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 medoug
 
Location: Dubuque, IA area
Gender: Male
 |  | 4000 sq.ft. 1960's nuclear fallout shelter
< on 8/16/2011 1:13 AM >
|  | | | I had heard about a large nuclear fallout shelter that had been built in the 1960s that still existed. My father told me the property that it was on and said that long ago it was visible from the road. In May, I decided to see if I could find the entrance. Well the property is now government owned so I went to explore on the weekend when workers would be less likely to be present. I looked on the grounds for quite a while for something built into the hillside as my source had told me. I was striking out so I decided to go to the nearby town and see if I could find someone who could guide me in the right direction.
Once in town, I saw an old man (probably in his 80’s) walking from his mailbox and asked him if he lived there long. He told me that he had lived there for the last 60 years. I asked about the old fallout shelter and he knew exactly what I was talking about but was certain that it had been demolished a long time ago. I told him that someone said that it still existed. He went on and gave me a better description of the location and said that the road had been moved over the years so, if it was still there, it wouldn’t be near as visible.
I went back to the area and did some more looking. Sure enough, it was right where the old man said. In fact, they had actually built the parking lot on top of it. I thought the entrance would have been barricaded so I hadn’t bothered to bring a flashlight with me. I was quite surprised to find all of the doors either removed or propped open. There were lots of raccoon tracks in the mud at the beginning of the hallway. What kind of critters would I run into in this place! Coon, skunk, badger, bats? I cautiously entered the structure only to discover that the hallway wound back and forth. Soon it was pitch black. (I later deduced that this was to keep radiation out. Radiation, like light, can’t bend around corners.) I tried my best to illuminate my path with the autofocus LED on my camera. Once I couldn’t see the walls anymore, I snapped a couple of photos into the pitch black. I was quite alarmed that the first room was huge with other doorways leading to other rooms. I knew at that moment that I needed to return better prepared.
My sister and her family were coming for a visit over the 4th of July. I decided to wait until then so they could join me in the full exploration. Over the next month, I did some research by talking to locals that remembered the shelter and on the internet to learn more about this type of structure. Here’s some of what I found out about nuclear fallout shelters built around this time:
The cold war, which grew out of the development of the atomic bomb by communist Russian, and then later shared with Cuba, sparked an enormous fear in the American people. In the late 1950s and early 60s, people scrambled to protect themselves in the event that a nuclear missile could be launched to detonate on U.S. soil. The Department of Civil Defense rushed to designate, help construct, and stock shelters capable of protecting civilians from the nuclear fallout which could shower the areas of the country that might avoid a direct nuclear bomb hit. Such shelters would have to be inhabited for at least two straight weeks before it would be safe to venture outside for even short jaunts.
I also determined that very few shelters like this exist anymore. At the time, most nuclear fallout shelters were simply designated basement areas of existing public buildings. Others were incorporated into new construction of such public buildings. Some were specifically constructed by individuals as a radiation-shielded section of the basement of their private home. This bomb shelter is very unique in that it was constructed solely to protect a large group of people from the radioactive fallout that could result from a nuclear bomb. I found very few videos or current pictures of this type of shelter.
It was funny the reactions I got when I asked locals about it. Almost no one was aware that this structure existed. Most under 60 had never heard of it. Most over 60 knew it had existed, but had just assumed that it had be demolished long ago. Here’s the information I compiled from those that remembered it:
Like most shelters, this one was built of concrete and buried under 4 feet of dirt to protect from radiation. As I had mentioned, it is now located on government property. Originally the shelter was built by a man who owned a construction company. Part of the shelter had a painted interior and was constructed to house the family of the owner. The rest of the shelter was designated for civilian use. The civilian shelter was supposed to be rated for 200 people and was originally stocked with cots and supplies (including plenty of wine and whiskey) to survive inside. I was told that this structure would have been considered a "deluxe" bomb shelter as it was wired with electricity supplied by a generator and included a well and working plumbing. It had fans for ventilation, thick wooden doors, and decontamination showers. Several years after being built, the nuclear scare had settled down and most of the contents of the shelter had been removed.
OK. Here’s my photos and captions documenting our July exploration of the shelter. Both combined shelters measured about 4000 square feet overall. I hope you enjoy.
Here is the entrance to the civilian portion of the shelter (remember, no doors).
Here we are going in through the 2nd doorway. I like the bars on the door peephole.
After the second door, there’s a little room in the hallway. This is the decontamination shower.
