Building That Fooled Everyone Apparently Was Bomb Shelter

BEND, Ore. - A huge concrete building built by the Army in 1985 was secretly intended to shelter government officials in a nuclear attack, an Oregon congressman says.

The U.S. Department of Defense still insists the 65,000-square-foot structure was simply a testing center for night-vision equipment.

But Republican Rep. Bob Smith, whose district includes the site, said he was told of the shelter's real purpose in an FBI briefing. "I was sworn to secrecy," he said. "I've kept that secret. I haven't even told my wife."

Since the building was declared surplus last year and is being converted to a jobs center for troubled youth, Smith is talking.

He said the building appeared to be a smaller version of West Virginia's Greenbrier bomb shelter for members of Congress. "They informed me that it was being constructed so that the governments of the Northwest could be housed and continue operating in case of a nuclear war," Smith said.

The building 10 miles east of Bend cost $10 million and has fuel tanks, food- and water-storage capacity, and internal generators designed to make it self-sufficient for up to six months. A microwave tower stands just outside the structure.

Sen. Bob Packwood, R-Ore., toured the building in April. He said he never was aware it was to be used as a center to shelter government leaders.

But Packwood clearly was impressed by the structure during the tour, commenting on pocket doors that slide out to seal off the inner section of the facility. "I had no idea of the quality of this facility," he said. "These are the kind of doors you see in a submarine."

Deschutes County Commissioner Barry Slaughter said local officials always suspected the building housed more than a night-vision research center. When he and others were taken on a tour last year, they went through strict security measures and noted there were guards and guard dogs at the site.

"It's almost blast-proof," he said. "It has poured concrete walls and poured concrete on the roof."

A retired engineer who supervised the construction said he was told it never was intended for night-vision research. "It was one of five or six of these things built around the country to house bigwigs in case of an attack," said the man, who did not want to be identified. The Army "wanted a very sophisticated computer room that was encased in quarter-inch steel plate," he said.

There is no mystery about the building's new incarnation.

"When we had a person walk through it, he was really impressed, especially with the fiber-optic microwave communications, the 200-bed dormitory and feeding capacity of 300 people," said Dennis Douglass, superintendent of the Deschutes County Education Service District.

"We saw this as a great youth-training facility."