A bit of cave history - cold war fallout shelters

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Re: A bit of cave history - cold war fallout shelters

Postby Larry E. Matthews » Aug 19, 2010 9:04 pm

That is a great article by Joe Douglas. Well worth reading.

All back issues of the Journal of Spelean History are available from the History Section for a very nominal fee. They are great reading.

I don't think anybody was paid to do this. I think they just considered it their civic duty before those damn, pinko commies nuked us !!!

Of course, a quick death from an atomic blast might have been better than a slow, cold, hungry death in a muddy cave !!!

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Re: A bit of cave history - cold war fallout shelters

Postby Phil Winkler » Aug 20, 2010 7:09 am

I'll email this topic thread to Bill Varnedoe. He knows a lot about the topic.

Here is Bill's response:
Yes, the Civil Defense (CD) were active in identifying caves as fallout shelters, and in a few cases stocking them with supplies. We, the organized cavers, lobbied vigorously against using caves!!! We pointed out that caves did not protect against fallout, but in fact collected it and enhanced radioactivity. Vern Rechmeyer and Louise Varnedoe did several radioactive studies about caves and fallout. One cave that stocked supplies was Anvil Cave (AL 279). (They are all gone now.) Crossings cave (AL310) still had it's CD fallout shelter sign a few years ago. Government as always, paid no attention to experts, but went on its own merry way! I presented a paper on the unsuitability of caves at one convention.
However, we, the Huntsville Grotto, did talk the City of Huntsville into letting us enter, map and explore Big Spring Cave (AL 57) under the pretext of "is it suitable as a refuge." The cave runs under the county court house downtown. Entry is through a manhole in the middle of Green St. downtown. They had to partially close the street to traffic for us. It is a pit down to the stream level. I have pictures, one of which is in the book, Tales of Huntsville Caves. Surely the NSS Bookstore has copies. Of course, our conclusion in our formal report was absolutely not. As far as I remember none of us ever got paid; we were happy just to get entry permission.
-Bill
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Re: A bit of cave history - cold war fallout shelters

Postby Bruce Kirchner » Aug 20, 2010 9:24 am

Phil Winkler wrote:How about air raid drills? We would crouch under our desks and not look towards the windows to prevent being blinded by the atomic flash.


We never had the 'duck and cover' drills in our suburban Pittsburgh school. None of my neighbors had air-raid shelters, either. Must have been an east-coast thing. I remember going into the limestone mine near Elkins, WV c. 1968 and seeing the CD containers of water and crackers. Most of the stuff had been pilfered by locals by then.
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Re: A bit of cave history - cold war fallout shelters

Postby Phil Winkler » Aug 20, 2010 9:42 am

These drills were done in New Jersey schools in the early to mid 50s. I think I started school there in 1951 in kindergarten. By fifth grade I don't think we did them anymore or I don't remember them due to starting puberty. :big grin:

Also, at least in South Jersey most schools had basements and were designated as CD Fallout Shelters with the usual signage near the entrances. This is back in the 1950s of course.
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Re: A bit of cave history - cold war fallout shelters

Postby Teresa » Aug 20, 2010 7:09 pm

Phil Winkler wrote:These drills were done in New Jersey schools in the early to mid 50s. I think I started school there in 1951 in kindergarten. By fifth grade I don't think we did them anymore or I don't remember them due to starting puberty. :big grin:

Also, at least in South Jersey most schools had basements and were designated as CD Fallout Shelters with the usual signage near the entrances. This is back in the 1950s of course.


They continued through about 1970 in Missouri. I still have my 8th grade "first aid and emergency preparedness in case of nuclear attack" book, because it has a lot of advice on decontaminating food, checking for spoilage, what you need to stock a fallout shelter, and even wilderness-level medical care. Maybe not up to date, but better than relying on the Internet to function after a disaster, or the EMTs to rescue you.

Both Meramec Caverns and Onondaga Cave were CD Fallout Shelters, and Les Dill got a lot of free publicity thereby.
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Re: A bit of cave history - cold war fallout shelters

Postby Bruce Kirchner » Aug 22, 2010 5:35 pm

Phil Winkler wrote:Also, at least in South Jersey most schools had basements and were designated as CD Fallout Shelters with the usual signage near the entrances. This is back in the 1950s of course.

CD Fallout Shelters were seemingly everywhere in the Pittsburgh area, too. I never saw a private 'bomb shelter' built at someone's home until I moved to the Baltimore area. I guess nuclear paranoia ran a bit deeper here in the late '40s and early '50s! :yikes:
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Re: A bit of cave history - cold war fallout shelters

Postby Phil Winkler » Aug 22, 2010 6:06 pm

Up into the 60s Washington DC was ringed (not ringed, but all the eastern approaches) by Nike missile bases in New Jersey, Maryland and maybe Pennsylvania.
Certainly, Chestertown, MD and Swedesboro, NJ still show evidence of them.
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Re: A bit of cave history - cold war fallout shelters

Postby AMF » Aug 23, 2010 8:17 am

I believe Trout Cave used to have a fall-out shelter sign posted at the entrance... don't recall when it was taken down.

And about those lame air-raid drills they had you do, I use to have dreams of running thru the school hall being chased by a bomb!
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