Just before going through the third doorway, there is a large ventilation fan above this entrance. Here is a wide shot of the inside of the first room. This room is about 46’x15’. There is a sink and stove in here so it obviously was a kitchen. I suspect it would have been a community/dining area or converted to a barrack-style sleeping quarters if the rated occupancy was reached.
Here’s a shot of the ductwork. The air was split with one duct going to each of the large rooms to the side.
Here’s the toilet in the kitchen area.
Here’s a shot of one of the large side rooms. Again 46’x15’ and was probably barrack-style sleeping quarters. Also 2 toilets and sink laying on floor.
On the other side of the kitchen/dining area was a similar 46’x15’ sleeping quarters. Probably 1 for men and one for women. At the end of the 2nd sleeping quarters was a 10’x18’ storage room. Here’s a shot of an interesting barrel. It says: “Survival Supplies; Department of Civil Defense; To Fill:…; To Dispense:….; To ReUse as a Commode:….” Ewww!
Here’s one of the “seats” for the barrel.
By the way…. The floor was covered with about ½” deep water and muck. Some of it was decaying wood, some of it mud, some of it animal feces, and the remains of some that didn’t make it out.
Much of the water on the floor probably was from condensation that had built up and dripped from the ceiling.
Here’s a shot of the entrance to the “family” shelter.
This shelter had 4 doorways. Here’s a picture of one of the doors. It is 6” thick solid wood. Notice the wall hooks so it could be barred closed to keep others out.
Here is a wide shot of the first room in the family quarters. Measured 50’x14’. Again a kitchen area with sink, refrigerator, and stove…all vintage 1950-60. Like the paint colors on the walls?
Here’s the family throne.
This shows the smaller ventilation fans used for the family shelter. Everything in both shelters were wired with lights (mostly fluorescent to limit the load on the generator and fuel used).
Here is a heater in the corner.
I thought this was a funny shot with my nephew holding a machete as we check out the pot and eggbeater in the sink. He was a bit paranoid about running into critters and I guess he thought the knife would be quieter than a gun and wouldn’t ricochet.
Here’s some broken dishes, small bottles, and pots.
This is what’s left of I think a sofa.
Here’s a bed in the side room.
The side room 50’ x 15’ was divided by a wood wall making two rooms of 15’ x 15’ and 35’ x 15’. Here’s the decayed wood wall.
This is some of the explorers in the 35’x 15’ room with the entrance to the storage/equipment room on the far wall. We found some broken home canning jars on the floor of the storage room.
This is the electrical service in the 10’ x 18’ storage room. I think the generator would have been in here.
Here’s the capped off well. It looks like the well had also been used at the surface at one time based on the remaining plumbing.
I made a crude drawing of the shelter layout with approximate dimensions. I hope to re-draw it to scale and will post it here some time. I also returned to the shelter the following day with my brother-in-law who helped me film a walk through tour of both shelters. I hope to post them to youtube or someplace similar at some time. Although the insides of the shelters were “gross” (think like a cave), there’s no denying that it was very interesting and gave me a perspective of what that time in history must had been like. I hope you have enjoyed.
medoug.
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Smurf
 
Location: Salt Lake City / Saint Paul
Gender: Male
Sanitary sewers are smarter than the ghetto in spring time
| |  | Re: 4000 sq.ft. 1960's nuclear fallout shelter
<Reply # 1 on 8/16/2011 1:43 AM >
| | | | very cool. what state was this one in? I know there were a bunch of "Nike fallout protection" sites built in the 60s. looks like this is one of them. I might have to try an explore of the local fallout shelter here... only problem is the cops use it for a pistol range or something.
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Stevenashville
Location: Nashville, Tennessee
Gender: Male
| | Re: 4000 sq.ft. 1960's nuclear fallout shelter
<Reply # 2 on 8/16/2011 3:28 PM >
| | | | Awesome find, I love the background information you gathered.
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cr400
    
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Gender: Male
| | Re: 4000 sq.ft. 1960's nuclear fallout shelter
<Reply # 3 on 8/16/2011 5:41 PM >
| | | | Thanks, looks like it was a fun family explore. Nice work.
You can see a million miles tonite, but you can't get very far.
Honorary member of UER lifetime acheivement award winning, 2Xplorations and Guide Services, Texas. |
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Freak
 
Location: Usually Alaska, now MSP.
Gender: Male
Hypocrite
| |  | Re: 4000 sq.ft. 1960's nuclear fallout shelter
<Reply # 4 on 8/16/2011 8:46 PM >
| | | | Posted by Pickaxe
very cool. what state was this one in? I know there were a bunch of "Nike fallout protection" sites built in the 60s. looks like this is one of them. I might have to try an explore of the local fallout shelter here... only problem is the cops use it for a pistol range or something.
