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!
“I got very interested...”
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.”
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!
Preparing the Shovels
He could not wait for the digging to begin, but he took every precaution so as to minimize the damage to his backyard. Even so, he went out there with his shovel and made several test digs. It was over 100 degrees, but he set to the task anyway. His efforts were in vain, he did not find anything. But he did not give up hope.
As he prepared, he said, “I was really hoping it was going to be a little microcosm . . . a time capsule full of civil-defense boxes, radiation detectors and cots and stuff like that.” With such a find, he might be able to charge admission for curious museum buffs!
The Blueprints Provided a Lot of Helpful Information
After tracking down the blueprints of the property, he knew approximately where to dig, and he knew that a fallout shelter was definitely buried in his yard. City records confirmed that a “blast shelter” had been constructed by a pool company called Whitaker Pools.
Records showed that the shelter measures 12 feet in diameter and that it was circular. Things were getting very exciting. He learned that Whitaker Pools built quite a few bomb shelters in the Tucson area in the 1960s. “The Cuban Missile Crisis was a big push for them in that era,” Mr. Sims opined.