Caribou Air Force Station
Caribou Air Force Station, also known as North River Depot and East Loring, is a defunct Air Force Station that operated from 1951 until some time when it was absorbed into Loring Air Force Base in 1962. It was located in Limestone, Maine, adjacent to Loring. Between 1951 and 1962 Caribou was an Operational Storage Site for Air Materiel Command (AMC-OSS), one of five in the United States, and the weapons storage and maintenance facility for Loring alert aircraft.
Caribou Air Force Station
A spur track on Government-owned property and constructed at Government expense, extended from the adjacent SAC base over a distance of about four miles to the nearest town, where it connected with the main civilian railroad system. One of the secondary spurs, which branched off of the main spur between the SAC base and the nearby town, led to an unloading area, which was used only for the handling of weapons. This loading point was reached by the twenty-two foot wide asphalt paved highway which extended for a distance of approximately 3600 feet between the site entrance gate and the rail loading point. Building No. 400 was the Railhead Station. It was constructed of concrete block, and was razed sometime in the late 1980s. The overall Service Area, comprising the various functions of site maintenance and service, was strategically located in close proximity to the main entrance gate, and to the Administration and Storage Areas. The Service Area, situated southeast of the Administrative Area and outside of the maximum-security area, was the center of station maintenance, repair, and service. The Civil Engineering Division Area, or the former Installations Engineer Maintenance Area, was located near the Warehouse and Supply Building, and near the Motor Pool. The Maintenance Area, in which Building No. 106 was the principal structure, was well located with reference to the facilities that it served, although it was in the same fenced area with the Motor Pool and the Warehouse and Supply Building. Two permanent, warehouse-type buildings housed the Civil Engineering Division facilities, administrative offices, drafting room, blue print room, and separate shops for carpentry, heating, plumbing, welding, painting and electrical work. Two dormitory rooms were used by the Civil Engineering Division forces for the housing of testing equipment for water purification. A small, separate building housed equipment used by the roads and grounds crew. A shed-type building was used for the storage of lumber. Two permanent-type buildings (numbered 109 and 110) were used as warm storage sheds where temperatures in winter were kept to a 40-degree minimum. One was known as the General Purpose Building, while the other was called the Special Purpose Building. These buildings housed materials handling equipment, 6x6 trucks, snowplow equipment, and motorized equipment used on roads and grounds, in addition to vehicles assigned to the Motor Pool. A small building in the Maintenance Area housed stocks of paints, oils and lubricants.