The site was first developed by the Naval Research Laboratory in the early 1960s as the site of a radio telescope that would gather intelligence on Soviet radar and radio signals reflected from the moon and would gather radioastronomical data on outer space, but the project was halted in 1962 before the telescope construction was completed. The site was then developed as a radio receiving station. The site was activated as "Naval Radio Station Sugar Grove" on May 10, 1969, and two WullenweberAN/FRD-10 Circulary Disposed Antenna Arrays were completed on November 8, 1969. Numerous other antennas, dishes, domes, and other facilities were constructed in the following years. Some of the more significant radio telescopes on site are a dish, a dish featuring a special waveguide receiver and a dish. The site was part of the ECHELON communications network operated by the United States and its allies to intercept and process electronic telecommunications. The network operates many sites around the world including Waihopai Valley in New Zealand, Menwith Hill in the United Kingdom and Yakima, Washington. Sugar Grove is located in an officially designated National Radio Quiet Zone that covers in West Virginia and Virginia. The zone was established by Congress in 1958 to facilitate its mission and that of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory located away at Green Bank in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. On July 26, 2016 it was reported that the online auction for Sugar Grove Naval Station concluded on July 25 with a winning bid of $11.2 Million. This transaction later failed and bidding was reopened that September. In 2017, the second auction resulted in a $4 million purchase by an Alabama-based investment group with plans to convert the base into a healthcare facility for active-duty military, veterans, and their families. The dispute regarding the ownership of Sugar Grove purchased by Dr. Mike Murdock and A. J. Congdon from US GSA is supported by cashier's checks and bank account remitted by the auction winners and the former Sugar Grove Station owners and verified by GSA records. Use of the property after the closing of the sale has not been authorized by owners of the 122+ acre property at Sugar Grove Road and Hedrick Drive, Brandywine, WV.
