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Home Movies U.S. Navy Snow Compaction Research & Parade for Gen. Mark Clark Xd13884 (1953)

1953 · Short film · 27 min

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Synopsis

Shot by an unknown amateur filmmaker, this 1953 color home movie offers rare footage of U.S Army snow compaction trials in Kapuskasing, Ontario Canada; a U.S. Navy expedition of the USS Tanner to the Canadian Arctic Archipelago / Greenland; and a ticker-tape parade in Manhattan for General Mark W. Clark, decorated veteran of three foreign wars (TRT: 27:21). This footage dates from the time of a 1952-1953 study by the U.S. Army of snow, ice, and permafrost conditions in Kapuskasing, which analyzed an extensive series of snow compaction trials. This research informed the U.S. top secret 1960s “Project Iceworm” in Greenland, an ill-fated attempt to create underground nuclear weapons silos during the Cold War, the remains of which pose a continued ecological threat. A snowy landscape dotted with trees, hills, and telephone poles in Kapuskasing, a town on the Kapuskasing River in the Cochrane District of Northern Ontario, Canada. A road stretches into the horizon. A sign: “Speed 30 Mils, Kapuskasing, Population 4,950.” Industrial buildings are visible in the background (0:08). A panorama of the smoky and slushy landscape reveals the Kapuskasing Inn (demolished in 2008), a water tower. A 1940s automobile approaches and passes (0:38). A military truck, apparently stuck in deep snow. The truck drives ahead freely. Men stand along the roadside (1:54). Continuous track heavy machinery. Tractors and excavators in a frosty field (2:24). A man mugs for the camera while lifting a wood…

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Details

Running time
27 minutes
Collection
Ephemeral Films

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