This past Wednesday was a big day for our exhibition. The local news stations came to stories, and since then the story has gone national! How exciting that the exhibit is starting to pick up that kind of attention. I had my first appearance on television as well. It is amazing how USA Today, Huffington Post, and many other media outlets have picked up the story of the shelter.
The final touches are being made for the opening day of the exhibition. Some of the panels are already up, and more are going up today. The replica shelter is stocked and ready for visitors. As one of the exhibition content creators, believe me when I say that the items they found down there are stunning. Handling some of the shelter relics, like the CD survey meter, was a field day for this young historian.
We created a replica shelter for our exhibit to give people an idea of the space. I actually had the opportunity to climb down 11′ and walk inside the dank shelter. When I ventured in, the shelter was filled with 14″ of water. There is still some debris down there in the corridor leading to the shelter space. As you enter the shelter there is a vault door with a bolting mechanism. You then enter the 8′ x 10′ shelter space where remnants of the bunk beds are still anchored to the wall. There are metal shelving units still standing in place. All of these are very rusted over from sitting in feet of water for decades. A metal pipe runs out of the shelter and up along the side of the house. At one time there would have been a hand-cranked blower to pull in fresh air from outside. Here are some pictures of the shelter hatch right before I went down. I will be posting pictures and a video later of my experience in the shelter.
Austin M. Frederick 
The Civil Defense device in your photo isn’t a Geiger Counter, it’s actually a Survey Meter used for measuring High Range Beta, Gamma, & X-Ray Radiation, unless you have a significant source, the needle will remain static.
As far as an applicable device for measuring any radiation sources, it needs to be calibrated properly, but as a museum piece it is in really good condition and should be a very good focal piece.
THAT’S PRETTY COOL ODIE – I WENT TO SCHOOL WITH A GIRL THAT HER DAD BUILT A BOMB SHELTER RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THEIR FRONT YARD – IT WAS ABOUT 5 FEET ABOVE GROUND 4 FEET WIDE AND ABOUT 6 FEET LONG . THEY HAD A METAL DOOR WITH A LOCK ON IT AND I’AM NOT SURE HOW DEEP IT WAS . THEY HID IT BY PLANTING BUSHES AROUND IT AND A COUPLE OF PALM TREES AROUND IT AND SOME WHITE ROCK’S . EVERYONE THOUGHT THEY WERE CRAZY NOT FOR BUILDING IT – BUT FOR BUILDING IT IN THE FRONT YARD . THIS WAS AROUND THE TIME OF THE CUBAN MISSLE CRISIS . MY DAD WORKED FOR AEROJET WORKING ON MINETMAN MISSLES – REDSTONE ROCKETS – AND THE APOLLO SPACE CAPSAL . KEEP ME POSTED – Jim ;- ) Date: Fri, 3 May 2013 20:40:09 +0000 To: airpayne1@hotmail.com
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