Civil Defense Bunker | Old Town

Awhile back, I wrote about The Doomsday Shitter , a commode/barrel that my father had acquired from his father back when his father worked at the University of Maine in Orono. I think we found where the Doomsday Shitter came from....

Away from Bangor, you've got the somewhat peaceful bedroom community (ex mill town...) named Old Town. It's got everything you'd need in a slightly dated suburban community attached to a metro area that has been on the decline. Including a subterranean civil defense bunker (turned womans prison and later abandoned.)


It's been such a great local 'mystery' fixture that there are several sites/resources if you're interested in seeing more:

• Here is a great Flickr set someone put together while visiting the site during winter months.
• The Bangor Explorers Guild is the site that really got me interested in this kind of thing. It's got a great set of pictures, some of which I have taken the liberty of using here. All credit for interior shots go to these nameless explorers. 
• Here's the Photostream of a local who has taken some great pictures of the site.
• A University Student has found the site of interest.

In the woods right out behind the Hannah Ford Clinic (also known as The Hannafids, Hannafids, or Hannaford), on a piece of University property there stands a hill. In the side of that hill, are  two blocked up doorways that would lead to an 8000 square-ft (or 3500 square-ft, depending on source) subterranean civil defense bunker built in 1965, complete with very low frequency communications equipment, to house Penobscot County Commissioners and other officials in the event of a nuclear attack.

According to this story from 1982, the bunker is 3500 square feet, built at ground level and has concrete walls that are 18 inches thick. In addition, dirt is piled on the outside walls which would mean that less than 1/1,000th of outside radiation would penetrate the bunker walls. The linked story lists the facilities sheltering capacity as 350 people, mostly government and law enforcement officials who would communicate with federal authorities and relay information to communities. However a story from 2004 would go on to state that there were only working and living quarters for 60 full time staff and officials.

Below is a map made by the adventurers behind UE-Bangor.tripod.com, credit for the map goes to the anonymous explorer behind that site. Given the entrance doors, it's easier to visualize the bunker's size. I've added red text to highlight certain areas of the bunker with information gleaned from news stories (linked later on in this post) as well as from testimony reprinted by UE-Bangor. I've marked what I can say with some degree of confidence is correct -- it is unclear if the 'infirmary' is a cluster of small rooms near the bathrooms or if it is a singular room. Also, many of the rooms that aren't labeled may be offices or sleeping quarters -- sure looks like a tight squeeze for between 60-350 people.

Officials who had to report to the bunker in the event of a nuclear strike on Bangor would be charged with coordinating relocation of thousands of citizens in the Bangor area to safer areas (host towns), according to a story from 1983.

Civil Defense Workers Drill in the bunker (BDN Archive Photo, 1982)

This is corroborated by an "informant" on a Bangor Urb-Ex page (that has not been updated in many years) the rooms within the bunker are very small and it was designed to support individuals for quite some time. This note was apparently penned by a party who was part of the team responsible for 'sealing up' the place.

"Now a little about the layout. The whole bunker while it looks impressive is really quite small in size and the many rooms that line either side of the halls are could only fit a bed(cot) and maybe a small table etc. The door closest to the "garage door" is the main entrance and the large room off of the garage door was the common area where people ate and the like. The L shaped room with the many compartments was used mainly for storage. There was a Kitchen where you guessed on the map and the old upright milk machine and metal trays are still there waiting to be used. Directly across from the kitchen and a little to the left was where the infirmary was and many of the sleeping quarters, bathrooms and showers were located. The large room nearest the air vents is where the generators still reside. Big floor mounted generators that look like the front part of a bulldozer. The next room down from it is where the fuel for them is stored and as of 94-95 they were still topped of and ready to rock....who knows, we never got the courage to flip the switch. The towers (haven't been by in a while to see if they are still there) held LOW band antennas operating at around 50Mhz which was what the CD used back then before VHF took off."

-Anonymous "Informant", ue-Bangor

Main Hallway

During the mid 1980s it was used to house low-security female inmates from the Penobscot County Jail, but was only a prison for the duration of construction elsewhere. According to the Bangor Daily News, using this facility as a prison caused a "furor" as it's near a bicycle trail and the YMCA. It was also at this time that the site was renovated to the tune of $20,000.

The Bangor Daily News reported that this was because of:

• The need for new walls/partitions to create four dormitory style rooms that each would hold four prisoners. 
• The building of two individuals cells. 
• The need for a holding cell
• "The day room" 
• A new door to the exterior of the bunker. 
• The need to move the fences from the old jail to the bunker. 

