Cranberry Portage is an unincorporated community recognized as a local urban district[1] located in the Rural Municipality of Kelsey, Manitoba.

[5] In 1774, the explorer Samuel Hearne paddled up the Grass River to Cranberry Portage and into Lake Athapapuskow en route to establishing Cumberland House.

[8] In the early 20th century, rich gold, copper, and zinc deposits were discovered nearby in what would soon become the area of Flin Flon, Manitoba.

Mining development in the area fueled a great deal of local infrastructure development, beginning with the extension of the rail line and Highway 10 from The Pas, Manitoba to Flin Flon, both of which passed through Cranberry Portage, a requirement of having large lakes lying north and south of the traditional portage.

[9] Following the conclusion of World War II, the Department of National Defence took a decided interest in the location of Cranberry Portage.

With the recent memory of the German V-2 Rocket program, the development of the Russian Nuclear Missile Program, and the subsequent development of the DEW Line (Distant Early Warning System) in the high Arctic in the late 1950s/early 1960s, the Department of National Defence felt it prudent to also construct secondary back-up radar stations further south.