The Cold War has given birth to many stories and films and fiction. Some of those stories can be traced back to their origins, removing them from the fiction shelf. The Town of Shelburne in Nova Scotia is a town that has it all.
In 1941, they had a Naval Repair Base, in 1955, they got a Submarine Listening Station and since 2000 there was a Film Production Centre located on almost the same spot.
While the Naval Base was very active, once decommissioned in 1946, it became a School for Boys. I can only imagine what games they could have played on those premises.
Parking lot
After that, the Cold War started and the boys were evicted, the Naval Base was reactivated. This time not for repairs, but for listening to enemy submarines. Long cables with hydrophones were deployed and the listening began. If they were ever successful in locating any submarine, I have no idea. No information is available to the public about this.
The dream
The Cold War ended in 1989 and the base was again decommissioned in 1994. And it remained sitting there, doing… nothing. Then someone came up with the idea that such big buildings were ideal for film production and in 2000 things were set up. The Shelburne Film Production Centre was born.
A little overgrown
It didn’t last very long. In 2008 the facilities were sold for $5 million to another production company. In 2011, the buildings were sold again, this time for $125,000 to a marine construction company.
First view of the big hall
Visibly, this company hasn’t done much with any of the buildings and they stand all lonely on the bluff overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. As the lead picture of this posts indicates, one should not go there. Only if you are authorized can you escape unharmed.
A big hall
Fat chance 
. A friend and I went in during the summer months, we decided that any harm that would come to us would be our responsibility. Under those conditions we went in to see what this all looked like.
Shining bright like a diamond
Many structures were filled with broken glass, glass ready to jump up on us and cut us to pieces, if we were to believe the sign at the entrance. But no, the glass behaved well and left us alone.
Server room
We were not seasoned UrbEx explorers, we even didn’t take a flashlight with us. Our phones with their puny “flashlights” couldn’t even light up past a few meters in some buildings. I guess those buildings will be for a next time. The only way to see something was to point the camera with its own flash, shoot in the dark and hope to see something interesting. The above shot was such a picture. I’m happy we didn’t decide to go in there, we’d have broken some bones in the dark there, for sure.
Full of air
Then it was time to get back into the sunlight and fresh air. A different building offered a sight from the old base, a dome-like structure, typical military. The seaside of the building starts to fall apart, not a good place to wander around.
Office space
Also, the floors are not what they seem, they look like solid concrete, but in fact are more like 1980’s style server room floors. False floors, made up from tiles, allowing tons of cables to be laid underneath them. Those tiles are no longer trustworthy.
Liquid goo
All in all, an interesting place to visit, but come prepared. Lights and worthy footwear as well as cleaning gear in case you wander into a puddle of gooey, undefined liquid.
Until next time…