This would mean that the floor plan has been changed quite significantly...While on the topic of the bunker's years as a prison, below is a news photograph from the mid 1980s, showing the newly remodeled facility ready to start its time as a minimum security women's prison. The comm towers are visible at the top of the photo, and the 'cage' for the recreational area is seen in the foreground. Compare to the photograph below, taken from a similar perspective in 2014. (The area was too overgrown to get far enough away from the entrance to provide the exact perspective.)

 

If you look past the leading edge of the concrete entrance (in the photo below), you can see where the sliding glass doors were boarded up.

There were also many interior changes made during this time, below is the common area. Note the sliding glass doors leading to the external courtyard. Those glass doors are right behind the tire in the picture above. In the map earlier in the post, those glass doors are referred to as "a cemented-over garage door sized opening."

From the Bangor Daily News - 10/08/1986

Also, during the bunker's time as a jail, the kitchen was expanded.

This is what the kitchen looked like when explored by the ue-Bangor(.tripod.com) group:

After having been a jail for some time, the site fell into disuse in 1988. It was briefly considered by the county to be used as a 911 dispatch center in 1989, and was courted by a local nonprofit as an HQ in 1991. Somewhere between 1991 and the mid-to-late 1990s, some vandals took their toll. According to a local interviewed in 2004, some vandals had broken in because they thought (for some reason) that the Penobscot County Sheriff's department stored all of their confiscated pot down there.

The Indiana Jones of cannabis.

Hurrr

In 1995, police received an anonymous tip that someone was 'breaking in' to the bunker, the Bangor Daily News reported that a police officer was dispatched and saw two individuals on the roof of the structure, while the police blotter indicated that ten individuals were issued a summons for trespassing. What the article (linked below) doesn't state is whether or not the ten who were nabbed for breaking in had actually managed to get inside before authorities could respond. Considering the graffiti, it's possible that those ten people were among the last in the bunker, as it was sealed shortly thereafter. This is conjecture...there's no way I can know whether or not the ten from the police blotter are the same who vandalized the site.

Photo from ue-bangor.tripod.com

Additionally, with the help of the Bangor Daily News, I've been able to piece together a little bit of a timeline of the Civil Defense Bunker's history.

