Der Diefenbunker!

The Diefenbunker is one of several Emergency Government Headquarters, or nuclear fallout bunkers, built by the Government of Canada at the height of the Cold War in the early 1960's.  The Diefenbunker is the largest one of these.  It was built to hold the key members of Canada's Federal Government.  Known as Canadian Forces Station Carp (or CFS Carp), it is located in the rural farming community of Carp, Ontario, approximately 19 miles west of Ottawa.

John Diefenbaker --

-- was Prime Minister at the time the bunkers were created, and the political opposition immediately dubbed them "Diefenbunkers."  Much as with Obamacare, the name stuck and is now the popularly recognized name of this facility.  Sadly, Prime Minister Diefenbaker, who was extremely popular with average Canadians, was primarily responsible for such human rights developments as the granting of the right to vote to First Nations peoples, and the adoption of the Canadian Bill of Rights, may be most immediately remembered for authorizing these bunker facilities, which were extremely controversial and which brought him much negative press.

The Diefenbunker required 32,000 tonnes of concrete and 5,000 tons of steel to construct.  It was designed to withstanding a nuclear blast up to 5 megatons from 1.1 mile away. It had massive blast doors at the surface, as well as extensive air filters to prevent radiation infiltration.  Underground storage was built for food, fuel, fresh water, and other supplies. The bunker was built to accommodate 565 people for up to one month without receiving additional supplies from the outside. It included an emergency broadcast studio for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and a vault on the lowest level to hold the gold reserves of the Bank of Canada.

Construction began in 1959 in an abandoned gravel pit and was completed by 1962.  While it was never actually used, plans to move government officials to it were activated during the Cuban Missle Crisis.  The site was owned and operated by the Government of Canada, Department of National Defense until 1994, when it was decommissioned following the reduction in the ICBM threat and the formal joint announcement by then-President George H.W. Bush and Soviet President Gorbachev of the formal end of the Cold War. After the local municipality took control of the facility in 1994, the community took a great interest in the bunker, requesting access to public tours of the facility. The local municipality took control of the facility and a group of local volunteers, recognizing the heritage and tourism value of the Carp Diefenbunker, undertook to open the facility as a cold war museum and conduct public tours. In 1998, it was reopened as a museum and designated a National Historic Site of Canada. Currently, the facility operates as a museum and is open year round for tours.

Here is a photo of the unassuming entrance to the facility, which the public enters through the small double doors on the lower front right corner:

The two large cone-shaped objects are air raid sirens designed to help warn the Canadian public at large of an impending air attack.

The bunker facility, over 100,000 square feet, contains four stories:

Many areas of the bunker have been restored to their original operational condition and are open to the public. The rest of the 358 rooms have been converted to exhibits of the Cold War era.

As we entered the small door at the front of the shed, we saw a large introductory sign, displays about atomic bombs, and a huge corridor leading to the main entrance of the facility:

Here is how the blast tunnel looked as we walked in to the entrance:

Most of the rooms in the facility contained the original furnishings and equipment that stocked the facility.  As one would enter the original bunker during its operation, the person would be required to pass through the radiation detection and detox area.  If someone was carrying too much radiation, they would have to strip, shower and be issued special clothing to protect others in the facility.

If someone fell victim to radiation poisoning, or if anyone in the facility became sick or was injured, there was a state-of-the art medical center, including the following operating room:

Many technical areas remain much as they were.  Here is the Message Control Room --

-- and here the Emergency Radio Room:

On the lowest level, we got to tour the original vault in which would be stored the gold stocks of the Bank of Canada.  This was necessary because, during the Cold War, Canada was still on the Gold Standard and needed to maintain the basis of its currency:

The bank vault stood alone, with four combinations from four different people required in order to gain admittance to it.  On the outside, mirrors were built at each of the four corners of the vault, in the hallway surrounding the vault, so that the bank guards could, with a glance, see everything that occupied the hallway around the vault:



Today, the interior of the vault displays art relating to the Cold War and nuclear holocaust:
 

On the second level below the main entrance lay some of the most sensitive areas of the facility, including the Federal Warning Center, which reminded us of NASA's Mission Control from the era of the 1960's.  This room has since been modified for use as a meeting/education room:

However, the War Cabinet Room is furnished much as it was.  You can imagine the key Federal Government leaders sitting around this table, making the difficult decisions that would be inevitable in the case of a major military disaster:

More graphic yet was the Emergency Government Information Center, which displayed actual maps showing air defenses and vulnerabilities, and listed the initial procedures that would be required in the event an emergency were declared:

The Prime Minister him/herself would live and work in a suite right in this part of the facility.  Here is a view of the PM's office and living quarters:

As with everyone staffing the facility, the Prime Minister would be required, in the event of an emergency requiring evacuation to the bunker, to leave his/her spouse, children and family behind, knowing full well that they would not survive a nuclear attack.  It was rumored that Prime Minister Diefenbaker had informed his chiefs of staff that he would not enter the bunker without his wife.  One wonders what would have happened when - confronted with an absolute limit on occupancy and the crisis in leadership that would arise if the PM himself violated this most stringent of rules - the military guards were instructed to bar the Prime Minister from entering except if he entered alone.  There would be, in effect, an immediate resignation and decision making would devolve to other officials.  Not the best start for a government in crisis.

The tour was sobering.  It was made more meaningful by an audio guide on iPhones, which we could play on our own timing as we walked at our own pace through the facility.  We think that the only other tour we took that was as dramatic and informative as this was our tour of Alcatraz in San Francisco.

After the tour, we drove over to Alice's Village Cafe in the village of Carp, not far from the bunker museum:

The museum docent recommended it for its delicious sandwiches, and she was right.  We shared a great spinach panini and carrot-ginger soup.  By this time, it was raining pretty hard outside, and you can see from the photo below that we were happy we were warm and dry inside the restaurant:

Our tummies and brains thus filled, we drove back to the RV campground, eager to kick up our cold feet in warm mukluks in front of the fireplace and catch up on blogging, e-mails, news, etc.