what is the closest fallout shelter in fountain inn south carolina

The closest private residence is a quarter mile down Big Hole Road. The most that those living near the facility, located about a mile south of Fearrington Village, can tell you is that it is out of site and inaccessible–blocked from prying eyes by thick woods, barbed-wire fences, a concrete barricade and a guard station. Whatever its current role in the nation’s communications infrastructure, the sight continues to baffle, intrigue and sometimes intimidate people who live nearby. military manned those established in other countries.ĪT&T will not say if another part of the Defense Department or any other government agency is secretly using Big Hole today, but the company still owns the property, the grounds are maintained and the security barriers remain. AT&T won the classified contract to operate domestic AUTOVON centers, while the U.S. Of those, 20 sites, including Big Hole, were underground, hardened facilities, engineered to withstand anything but a direct hit by an enemy missile. About 60 AUTOVON relay and switching centers were built across the country. The system, called the Automatic Voice Network (AUTOVON), was put in service in 1964 by the Defense Communications Agency the Chatham facility came on-line in 1966. command and control system in the event of nuclear war. That’s where Devinney and dozens of other AT&T employees holed up for much of the Cold War, soldiers in a hidden battle to safeguard a U.S. Unless, that is, the door walked out of was the secured gateway to Chatham County’s underground enigma, the Big Hole.

“When I went out the door, I never looked back.”Ĭoming from a public utility employee turned small-town public official, that might sound pretty melodramatic. “I wiped it all out of my head,” he says. Ask Pittsboro Mayor Chuck Devinney what he did when he worked for AT&T, and he offers evasions straight out of an X-Files script.

What is the closest fallout shelter in fountain inn south carolina