• September 23rd, 1963 - before the Old Town Civil Defense Bunker was even built, the Lewiston Evening Journal reported that two men (one of Auburn, the other of Windham) were to organize meetings to develop contingency plans and to teach fallout shelter management. 
• I am including this article on the Old Town site as the "Bangor-Orono" area was listed as one of the prospective sites for a shelter.
• March 9th, 1971 - The CD Bunker participates in a statewide exercise designed to simulate bomb drops for fallout tracking and reporting readiness purposes. This was called Operation Pinpoint, and while the Old Town CD bunker is not mentioned directly on the page, scroll to the bottom of this post for a comment relating to the bunker's role in this exercise. 
• Sunday, February 6th, 1973, the Lewiston Sun-Journal, in an article focusing on Civil Defense improvements in the area, referenced the building of "multi-purpose Civil Defense Emergency Operation Centers...with the help of federal monies in Van Buren, Lewiston, the University of Maine at Orono and Lincoln County." The Old Town Bunker is one such center.
• On a Sunday, May 1st, 1973, the Lewiston Daily Sun reported that due to flooding in the region, individuals from Costigan/Milford took shelter in the "municipal civil defense bomb shelter" with several families.
• July 12th, 1979, the BDN reported that "Penobscot CEP prepared to use Old Town bunker" as a precaution in the face of the deteriorating orbit of Skylab as it passed over Maine. The Old Town bunker was on 24 hour alert, until Skylab had passed over the state. The facility was notified by teletype, and one CEP Director Bill Hunt spent the night in the bunker.
• On January 30th, 1980, the BDN ran a story called "Action on park, civil defense unit reflect mandate for budget cuts." The story gives us two pretty interesting facts about the bunker. 
• It was still in use in its original capacity as late as 1980, as the story copy indicates that Penobscot County ran its Civil Emergency Preparedness Department office out of the bunker. 
• The story copy also states that "Less than a year ago, the University of Maine at Orono occupied a portion of the underground bunker for a research project. I have not been able to find records elsewhere referencing this research project. 
• June 3rd,  1981, the BDN ran a story called "Bunker Use Sought" which described the freshly out of use facility as "Available: One bunker. 100 ft by 50ft. Underground. Located in Old Town woods. Can be the home of 60 government officials and communication equipment in the event of a nuclear disaster."
• This story reports that the University of Maine at Orono contracted with the county since July of 1979 to use part of the bunker for a "special research project." 
• This story also indicates that between 1980 and 1981, Penobscot county eliminated the Civil Emergency Preparedness director position. 
• This story also states that the bunker was still in use as a communications hub at the time it was written.
• On April 26th, 1982, the BDN ran a story called "The bunker is there but no orders" which stated that the bunker was 'the area's civil defense operations center, from which officials will direct emergency operations if the Bangor area comes under enemy attack.' The story then states that in the event of nuclear attack, county officials were supported to report to the site.
• On February 3rd, 1983, it was reported in the BDN article titled "Balky towns, communication gap mar nuclear crisis drill" that the site was used in its civil defense capacity during a drill which included a scenario related to evacuation of the Bangor area, as it was then classified as a "likely target for Soviet missiles." 
• July 9th, 1986 - the BDN reports on 'progress' in the bunker project. 
• July 18th, 1986, the BDN reported that "Prisoners to move to bunker by fall" , pending approval from boards representing Old Town and the University of Maine.
• September 10th, 1986, BDN reports "CD bunker given final approval as jail facility."
• October 3rd, 1986, it was reported that the first nine prisoners were to move to the bunker; the story also contains information on the renovations required.
• The Bangor Daily news reported, on December 11th, 1986, that the "Civil Defense bunker prison has septic system problems" ...which is interesting. None of the BDN issues archived with Google News make any mention of the facility being turned into a women's overflow prison. Speaking of overflow, the leach field collapsed and started marinating the bunker in shitwater.
• "The waste problem, according to county officials, was that the septic system, which was supposed to be suitable for use by large numbers of people in an emergency, had been used only occasionally over the past several years."
• This story, for some reason, was also re-run by the Bangor Daily News on December 12th, 1986.
• On October 17th, 1987, "Lack of inmates causes jail annex to shut down" is published as an informational, four paragraph piece.
• October 29th, 1987, the BDN ran "Bunker shutdown brings up doubts concerning future." which told us that by the late 1980s, there were only five inmates and two 'boarders' living at the facility. The county had apparently considered other uses for the bunker, which would include letting inmates from other prisons stay there. This article closes with hints that the county may be considering shuttering the bunker. 
• On December 16th, 1987, it was reported that the bunker was once again being used to house female inmates.  "Temporary occupants of old town bunker try to keep busy" ran along with a very poorly preserved photo of the 'courtyard' added to the bunker in this time frame.
• April 11th, 1988 - the BDN reports a Jail Fund Raiser in which the Old Town "civil defense bunker" is a footnote. 
• A June 30th, 1988 article in the BDN states that the bunker is still housing prisoners, and that they're well behaved....
• September 14th, 1988 - It's noted in the BDN that the bunker may close. May. The idea of the civil service bunker as a prison died a long slow death, apparently. 
• On May 24th, 1989, the Bangor Daily ran a story titled "Survey finds county towns leaning to central dispatching" about rural towns pooling resources to handle 911 and other emergency calls. The bunker was mentioned as "one possible location in...in Old Town, which in 1986 was converted into temporary housing for women inmates while the Penobscot County Jail remained under construction. It served that purpose until last year." Whats somewhat exciting about this story is that the county was considering using the facility as it was intended to be used.
• April 25th, 1990, the BDN ran the story "Dirigo Search, Rescue Association requests use of former Old Town Civil Defense bunker." in which it was rather enthusiastically stated that the site "may get a new life as the home of Dirigo Search and Rescue Association." Penobscot County comissioners did not make a decision, and the plan to use the bunker did not materialize.
• March 7th, 1991, the story "Register of county deeds organizes real estate group" had mentioned the bunker as a potential storage facility for "original photostatic record books" related to deed documents. The story in the paper makes no mention as to whether or not the plan was put into motion. 
• March 27th, 1995, 10 University of Maine students were charged with criminal trespassing after an anonymous phone call reported that someone was "breaking" into the building. This may have been prior to the thing being cemented in/sealed.
• September 28th, 2004 is the last reference to the bunker made in local media. In a piece called "Civil defense bunker falls to time" , the writer highlights bits of the history of Old Town's Civil Defense Bunker. 
• Report indicates that the bunker has had doors welded shut, duct holes filled with concrete, and its entrance shafts filled with earth to prevent further damage by "vandals" and to prevent injuries to those seeking to gain access.
• University VP (as of 2004) states that it's improbable, but not impossible for the school to make use of the site.
• The food stores in the bunker were found to not have survived, they were "bug infested" and unfit.

 I have made an effort to contact two of the ten persons listed in the police blotter from 1995. From the graffiti photographed by the ue-Bangor group, a bunch of the graffiti that now marrs the place was from that year.

Everything's been sealed. However in the 2004 article linked above, the president of the university did say that it was only improbable, but not impossible that the university would once again make use of the bunker.

"Interest in maintaining the bunker was also waning in the 1980s as America prospered and communism faltered and the Berlin Wall fell. "The whole picture changed...we stopped watching for the flash." 

-The Bangor Daily News, September 28th, 2004.