Group Post September 18th:

Elsie, Dani D, Dani G, Meredith

What happens to bomb shelters when a threat is no longer active? How do people cope with an immediate threat going away?

http://www.history.nd.gov/historicsites/minutemanmissile/index.html

This government website explores the Ronald Reagan Minuteman Missile Site in North Dakota. The Oscar-Zero Missile Alert Facility and the November-33 Launch Facility were created during the Cold War and contained missile launch bases as well as shelter; however, is now an educational tourist attraction. This attraction is a way of coping with the reality of the Cold War fear and anxiety that led these missile launch bases and fallout shelters to be created. The site emphasizes that everything is “exactly as it (was) during its existence as an active launch facility”. This shows fascination with people seeing how these things existed during that time. Since the Cold War was so recent, there are people are alive who can remember that fear and seeing a place that was intended for keeping Americans safe could be of comfort.

https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2013/10/overnight-in-an-east-german-bunker/100615/

Built in the 1970s outside the German city of Ilmenau an abandoned Bunker in East Germany can still be toured, and even slept in. For $150 one can stay overnight and “visitors can participate in a “reality experience” in which they wear National People’s Army (NVA) uniforms and are treated as East German soldiers for a night.” This experience taps into someone’s curiosity on the experience of German soldiers. Called a Bunker Museum, it also teaches about the importance and function of these bunkers as a way to take the abandoned space and turn it into something educational.