Joking with his friend that the two of them should grab a shovel right then and there and dig it up, he was more than partly serious.
Mr. Sims recalls, “I got very interested and maybe about six to eight months after I moved in, I started doing some test digs to see if I could find something.”
Backyard Mystery
This story is about a Tucson, Arizona man, who bought a house that held a mystery buried in the backyard. At first, he did not know about the secret past of this particular property. But luckily, since he purchased the home from a friend, he soon learned of the intriguing background information.
As the sale went through, his friend informed him about the exciting possibility of something very interesting hidden in the yard.
With Ownership, He Became Privy to the Secret
John Sims received the morsel of information after signing the final paperwork for the house in 2015. His backyard quite possibly contained a historical relic.
With the news, Mr. Sims became very excited about the possibility and began looking into it immediately.
Mr. Sims Found Himself a New Project
Fallout shelters are a unique relic of American history. The construction of personal bunkers built at private expense really happened during the fifties and early sixties. Historians say that far from these individuals being considered kooks, they were viewed as responsible and reasonable citizens protecting the family.
When Mr. Sims friend informed him that the property possibly harbored one of these vestiges of the nation’s Cold War past, Mr. Sims was ecstatic. It was like a boyhood dream come true. A vintage bomb shelter in his own backyard!
The Search Begins
The previous owner was not certain the shelter existed because it was not visible. Mr. Sims set to the task of researching right away.
With a little work, he discovered the fallout shelter did, indeed, exist and that it had been installed in 1961. He was ready to start digging!