Greenbrier Bunker, West Virginia

 Greetings from West Virginia!

Today we toured the Greenbrier Bunker, a 112,544 square foot fallout shelter created in 1958 by President Eisenhower to safeguard Congress in the case of a national emergency.  It was equipped to house Congress, one aide per member and Congress immediate family members.  Pretty amazing place and it sits underneath the gorgeous Greenbrier Resort.  It included dorm style bunkbeds, huge cafeterias, meeting centers and even a jail for those who tried to "escape".  Its use was exposed in 1992 by the Washington Post and the facility immediately began phasing out.  They never had to use it and today it is used as data storage for many Fortune 500 companies.  It is a fascinating part of American history.

Interestingly, though masks were required on the tour, social distancing was not required and really not possible with our group size of 25.  A few people were mask resistant, not wearing them properly or sometimes not at all.  Two of the individuals had masks that said, "Worn by Force, Not by Fear".  Hmmmmm.......

Afterward we walked over to the Greenbrier golf course and had lunch.  It was fun to have a different kind of day than our usual camping experiences.

This massive resort sits on top of the bunker.  We took a shuttle there from a parking lot across the street and they took our temperature at the entrance gate.  Room prices start at $359 a night.  They also have a casino but you have to be a guest to play (guess they want only people to gamble who can afford to bet big).  

An interior photo to show how ornate the hotel is.  It seemed strange to have this very large and expensive resort in a small town where the median home price is $111,000.

Electronics were not allowed to be taken on the tour but we were able to get this one photo at the end of the tour after we gathered our cell phones.  The door is the smallest of three massive doors, this one weighing 18 tons (the largest was 30 tons).  Interesting wallpaper!  

Lunch at the Greenbrier golf course.  This course is well known to golf fans because the Greenbrier Classic, a famous tournament, is played here every year. We had a great window table overlooking hole 18.  They must allow high handicap players (like us) because every group we saw played the 18th hole pretty horribly and it was a par 3.  But to be fair, it was cold and windy.

Two more photos of the golf course, the last one is a group of golfers teeing off at hole #1. As golf fans, we thought visiting this course was really cool.