Komakuk Beach was the site of a DEW Line

Distant Early Warning Line

The Distant Early Warning Line, also known as the DEW Line or Early Warning Line, was a system of radar stations in the far northern Arctic region of Canada, with additional stations along the North Coast and Aleutian Islands of Alaska, in addition to the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland...

 station, located on the Arctic

Arctic Ocean

The Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions...

 coast of Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

's Yukon Territory. The station was closed in 1993 pursuant to the general policy of dismantling such stations that was adopted following the collapse of the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

, which effectively ended the Cold War

Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

 and obviated the need to maintain these installations.

Komakuk Beach had been the scene of considerable environmental damage, which took seven years to clean up; following this, the site was incorporated into Ivvavik National Park

Ivvavik National Park

Ivvavik National Park is a national park located in the Yukon, Canada. Meaning "nursery" or "birthplace" in Inuvialuktun, this was the first national park to be established as a result of a land claim agreement with its natives.-See also:...

 in 2000.

The immediate area surrounding the former station is completely uninhabited, as the northernmost settlement within the Yukon Territory is at Old Crow

Old Crow, Yukon

-Population data:-External links:******, a National Film Board of Canada documentary...

, approximately 225 km (139.8 mi) miles to the south.

Situated in a narrow coastal plain at the base of the Richardson Mountains

Brooks Range

The Brooks Range is a mountain range in far northern North America. It stretches from west to east across northern Alaska and into Canada's Yukon Territory, a total distance of about 1100 km . The mountains top out at over 2,700 m . The range is believed to be approximately 126 million years old...

 and having a tundra

Tundra

In physical geography, tundra is a biome where the tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short growing seasons. The term tundra comes through Russian тундра from the Kildin Sami word tūndâr "uplands," "treeless mountain tract." There are three types of tundra: Arctic tundra, alpine...

 climate

Climate

Climate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elemental measurements in a given region over long periods...

, Komakuk Beach is located at 69°35' North latitude and 140°11' West longitude.

Climate