Far into the unforeseeable future, when nuclear war and biological warfare had decimated the human population, killed most living beings and irradiated the earth with radioactive fallout, a small population of five thousand in a remote underground shelter in southwestern South Dakota would be one of the few surviving pockets of civilization scattered throughout America.
That’s the plan of California-based survival company Vivos. A couple of years ago, the company acquired this 18-square miles complex called Black Hills Ordnance Depot, about eight miles south of the town of Edgemont, and completely retrofitted it with state of the art amenities such as an internal power generation system, deep water wells, biological, chemical and radiation air filtration systems, sewage discharge, critical support equipment etc.
The Black Hills Ordnance Depot, now Vivos xPoint in South Dakota. Photo credit: Vivos
The complex contains over five hundred nuclear-hardened concrete military bunkers, partially buried underground and protected by thick berms of earth, to resist a surface blast wave, as well as radioactive fallout. The property is “strategically and centrally located in one of the safest areas of North America, at a high and dry altitude of 3,800+/- feet, well inland from all large bodies of water, and 100+/- miles from the nearest known military nuclear targets,” Vivos says on their website.
Each bunker is capable of withstanding a 500,000-pound internal blast, and can hold 10 to 24 people and the needed supplies for a year or more. The bunkers are separated from each other by an average of 400 feet in all directions, that Vivos says will work in their favor by providing security, protection and privacy.
The Black Hills Ordnance Depot (BHOD) was constructed in 1942 and originally functioned as munitions storage facility during the Second World War and the Cold War period. The bunkers were called Igloos because of their characteristic shape.
An igloo. Photo credit: Vivos
The complex was once spread over 33 square miles and contained over 800 igloos and all the amenities of a well-planned town including living quarters for over 1,000 people, an Army hospital, a post office, church, shopping center, movie theater, including a theater, swimming pool, bowling alley and other mainstays of a small American town.
The igloos held all kinds of ammunition including chemical weapons and the deadly sarin and mustard gas. During World War II, the site also held Italian prisoners of war. After serving its purpose, the facility was closed in 1967.
Families can now lease the bunkers to be used as shelters in the wake of a catastrophic event, such as a nuclear war, a viral pandemic or an asteroid strike at one-time upfront payment of $25,000 per bunker, plus a 99-year lease of $1,000 per year. Shared bunkers are also available at $7,500 per person.
Aside from the facility at South Dakota, Vivos also has shelters in the state of Indiana in a Cold War era bunker capable of accommodating 80 people. Vivos is also building a luxury private shelter in an underground complex in Rothenstein, Germany.
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