CREL Coming

THE Military Construction Appropriation Bill signed by President Eisenhower last month contained the sum of $3,225,000 for a Cold Regions Engineering Laboratory to be established in Hanover. Although not officially connected with Dartmouth College in any way, this laboratory under the Army Corps of Engineers will be built on a Lyme Road site donated by the College and will have a most important influence on the College's own program of northern studies.

CREL, as it is already known in Hanover, will be the headquarters for all the arctic research being conducted by the armed services. The two main operations to be consolidated in Hanover are the present Snow, Ice and Permafrost Research Establishment, located in Wilmette, Ill., and the Arctic Construction and Frost Effects Laboratory, located in Waltham, Mass. Field stations are now located at Point Barrow, Fairbanks and Big Delta in Alaska, Fort Churchill in Canada and Thule in Greenland; and stations such as these will operate under the Hanover headquarters.

The size of the CRJEL staff, with its impact on the community, has been a subject of keen interest in Hanover. A news story out of Washington last year estimated that the research establishment would be manned by four officers, four enlisted men, and 217 civilians, but there has been no confirmation of these figures. The civilian group will include a large number of research scientists.

The Army Corps of Engineers chose Hanover for CREL's location four years ago after a survey of possible sites all over the country. Aside from northern location, winter conditions, and the proximity of Mt. Washington, where the Army engineers have built a laboratory for testing equipment under arctic conditions, the pioneering work of Dartmouth College in northern studies, the existence in Baker Library of the world-famous Stefansson Collection on polar life, and other research advantages of the College community were also factors in the choice of Hanover.