Humboldt Township Buys ELF Site

The Navy used the ELF site in Humboldt Township — an extremely low frequency communication post — to keep tabs on its submarines around the world.

The township has been trying to obtain the property since the Navy abandoned it nearly ten years ago.

Township ELF site manager Mark Heinlein says the ELF site was fully operational from 1989 to 2004, and the dismantling process began the following year.

This morning, township officials held a check presentation and a tour of the ELF site.

The township only had to pay the Navy $10.

U.S. Senator Carl Levin and former Congressman Bart Stupak led the effort in Washington to sell the ELF site to the township.

Levin says it’s great that the township has future uses for not only the buildings, but also the equipment that the Navy left behind.

Humboldt Township Supervisor Joe Derocha says one of those uses is a firefighting support center.

He says the township will share the sprinkler equipment and firefighting equipment with the Michigan DNR, Republic Township, the Champion-Humboldt Fire Department and Ishpeming Township as well.

Technology companies may also end up renting the elf site as a server farm.

Derocha says the ELF property has its own dedicated power supply line coming into it, supplied by UPPCO and American Transmission.

The state of Michigan also put in a claim for the ELF site years ago.

But in 2010, state officials decided they no longer wanted it and abandoned that claim.