Bre a k i ng n e ws at n el s on st ar. c om
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Friday, August 16 • 2013
Vol. 6 • Issue 14
Putting the wraps on Shambhala See Page 4 & 5
Welcoming Japanese students to Nelson See Page 13
Inside Nelson’s
DIEFENBUNKER
280 Baker Street Nelson BC (250)
354-4089
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During the early days of the Cold War it seemed like the world might end with the push of a button. Even in the remote rural British Columbia mountains, the threat of atomic annihilation was taken seriously and a bomb-proof underground bunker built in downtown Nelson to protect community leaders. Few have seen it — until now
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S
ome 50-odd years after it was built, a Cold War-era bunker in the basement of the Gray Building opened to the public for the first time Saturday as part of a Touchstones Nelson fundraiser. The large, well-lit space was intended as a fallout shelter where officials could hunker down in case of atomic war or other crisis, but never used. It was one of more than 50 so-called Diefenbunkers across Canada, nicknamed after Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, who authorized their construction. Nelson’s was called a zonal emergency government headquarters, one of five in BC built in the basements of existing buildings. (There’s some debate whether the latter can be called Diefenbunkers. While commonly referred to that way, they were under the auspices of local civil defence committees, not the federal government.) One person guaranteed a spot in the bunker in an emergency was Alan Ramsden, then manager of the local radio station, who was expected to broadcast information to
HIPPERSON HARDWARE 395 Baker Street 250.352.5517
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Story and photos by Greg Nesteroff
ABOVE: The bunker in the basement of the Gray Building is surprisingly large and well-lit. LEFT: Touchstones supplemented the space with several exhibits, including this mannequin.
the public. He saw the facility once shortly after it was built, but has never been back. “There was a preliminary tour for a few of us who were going to be assigned to go there,” he says. “There would be the mayor, of course, and the government agent. But nobody’s family, so a lot of us might have refused.” As the next closest bunker was in Kamloops, officials from Trail and other Kootenay centres would have also stayed there, Ramsden says. He figures it could have accommodated about 20 people for at least a month. But he was sworn to secrecy about its Story continues to ‘Bare bones’ on Page 14
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