The Joint Arctic Weather Stations (JAWS)

This project undertakes the first comprehensive study of the Canada-U.S. Joint Arctic Weather Stations (JAWS) program which operated from 1946-1972 at Alert, Eureka, Isachsen, Mould Bay, and Resolute in the high arctic.  Drawing upon extensive archival evidence and interviews with former JAWS employees, this study will analyze the diplomatic, scientific, social, military, and environmental dimensions of this program.  It will engage and contribute to the historiography in various fields, including Northern history, the history of science, and Canadian-American relations. 

I am working on this project with two Ph.D. candidates in History at the University of Western Ontario: Daniel Heidt and Peter Kikkert. We are also supported by John Gilbert, a JAWS veteran who has built up an extensive collection of documentary and oral history material on the subject.

Anyone with information on the Joint Arctic Weather Stations (JAWS) programme, and particularly those individuals with personal anecdotes they wish to share, are invited to contact me by email at: pwlacken@uwaterloo.ca.

For more information this project, please visit the JAWS project website