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You're probably thinking of the Nike missile sites. Back when the biggest threat was bombers instead of ICBMS, and AA missiles weren't too accurate, they came up with nuclear antiaircraft missiles. That way you just have to get the missile within a couple miles of the enemy plane 
http://en.wikipedi.../wiki/Project_Nike
Turn off the internet and go play outside.
http://spamusement...hp/comics/view/137 |
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medoug
Location: Dubuque, IA area
Gender: Male
| | Re: 4000 sq.ft. 1960's nuclear fallout shelter
<Reply # 5 on 8/16/2011 10:22 PM >
| | | | Posted by Pickaxe
very cool. what state was this one in? |
Without giving away too much information, let's just say that it was within a 110 mile radius of Dubuque, IA. I know that includes parts of Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin but still is an area much smaller than most single states.
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medoug
Location: Dubuque, IA area
Gender: Male
| | Re: 4000 sq.ft. 1960's nuclear fallout shelter
<Reply # 6 on 8/16/2011 10:34 PM >
| | | | Posted by cr400
Thanks, looks like it was a fun family explore. Nice work.
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The group included family members from all 3 of my siblings. Brother, brother-in-laws, and several nephews. Fun was had by all. 
Some of them were disappointed with the shelter though. Maybe I hyped it up too much beforehand. I'm not sure what they were expecting. I showed them my early photos from May which clearly indicate that the place would be pretty disgusting inside and told them that I had found out that most of the furniture and supplies had long been removed.
I wasn't disappointed one bit. Maybe I'm just more into urban exploring or more interested in history.
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medoug
Location: Dubuque, IA area
Gender: Male
| | Re: 4000 sq.ft. 1960's nuclear fallout shelter
<Reply # 7 on 8/16/2011 10:39 PM >
| | | | Does anyone know of other dedicated fallout shelters posted in the uer forums or archives? I did some searches and only found a few building basements which had been designated as shelters. Perhaps there's some in the DB that aren't mentioned in the forums. (I'm not a full member yet.)
Thanks,
medoug.
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Therrin
This member has been banned. See the banlist for more information.
Location: North of Chicago, IL
Gender: Male
*Therrin puts on the penguin-suit
| |  | Re: 4000 sq.ft. 1960's nuclear fallout shelter
<Reply # 8 on 8/16/2011 10:44 PM >
| | | | Hey great man! Loved reading through this and seeing the pictures.
I've been studying/researching fallout shelters for well over a decade now. It's always interesting to see new ones, see how they laid things out and their design characteristics.
Thanks for posting!
Give a person a match and they'll be warm for a minute, but light them on fire and they'll be warm for the rest of their life. =) |
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medoug
Location: Dubuque, IA area
Gender: Male
| | Re: 4000 sq.ft. 1960's nuclear fallout shelter
<Reply # 9 on 8/16/2011 10:51 PM >
| | | | Posted by Therrin
Hey great man! Loved reading through this and seeing the pictures.
I've been studying/researching fallout shelters for well over a decade now. It's always interesting to see new ones, see how they laid things out and their design characteristics.
Thanks for posting!
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Great! I'm glad to see there's other fans of shelters out there. As I mentioned in my post, this is a new thing for me and I'm quickly learning a lot about these structures and this interesting time in history.
Also as mentioned, when I get around to it, I plan to post a scaled floorplan of the shelter. Hopefully that'll give you a better idea of how things were laid out.
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Smurf
Location: Salt Lake City / Saint Paul
Gender: Male
Sanitary sewers are smarter than the ghetto in spring time
| | | Re: 4000 sq.ft. 1960's nuclear fallout shelter
<Reply # 10 on 8/16/2011 11:38 PM >
| | | | Posted by Freak
You're probably thinking of the Nike missile sites.
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There were Nike fallout shelters too, built close to the missile sites.
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Therrin
This member has been banned. See the banlist for more information.
Location: North of Chicago, IL
Gender: Male
*Therrin puts on the penguin-suit
| | | Re: 4000 sq.ft. 1960's nuclear fallout shelter
<Reply # 11 on 8/16/2011 11:48 PM >
| | | | 21stcentury castles (or whatever its called now) has listings on commo bunkers and silos and other nuclear hardened underground facilities in various places. I've enjoyed looking at their listings over the years and dreaming of purchasing one to live in.
Anyone who knows of or has met me would totally picture me living underground in a heartbeat =) Even though I'd be bumping my damn head on everything.
