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“In the mid-1950s, with the threat of nuclear war
looming, federal officials looked around for a safe
place to stash Congressmen and Senators”

Plus it already had significant infrastruc- tive aide, Selda Botkins, who’s been giv-
ture, had already been a federal facility in ing the tour for two years. “When I stop
WWII and, tucked away in the Allegheny getting goose bumps,” she said, “That’s
Highlands, was a tough target for enemy when I quit.”
missiles and planes.
The Bunker does have goose bump
The Greenbrier agreed. Construction qualities. It’s an eerie look into a grim
on what was essentially an enormous past. The tour takes you through de-
fallout shelter began in 1959. The Green- contamination rooms, 5-foot-thick steel-
brier and the feds disguised the project reinforced concrete doors, communi-
by cleverly hiding it in plain sight. They cation rooms, dorm rooms, weapons
built the below-ground bunker as part of rooms, and storage for 40-50 days of
the Greenbrier’s new hotel addition: The provisions. Among its most curious de-
West Virginia Wing. tail: tranquilizers were the most-stocked
medication.
According to Conte, local people
probably suspected something more Today, much of the underground fa-
was happening than just a new wing. cility is used by the CSX company as a
It was the size of two football fields data storage unit for Fortune 500 com-
stacked one on the other, so construc- panies. But for decades it was manned
tion involved “a pretty big hole,” he said 24/7 by federal agents disguised as
Greenbrier TV and telephone repairmen.
But the bunker, provisioned and
As the Post characterized it in 1992, “in-
staffed for decades in anticipation of the
side the hill time stood still.”
war that never came, remained a secret
outside the area. But outside, time rolls on.

Finally, in 1992, a Washington Post Golfers on The Greenbrier’s special
reporter spilled the beans. In the ensu- Oakhurst Links course still use hicko-
ing notoriety the bunker was decommis- ry-shafted clubs and hit gutta-percha
sioned and given back to The Greenbrier, balls as they did 130 years ago, but the
which got an idea: let’s turn the bunker clubs in the bags lined up at the hotel
into The Bunker. And BOOM! They fi- entrance are all titanium and graphite.
nally got an explosion, an explosion of You can hitch a carriage ride, but many
curiosity. guests tour around on Segways. Of
course, the Draper’s restaurant has fried
Today The Bunker is The Greenbri-
green tomatoes and cornbread, but by
er’s top attraction. Some 40,000 take
the outdoor pool you can lunch on fish
the 90-minute tours each year. That in-
tacos.
cludes up to 70% of all hotel guests and
numerous bus groups. On the other hand, after 70 years they
still have floral drapes, floral wallpaper, and
We joined an 11:30 tour of around
floral upholstery. u
25 led by former West Virginia legisla-

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