This blog hosts information about "American Colossus: The Grain Elevator 1843 to 1943," written by William J. Brown and published by Colossal Books in February 2009. Buy a copy today!
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Safe as houses: the Fallout Shelter in Kansas
It is most unfortunate that I didn't know this when I was writing American Colossus, because it fits so well into my extended discussion of dwelling in/on grain elevators.
In the 1960s, a certain grain elevator in Hutchinson, Kansas -- then known as the Far-Mar-Co Grain Elevator and today recognized as the biggest grain elevator in the world -- was equipped by the U.S. Army to serve as a fallout shelter, indeed, the biggest fallout shelter in the country, capable of housing an incredible 8,720 people (an entire town!). The photos above were taken by the US Army and placed on-line by the Civil Defense Museum.
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