Fort Columbia State Park / nuclear war? (#1247)

From when the site was converted to a Civil Defense site in the 1960's, as a possible seat of state government in the event of nuclear war. The sanitation (aka toilet) kit was to be for use by up to 50 people.

The tour of the battery (which was very good) focused mostly on the Civil Defense aspects of it. Visiting the site in that civil defense frame of mind was sobering. I was a child during the atomic war fears of the 1950’s and early 60's and was familiar with the consequent era of stockpiles of food and supply. I had not, though, thought about the fact of elaborate procedures having been taken to provide means for carrying on state-level government during a nuclear war. As a child, the nuclear war preparation was mostly a curiosity and routine drills, this visit brought home the level of national preparation for all-out and completely destructive war. It was also a reminder of the naivete in current political discourse that seems to say that nuclear war remains a possibility.