Dear Mr. Know-It-All:
I was told that Citizens Bank once had a bomb shelter under it, and it was part of the Civil Defense program in Farmington. I also heard there may be other places in town. Can you check this out?
Thanks,
Cold War Kid
Dear Kid,
Your question sent Mr. Know-It-All on a wide-ranging journey to try to confirm what you had heard, and I discovered some really interesting stuff! For younger readers, there was a time after World War II when the United States (and other countries) spent a lot of effort on Civil Defense. In 1950, the National Security Resources Board prepared a guidebook on how to structure Civil Defense, much of it in response to the threat from nuclear weapons. Some public buildings under construction during this time contained hidden rooms or shelters, that could be used in case of an emergency.
It’s during this decade that the first phase of the Citizens Bank building was constructed in 1959 at the intersection of Broadway and Auburn Avenue in Farmington.
During the recent demolition of the building, a small basement room was located on the northeast side of the structure built in 1959. Darrin Church, president of Citizens Trust & Investment Company, asked around and discovered that crews found another space below that one, accessible only through a trapdoor in the floor above.
Mr. Know-It-All checked with Ground Level Demolition, the Mesa, Arizona, company that tore down the old building. Project manager Lincoln Johansen confirmed his crews found the basement room and also the space below it, but that’s not all.
Johansen says there were two subterranean rooms, separated by a concrete wall that had a hole punched through it. Inside was sort of a time capsule: “Inside we found dozens of boxes. The bulk of the boxes were tins of survival crackers, but there were also things like latrine supplies and a pretty thorough medical kit,” Johansen wrote. The tins are stamped 2/63, which means February 1963, making them older than Mr. Know-It-All! How amazing is that?
Lincoln Johansen says his company has completed thousands of demolitions and has never made a discovery like this one.
Unfortunately, Mr. Know-It-All couldn’t confirm the existence of other shelters in the area. One reason may be that few larger buildings from that era remain. In 1979, many Civil Defense operations were taken over by FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and governments began focusing more on helping citizens during natural disasters instead of planning for war.
Some readers may remember that after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005, a shelter was created at McGee Park. San Juan County was ready, but none of the Louisiana evacuees ended up coming here. San Juan County Emergency Manager Mike Mestas says McGee Park is still the county’s main shelter facility. It can accommodate several hundred people, but working with different groups, other sites such as churches or school gyms may be designated as shelters.
We just wrapped up National Emergency Preparedness Month in September, and I would be remiss if I didn’t remind everyone to check out the planning resources for you and your family at http://www.ready.gov/September.
Eagle-eyed reader Mick O. probably wishes Mr. Know-It-All had looked at a map before hitting “send” and submitting his last column about the Gold King Mine spill into the Animas River. I wrote, “The resulting visible orange water made its way down the river, flowing through Durango, Aztec, Farmington and Shiprock before entering northeast Arizona and Southeast Utah.” Well, everyone knows the Animas River becomes the San Juan River as it leaves Farmington, and even more people know the San Juan River never flows into N.E. Arizona. Can I claim temporary insanity? Thanks for the gentle correction, Mick!
Mr. Know-It-All is Scott Michlin, the general manager of KSJE 90.9 FM, a community-supported radio station at San Juan College. If you have a question about something in San Juan County, drop him a line at SMichlin@tricityrecordnm.com. If he doesn’t know the answer, he knows someone who does – and you’ll read about it here in the pages of the Tri-City Record.
