Someone spotted a Cold War-era fallout shelter sign in Muskegon, and suddenly people all over Michigan started sharing where they’d seen them, too.
After the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945, the Federal and local governments were thinking a lot about how to survive a nuclear attack. The 1950s and 60s were full of nuclear war drills and the construction of many fallout shelters. That’s why the Federal Civil Defense Administration was created.
“The Federal Civil Defense Administration (FCDA) was established as an independent agency by an Act of January 12, 1951 (64 Stat. 1245). The functions of FCDA were to administer the national civil defense program and to coordinate military, industrial, and civilian mobilization. ”
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Part of that coordination was educating the public with campaigns, classroom drills, and so on. As if hiding under a desk would somehow protect you. It seems silly now, but a big part of that campaign was pushing for fallout shelters. In fact, if you find yourself buying a home built in the 50s, you might want to check the backyard, as homemade fallout shelters were also very common back then. Thank goodness we never needed them. You can read more about the history of fallout shelters in America here.
Keep your eyes open, because these signs have been spotted all over Michigan.
Russ S. recently posted a picture in the Facebook group Abandoned, Old and Interesting Places in Michigan of one of these signs he happened to stumble upon in Muskegon. Commenters quickly validated that what he was seeing was real and, apparently, common…