous U.S. Coast Guard Stations, and several DEW Line Air Force radar systems.

One of the most unusual and controversial military installations was the U.S. Navy’s establishment of a massive, once super-secret antennae communication system.

Reaching from Republic in Marquette County to near Clam Lake, Wisconsin was a system known as Project ELF (extremely low frequency).

ELF’s focus was to communicate with American and Great Britain’s nuclear submarine fleet. Before the antenna system was implemented, submarines needed to surface or use surface buoys to communicate. Either action could be easily spotted by adversaries.

Courtesy Photo This photo provided by the U.S. Navy shows an aerial view of Project ELF’s Republic facility.

The system’s concept and operational history goes back decades.

In 1958, the Navy began top-secret research on extremely low-frequency communications. In 1969, the Navy ceased secrecy and publicly proposed a massive communications system called Project Sanguine. That concept crossed over 160 miles east into Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The project would involve two-inch cables buried four to six feet over a 6,500-square-mile area.

Decades later, a minor-scale Wisconsin Test Facility was established at Calm Lake, Wisconsin. The site was selected based upon a combination of geographic location, massive dry granite bedrock, and sparse population.

With defense, community, and political pressures and protests, as well as legal challenges and budgetary concerns, Sanguine was abandoned.

By 1975, the concept resurfaced as Project SEAFARER (Surface Antenna for Addressing Remotely Deployed Receivers). It was cited as smaller in scale to Sanguine and would be a combination of an above- and underground antennae system. Some of the geographic locations considered were in Nevada, New Mexico, and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

There was also a proposed system with an Oregon-to-Southern-California connection and another possible site in Texas. In addition, consideration was given in using various abandoned mine tunnels.

Eventually, an Upper Peninsula to Wisconsin configuration was selected. The system would be reduced to 4,700 square miles, versus Sanguine’s 6,500.

However, political, health, and environmental concerns continued to prevail.

In March 1977, Michigan Gov. William Milliken directed communication to Defense Secretary Harold Brown, stating, “The people of Michigan do not want SEAFARER, nor do I.”

Milliken’s communication reached the attention of President Jimmy Carter, who in 1978 ordered additional studies and clarifications be conducted on SEAFARER.

In 1979, Congress restricted any fiscal year funding for SEAFARER.

At that time, the Pentagon was considering several other options. The first was a mobile, rapid deployment that would be comprised of trucks and trailers loaded with staff, cable, and transmission materials. That concept could be assembled into a 30-mile area. In addition, consideration was given to a balloon transmission system.

In 1981, as President Ronald Reagan’s administration took command, the Pentagon scaled back the project’s size and rebranded it Project ELF.

The revised approach would upgrade the Clam Lake facility, establish a second transmitting facility at Republic, (near K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base), and install specialized ELF receivers onboard nuclear submarines. For the most part, the system crossing the Upper Peninsula into northern Wisconsin would be an above-ground antennae system, versus the prior above- and underground, 165-mile concept.

The configuration would consist of two transmitting stations and 84 miles of above-ground cables hung on utility poles.

Covering half of the globe’s oceans, the system would be able to communicate with submerged submarines up to 300 feet below the waterline. The system would use extremely low transmitting frequency powered by 2 million watts.

With Project ELF now officially known, anti-war demonstrators, conservationists and environmentalists, along with political and business leaders began very visible challenges. However, there were a number of supporters.

During and after ELF’s construction, numerous protests and court filings occurred. Protesters cut down transmission poles and disassembled security fencing.

Nearby residents complained of a constant low hum from the system.

One of ELF’s protesters, Tom Hastings, called the project, “the world’s largest radio station.”

John LaForge, of Nukewatch, said that, in 1984, U.S. District Court Judge Barbara Crabb ruled that the Navy had violated the Environmental Policy Act and ordered ELF shut down.

Subsequently, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Crabbs’ order, deciding that the Cold War Soviet threat was more real than the health effects from the ELF antenna’s electromagnetic radiation.

LaForge added, “The ELF system was then allowed to run, even after the Soviet Union collapsed.”

In 1995, Glenn Mroz, of Michigan Technological University in Houghton, released an ELF-related study that revealed that, near the system, aspen and red maple tree trunks grew thicker than expected and red pines grew taller than usual.

PROTESTERS

Carol Gilbert is with the Dominican Sisters of Grand Rapids.

In 1976, when the U.S. Catholic Bishops conducted their Call-to-Action conference, the Sisters established a multi-pronged social justice focus which, in part, addressed nuclear proliferation.

In the early 1990s, Gilbert and fellow Sisters became engaged with non-violent protests and actions at Oscoda’s Wurtsmith Air Force Base. The installation was of significant importance during Operation Desert Storm.

Her order later assigned Gilbert to Gwinn’s K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base, where she soon learned of Project ELF.

With a group of activists, including university students, they scaled the fence at the Republic ELF transmission site. She and others were arrested by the Michigan State Police and escorted to the Marquette County jail. No formal charges were issued against Gilbert.

LaForge was an established member of Wisconsin-based Nukewatch. He had periodic interaction with Michigan protesters. LaForge and other protesters conducted demonstrations and entered into both ELF transmission sites. At Clam Lake, those protesters were arrested by county sheriff representatives.

LaForge said that, over a period of years, nearly 100 protesters were arrested who jointly served 11 total years in prison.

Hastings, currently a faculty member at Portland State University and former board member with Stop Project ELF, said his organization conducted non-violent and peaceful protests. Hastings stated the organization established an effort to be as transparent as possible. They removed ELF installation survey stakes and marking ribbons and cut down transmission poles, turning those actions over to relevant authorities. They, too, scaled fences into both ELF transmission sites and confronted heavy ELF construction equipment.

Hastings noted a Michigan referendum on Project ELF indicated 80% of Upper Peninsula voting residents opposed the U.S. Navy’s project.

Hastings was arrested and sentenced to a three-year sentence. He served one year, with the remaining term under a house arrest.

ELF’S DEMISE

In June 1998, efforts to cease Project ELF’s operation were initiated by U.S. Sens. Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl, both Democrats from Wisconsin, who introduced an amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill which would terminate the Navy’s program.

By fall 2004, the Navy announced it would close down Project ELF.

What started as a concept grew to a massive above- and underground antennae system. Then was scaled down and constructed to a much smaller above-ground system.

In the end, new military technology had Project ELF disconnected.

When ELF ceased, Marquette County’s Humboldt Township acquired the Republic transmitter site and adjacent area. Humboldt Supervisor Thomas Prophet stated the township subsequently sold the property for $230,000 to a private developer.

He added, “Most of the buildings, fencing, and security system remain intact, and the property is now used for growing marijuana.”

It is believed India, China, and Russia still maintain a submarine communications system similar to ELF.

Jeffrey D. Brasie is a retired health care CEO. He frequently writes historic feature stories and op-eds for Michigan publications. A native of Alpena, he currently resides in suburban Detroit. He is a U.S. Navy and U.S. Naval Reserves veteran and served on the secretary of the Navy’s public affairs staff.

Project ELF, a timeline

1958: U. S. Navy begins top-secret low frequency studies to communicate with nuclear submarines

1968: Navy publicly reveals a program called Project Sanguine

1972: Project Sanguine concept ceased

1975: Concept reconfigured and designed called Project SEAFARER

1982: A test transmission antennae and facility were established near Calm Lake, Wisconsin

1984: U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed lower federal court’s ruling to cease ELF”s operation

1989: Project ELF activated across the Upper Peninsula into northern Wisconsin

1998: Two U.S. senators propose ELF’s termination

2004: Navy announces the Project ELF system will cease operation

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