Old Antelope Valley Mine To Shelter 5,000
Photograph Description:
Shelter seekers in the Antelope Valley's Rosamond area have found a real gold mine. They're working the tunnels and shafts of the old Tropico Gold Mine just as fervently as miners did 90 years ago. The current miners, however, struck it rich the first day. And their claims keeps getting better. 'We could shelter 5,000 here now, but not comfortably,' says Ronald Grey, civil defense director for the South Kern County School District... The mine has nine levels of tunnels, each dug 100 feet below the one above in hard rhyolite. Civil defense officials say that three feet of solid earth around a person will provide adequate shielding against nuclear fallout. But the topmost level of the Tropico Mine is 100 feet underground." Ronald Grey, civil defense director for the South Kern County School District, and Mack Pursell survey shaft of Tropico Gold Mine in Rosamond in the Antelope Valley.
Photographer: George Brich, Valley Times Photo Collection/Los Angeles Public Library
Photograph dated January 14, 1963
Slipstream
Oh yeah, I remember Khrushchev was the villain of the time. Great photo George!
Well Street
Wasn't it just a few years earlier that students were taught to get under their desks if a nuclear blast hit? I think these mines were more suitable for protection.