Are They Still Standing in Vanastra?

We veer away from the prettiest little towns in Canada to perhaps, the strangest little community in Canada: Vanastra.  Unlike most communities that formed around a mill, or through land grants, Vanastra sprung from a top secret army camp.

Vanastra

The top secret Royal Canadian Air Force station trained thousands of radar technicians and support staff during World War II.  The base, originally known as #5 Radio School, closed in 1971 and purchased by a developer, John Van Gastel, who then sold the land and structures piece by piece.

There was a competition to name the town, and a woman from neighbouring Clinton won with her submission ‘Vanastra’.  She combined part of John’s last name, ‘Van” and the camp’s motto Per Ardua Ad Astra, which means through adversity to the stars.

She also won a house in town!

There are remnants of this history throughout this small town and the most impressive is the Radome,

Vanastra

home to the antenna.

Vanastra

The dome that is visible from a distance was recently purchased and restored by a local family

Vanastra Radom

with the intent to bring a little more attention to the town’s significant contribution to the effort of WW2.

There are remnants throughout town of this top secret past

Vanastra

And several plaques tell the story of a town that once was a farm, an army camp, and now a community.

Perhaps not the prettiest town, Vanastra is by far one of the most interesting towns we’ve been to. It still rests in the shadows though.  Even the famed antenna adorns the streets of next-door neighbour, Clinton.

Vanastra antenna

And Clinton is where we’ll go next.

This post is inspired by the Canadian CBC show Still Standing.  The show features towns that didn’t fare well due to closure of industry or diversion of highways and railways.  Through humour and close encounters with the locals, they hope to bring some new attention to these towns.  We’ll try and visit as many of them as we can.

So stay with us and stay well!

29 thoughts on “Are They Still Standing in Vanastra?

  1. Linda Hocher says:

    That’s a wild story. Canada played a large part in the war. We are still learning. Thank you

  2. petespringerauthor says:

    How interesting to have a competition to name a town and then having a house tossed in as a reward. (Allegedly, Springerville came in 2nd.) It would have been priceless if the winning house was some old shack rather than a Better Homes and Garden home.

  3. Jim Borden says:

    that looks like a fun, off-the-beaten-path kind of place to visit. Those clouds are what really caught my eye!

    And how cool that the woman who came up with the name won a house!

  4. Darlene says:

    A cool story. I didn´t know about this place. I have visited some former prisoner of war sites in Alberta. After the war, some of the German prisoners brought their families back to Canada to live as they loved it so much.

    • backroadsandotherstories says:

      I find these stories facianating! I love exploring the POW camps across Canada and the US. As you say, many came back after the war to settle here; I think they were nicknamed the happy prisoners 🙂

  5. WanderingCanadians says:

    That sounds like a pretty sweet deal. You win a competition to pick a name for the town AND you also win a house in the town! This town has such an interesting history, I’ll have to add this to my list of places to visit along our Lake Huron road trip this summer.

  6. Duwan @MakeLikeAnApeman says:

    What an interesting project – to document these towns. Glad they left some if the old stuff standing. I think I’d like seeing that done everry day if I lived there.

    • BACK ROADS AND OTHER STORIES says:

      The one thing that I notice when I started writing about these small towns is that there is usually a small, but tenacious group of residents that make these things happen. It makes the town that much more interesting and the culmination of histories paint a bigger picture of a region. It’s really neat to see it unfold as you travel!

  7. Sue Slaght says:

    That’s very interesting. There is a similar dome in Alsask at the Alberta Saskatchewan border. you can see the ‘golfball’ like dome for a very long time over the flat prairies.

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