No doubt the military had set up some locations around Nike sites which used nuclear tipped warheads. Though I *think* that the ones that went nuclear were no longer Nike; had actually graduated to Hercules at that point? But I could totally be wrong on that point.
In any case, most civilians wouldn't be made aware (at the time) that nukes were or weren't being used in those locations. So any fallout structures built because of the threat of having nukes in the area would likely be military built and operated structures, not civilian specifically.
It's amazing how many people put in their own shelters though. Hundreds of thousands. They're all over the place. I was working at a client's house one day and saw a large steel door set in the ground, asked them about it. They said "oh my daddy put that in back during the cold war, it's a fallout shelter" I got all excited and I was like "can I see it??" So he went over and opened the latch and pulled up the door. I stared down into a bunch of muck, and a nasty smell arose. "We use it for our septic tank now!" he said, beaming with pride. I wanted to slap the shit outta him but decided not to.
Give a person a match and they'll be warm for a minute, but light them on fire and they'll be warm for the rest of their life. =) |
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medoug
Location: Dubuque, IA area
Gender: Male
| | Re: 4000 sq.ft. 1960's nuclear fallout shelter
<Reply # 12 on 8/16/2011 11:58 PM >
| | | | Several years ago when I was house hunting, I encountered some houses with odd root/fruit cellars in them. My realtor told me that those "rooms" were originally constructed to be bomb shelters. Sure enough, those houses had been built in the late 50's or early 60's.
BTW... This fallout shelter only had a musty smell (like a damp basement) since it hadn't been made into a septic tank and had no recently-dead critters in it.
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Therrin
This member has been banned. See the banlist for more information.
Location: North of Chicago, IL
Gender: Male
*Therrin puts on the penguin-suit
| | | Re: 4000 sq.ft. 1960's nuclear fallout shelter
<Reply # 13 on 8/17/2011 12:03 AM >
| | | | I can't tell you how pissed I was at the cheerful guy when he showed me his nuclear-hardened poo-stash. Seemed like such a waste.
(oh yeah, did it again didn't I?)
If you're interested you can PM me, I've got lots of manuals that have been converted to pdf on the topic of fallout shelters and dosimetry and such.
Give a person a match and they'll be warm for a minute, but light them on fire and they'll be warm for the rest of their life. =) |
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/-/ooligan
 
Location: Las Vegas area
Gender: Male
When in danger, when in doubt, RUN IN CIRCLES, SCREAM AND SHOUT!
| | Re: 4000 sq.ft. 1960's nuclear fallout shelter
<Reply # 14 on 8/17/2011 12:28 AM >
| | | | Posted by medoug
I cautiously entered the structure only to discover that the hallway wound back and forth. Soon it was pitch black. (I later deduced that this was to keep radiation out. Radiation, like light, can’t bend around corners.)
medoug.
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Cool find!
If you check the local newspaper 'morgue,' you might find that at some point in time there was a newspaper article about the site.
Th reason that entry vestibules or hallways have at least one sharp-turn before you get to the living area is in order to have a solid wall absorb/deflect/channel away any blast effects (overpressure & dynamic force shock waves) from a nearby (nuclear) explosion.
Sounds like you've done some decent research into the place, and of course there are details you're leaving out to protect the location, etc. However from my own experience with researching places by talking to local old-timers, etc. the information obtained isn't always that accurate.
In the case of your bunker, the interior ceilings are unusually high for some reason. Also, it'd be kinda stupid to have allow large quantities of alcohol inside a 'bomb-shelter' type facility that could have dozens of people in it, for obvious reasons.
It's also interesting that you say the land was once private property, but is now government-owned.
With such a large bunker -- but I'm guessing not large enough to support ALL of the local inhabitants in the community, I'm wondering if it was built in conjunction with some nearby factory or ?? & planned to house just the workers & their immediate families.
I understand your desire to protect the location of the place, but that means we are all relying on you to contact the local newspaper, library, town/county history organization, tax assessor's office, etc. & come up with primary-source information about the facility in addition to the hazy recollections of some of the locals.
/-/oolie
There are no stupid questions, just stupid people. |
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/-/ooligan
Location: Las Vegas area
Gender: Male
When in danger, when in doubt, RUN IN CIRCLES, SCREAM AND SHOUT!
| | Re: 4000 sq.ft. 1960's nuclear fallout shelter
<Reply # 15 on 8/17/2011 12:30 AM >
| | | | Posted by Pickaxe
There were Nike fallout shelters too, built close to the missile sites.
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They were small facilities, built ON the grounds of *some* of the Nike sites.
