SAUGATUCK, Mich. — A Saugatuck landmark is officially listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
It's a well-deserved honor for the Saugatuck Gap Filler Annex, a radar station perched on the top of Mt. Baldhead. The radar was built during the Cold War era as a security measure amid fears of air attacks from Soviet planes.
"The thought was that these enemy airplanes would come down over the North Pole, sort of fly over the top of the globe, and then skim over Lake Michigan before getting to their target destination," explains Nathan Nietering, a program analyst with the State Historic Preservation Office.
In the 1950's, Nietering says, radar technology was improving, but still left some gaps.
"This rapidly developing radar technology...that could see far away and high up in the sky. But it couldn't look down low, close to the surface, or in areas where there is a lot of hilly terrain, like sand dunes, right along the lake," he says.
That's where the "Gap Filler" radars come into play.
The Saugatuck Gap Filler was one of many stationed along Lake Michigan, keeping watch for potential threats and scanning for any planes that could be targeting the metropolitan Chicago or the steel mills of Indiana.
"Saugatuck was kind of the last line of defense. It's not that far south before you get to Indiana and Chicago. So, you know, this was a critical piece of our national defense infrastructure in the 1950's and 60's," Nietering says.
131 of these radars were stationed over the years. But Saugatuck's Gap Filler is believed to be one of the few left standing and technologically intact.
Nietering says the recent listing on the National Register offers the community a new way to keep the radar's story alive.
"Hopefully the reward is worth it, to be able to say, look, we're listed in the National Register. And our place matters, right?"
