ALERT, Nunavut - At the end of his 16-hour days setting up a Cold War listening post at the very tip of northern Canada, Darryl Catton would walk along the untouched coast of Ellesmere Island with a midnight sun shining overhead.

Catton was an 18-year-old member of an air force construction unit when, in 1957, he was sent to the remote weather station at Alert to convert it into a military facility for spying on the Soviet Union.

Perched near the top of the world at the 82nd parallel in what is now Nunavut, the sun never sets in Alert at the height of summer, lighting up a desolate, rocky landscape backdropped by the mountains of nearby islands.

"It was quite an experience to walk away from the base, where it was total isolation and there wasn't a sound,'' Catton said from his home in White Rock, B.C.

"It was something like a religious experience to be standing on ground that maybe nobody has ever stood on before. It was really a serene thing.''

A half-century later, at a time of year when there's 24 hours of darkness, the Olympic torch was to visit the same isolated spot in the high arctic on Sunday as part of the relay for the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, highlighting a little-known piece of Canada that is becoming increasingly important.

Canadian Forces Station Alert, the northernmost permanently inhabited place in the world located about 800 kilometres from the North Pole, was first established as a weather station in 1950.

But as Cold War tensions escalated, the Canadian military took over Alert and turned it into a secret facility to spy on Russian communication signals.

Officially, Catton was told he was simply building up the weather station, but he knew better.

"We also put up a building that was full of radio equipment,'' said Catton. "We used to go into the building and twiddle the knobs and listen, and we'd pick up all these messages.''

Today, Alert still gathers intelligence by monitoring communications signals, as well as collecting weather data and assisting in search-and-rescue missions in the North.

It also serves as a staging ground for the Canadian Rangers, a reserve force largely made up of aboriginals from the North, and for arctic sovereignty missions.

About 55 people - a mix of Canadian Forces members, commercial contractors and Environment Canada employees - are currently stationed in Alert, typically on six-month rotations.

That's down from the more than 200 that were posted until the late 1990s, when technology allowed the military to move much of the work off-site.

The dozens of people stationed in Alert have more contact with the outside world than they would have had in the facility's early days, with relatively easy access to telephone, Internet and television.

There is a large cafeteria and a bar, and lounges and rec rooms are sprinkled throughout the station, with nightly activities such as poker, bingo and even bowling.

"During the rest of the time (when they're not working), people have to find ways to spend time otherwise they'll go crazy,'' Maj. Sylvain Giguere, 44, who will finish his six-month stint in Alert next month, said in a recent interview.

In the summer, when much of the snow actually melts and temperatures can climb to 15 degrees, Giguere says staff stage treks to explore Ellesmere Island.

While there are things that take some getting used to - the isolation, the 24 hours of daylight in the summer and darkness in the winter, the harsh arctic weather - Giguere says Alert is a jewel that he hopes the Olympic torch relay will draw Canadians' attention to.

"Alert is a special place,'' said Giguere. "Often, what's happening to the south is foreign to us, but in this case, we're really part of what's happening throughout the country.''

On Sunday evening, 20 members of CFS Alert who have dubbed themselves "The Frozen Chosen'' prepared to run with the flame into the arctic night.

The torch's visit to Alert likely won't be the last Canadians hear about the facility as the federal government pushes arctic sovereignty.

Rob Huebert, of the University of Calgary's Centre for Strategic Studies, said the military station still has an important intelligence role, and he predicts activity there will increase as Canada asserts its sovereignty claims over arctic territory to the north of Alert.

"If you use it for patrolling and asserting control over the maritime zones that are in dispute, then it becomes very important,'' he said.

However, Huebert said just having Alert isn't enough - the federal government also needs to follow through on its commitments to increase its activities in the arctic.

"You want to make sure that you are knowing who's in your disputed zone and that you're able to respond accordingly,'' he said.

"Having a listening post and the infrastructure of Alert allows you to do both, if you are willing to actually take that step.''