10-36-80/5 (JDPG)
Victoria Island,
Ottawa, Ontario
1 December 1959
Department of Lands & Forests
Forestry Division
Parliament Buildings
Toronto, Ontario
Re: Tower Detection System
Dear Sirs:
In connection with the current air defence programme, the Department of National Defence is experiencing difficulty in selecting suitable sites for military installations due to the lack of large scale topographical maps throughout Northern Ontario.
As our main problem is to locate the highest point within any given area and to determine the distance to other high points on the horizon, it would be of considerable assistance if your Department could provide a plan showing the location of all forestry towers with elevations and sight distances. Alternatively, if the latitude and longitude of the towers were available, this would be acceptable.
It is known that your Department produces basic planimetric maps from aerial photographs for forest inventory purposes, but are any local topographic maps available which have been produced by the forest protection staff and show the high points of land within a tower area?
If any of the above information is available but not in a reproducible form, it would be appreciated if permission was granted for one of our engineers to visit your Department and obtain the necessary details.
(JW Griffith)
Group Captain
for Chief of the Air Staff