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Some Butte buildings house Cold War era shelters

Posted: Feb 25, 2013 5:34 PM by Katy Harris KXLF News
Updated: Feb 26, 2013 10:05 AM

BUTTE - Several fallout shelters were formed in the basements of Butte buildings during the 1960's.

Butte resident Pat Holland says he remembers the practice air raid sirens around that time, drills which were used to alert the Butte community of danger during the Cold War.

Because of that, several fallout shelters were formed in the basements of major buildings in Butte.

Holland is now the Government Buildings manager and knows where one of these shelters is located, underneath the courthouse. It's currently closed off from access.

"The bomb shelter itself was located in this area of the tunnel, between the boiler rooms and there were rooms...that were all stocked with rations and things that you could survive on for a period of time," Holland explained.

The shelters were decommissioned and disbanded in 1991. All of the supplies at that time, including foods like lemon drops were removed from the shelter.

Butte Silver Bow employees think that the food and the resources inside that fallout shelter were taken to a warehouse on Granite and Arizona streets.

The fallout shelters may be a thing of the past, but there are still signs posted around Butte.

"A lot of the buildings around Butte at this time still have those fallout shelter signs on them and again they were designed for if something did happen you could go there for shelter and stay out of the falling debris to be safe," Holland explained.

He believes the rooms would still make good shelters today if they were needed.

The tunnel used to access the fallout shelter was also used by prisoners being led between the current police department and courthouse.