Man discovers historic Cold War bunker in his backyard
A homeowner in the US has come across an incredible discovery in the backyard of his house - a 1960’s fallout shelter.
The Reddit user known as captantarctica found the bunker after a previous owner alerted him to the possibility of its existence.
He “found the permit at city records that had a rough drawing” and then got to work with a metal detector.
He soon found what he was looking for – the hatch, upside down, to a concrete fallout shelter.
Beneath the hatch, were spiral steps leading down to an ‘open and dry’ main room.
Captantarctica believes the shelter was built in 1961 in the Cold War era and “probably filled in in the late 60s-mid 70s. Or right after the Cuban Missile Crisis was over”.
During the Cold War, Tucson was ringed by underground silos, each of which reportedly held one of the US Air Force’s intercontinental ballistic missiles withnuclear warheads,.
The city was, therefore, believed to be ‘high on the hit list’, as captantarctica puts it, and a number of fallout shelters - ’15-20’- were reportedly built in the area at that time.
Captantarctica is in the process of restoring his bunker to ‘its original glory’ and is seeking others who might have done the same.
But what to do with it then, he is unsure of. One user commented he should open a B&B, while another suggested tours of the underground shelter.
The user said he would keep users posted on the outcome.