/-/ooligan
There are no stupid questions, just stupid people. |
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Therrin
This member has been banned. See the banlist for more information.
Location: North of Chicago, IL
Gender: Male
*Therrin puts on the penguin-suit
| | | Re: 4000 sq.ft. 1960's nuclear fallout shelter
<Reply # 16 on 8/17/2011 1:01 AM >
| | | | Actually Hooly, not all 'fallout shelters' are 'blast shelters'.
The ones designed to need to withstand blast overpressures are radically different in design than those which are merely to protect against radioactive fallout. The S-curve entryway is very indicative of the need to put barrier material to shield incoming fallout and to provide a pre-wash area, to keep the resulting entry debris and washed particles out of the shelter-main itself. What was mentioned about light is very much true. Even the current theories on fallout protection use that as a basic guideline. Anywhere you can see light is usually an area where radiation penetration into the structure will be greater as there is less material in the way to shield from it.
A 5 Megaton burst elevated to an altitude which would maximize the reach of blast damage, will still only have moderate blast damage at 7 to 11 miles distance, with typical blast overpressures only reaching 1 to 5psi of pressure. Anything within 3 miles sustains decent pressures of 5 to 125psi, but the thermal radiation by far does more massive damage at that range.
Similarly a 20MT airburst would have heavy thermal damage and around 12psi out to 7 miles, and drops from 1.5psi to 0 from 11 miles out to 15 miles.
Fallout bunkers which were not fitted with blast baffles around both doors and ventilation systems, and were not of sufficient structure (typically almost wholly underground) aren't rated as true "blast shelters" and are thus only really "fallout shelters", to protect against the effects of radioactive fallout, and not necessarily the actual blast effect.
One of the easier ways to tell which major bunker structures were blast rated is visual inspection of their construction, but also their direct location. Locations situated 20 miles or more from an area which was most likely to sustain a direct hit were often not built to the "blast" category need; and were often sheltered in the opposing side of small hills to negate any residual blast effects.
Anything over 12 psi pretty much causes total destruction, while anything that takes 1 to 5 psi is only relatively lightly damaged or undamaged. So when you look at the warheads they were protecting against, and you range it properly for the largest weapon, you can easily see where blast protection is really unecessary. (except of course when the Russian-made components drop it in the middle of a damn corn field). Blast proofing is considerably more expensive than creating a "fallout shelter".
That the one "family side" had four separate doors also doesn't seem to strike me as very "blast" protective. And that 6" thick "wood" door is a joke to blast overpressures, as well all the ventilation fans would be blown out.
I'd love to see some hard data on the place as well though =)
Give a person a match and they'll be warm for a minute, but light them on fire and they'll be warm for the rest of their life. =) |
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Therrin
This member has been banned. See the banlist for more information.
Location: North of Chicago, IL
Gender: Male
*Therrin puts on the penguin-suit
| | | Re: 4000 sq.ft. 1960's nuclear fallout shelter
<Reply # 17 on 8/17/2011 1:04 AM >
| | | | Posted by /-/ooligan
They were small facilities, built ON the grounds of *some* of the Nike sites.
/-/ooligan
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Stand to reason that if you think you might have to launch a nuke-tipped rocket, locally, you might want somewhere to hide it out while the fallout is raining down afterwards, huh? =)
Give a person a match and they'll be warm for a minute, but light them on fire and they'll be warm for the rest of their life. =) |
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Smurf
Location: Salt Lake City / Saint Paul
Gender: Male
Sanitary sewers are smarter than the ghetto in spring time
| | | Re: 4000 sq.ft. 1960's nuclear fallout shelter
<Reply # 18 on 8/17/2011 2:08 AM >
| | | | Posted by /-/ooligan
They were small facilities, built ON the grounds of *some* of the Nike sites.
/-/ooligan
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this is what I meant by close by.
"
Nike Site MS-40
The NIKE missile site was built in 1959. It was one of four bases constructed during the "Cold War" era to defend the Twin Cities from possible enemy aircraft attacks. A communications facility associated with the missile site is located about one mile northwest of the site. . "
The communication site has a fallout shelter thats about 2400 sq ft.
[last edit 8/17/2011 2:09 AM by Smurf - edited 1 times]
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itcallsmyname
| | Re: 4000 sq.ft. 1960's nuclear fallout shelter
<Reply # 19 on 8/17/2011 2:44 AM >
| | | | Fuck me! I thought this was one of the best sites i've seen and I really love the ancient cites but this "in my lifetime" obscure deals is a real treat and the fact that it wasn't presented as "I found this weird door" made the deal primo.
Thanks!
Paul
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