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[TRANSCRIPT]

Voice montage:

Do you know anything about a bunker underneath Harwood?

What? There is?

What if we literally know nothing. We Know nothing.

I’ve heard of it but I don’t know a lot like I don’t know about it. I just heard that it’s there. That’s it and that there’s like food and water for it’s like something terrible to happen.

I now know it exists.

No but is there one?

Hmmm, there is rumor that it does exist.

I’d say start digging, right? Yeah, go find it.

Hello, this is Hidden Harwood. I’m Noah Schwartz.

I’m in Elisa Clerici.

And i’m Matt Arpino.

And we’re going to start digging.

Between 1946 and 1991, the United States and the Soviet Union were locked in a long, tense conflict known as the Cold War. During that period of aggressive arms, race and bids for world dominance, the United States and the USSR gradually built up of their influence, dividing the world into opposing factions

To ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire, to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding

Protected by their armies and the secret police. The leaders of the Kremlin are using every means at the disposal of a modern dictatorship in their effort to warp and mold the 70 million people in these countries into instruments of their power into slaves who can then be used to enslave others.

In 1985, important step was done here at Harwood.

Kathey Cadwell:

Project harmony began as a harebrained scheme, as an experiment and a dream. My name is Katherine Cadwell. I was a hardwood teacher for 40 years. And I had two friends one, Charlie Hosford. And David Kelly, like the three of us, we said, You know what, we want to take some Vermont students over to the Soviet Union, because we believed in citizen diplomacy in individual dialogue, and this was at the height of the Cold War. So this was the time of extreme tensions between what was then the USSR and the United States. So against all odds, we convince the school board that this was a safe trip, we took 22 Harwood students. And when we were there, we were trailed by KGB. We traveled by train, we gave concerts and what we found is that people had never seen American teenagers, they never seen average American citizens. It was a life changing experience.

This exchange program to the USSR would never have been possible 20 years before. At that time, hardwood High School was being built in the thought of nuclear war was on everyone’s mind.

Genevieve Knight:

I remember that when I was a kid, I swear there was a sign in the parking lot. That was this would be a place to go for like a nuclear bomb.

Duane Pierson:

Building was built 1967 hardwood was built. And so I think back in the 1960s, there was this understanding that you could build fallout shelters and public buildings, especially if there was an incident like a nuclear attack of some sort. So it hardwood, there exists a room that has a concrete ceiling, concrete sides and concrete floor. And when you go in, you can see that it looks pretty, you know, strong for lack of a better word. And there was a crawlspace that went underneath the school into a smaller room that had these survival drums I would call them and there’s a whole bunch of them. This is the last surviving one. And inside the drum, there’s like a Geiger counter there was survival. I think there was some survival iodine tablets. This can be used as a makeshift bathroom. There was some medical supplies. There was some canned food that I threw out but there was food in this as well. And there’s a whole bunch of them down there. So in the event something what happened people could come to the public building of hardwood and hide in this area into a safe to come out.

This was Dwayne Pierson, the principal of Harwood Union Middle School, but he’s not the only one who knows about the Forgotten bunker. Ms. Tedin Lange has something to say.

Ms. Lange:

So I’ve seen the entrance to it, I haven’t gotten all the way in because there’s water at the bottom but if you go there are stairs if you go down to the very bottom of the stairs and you open it up, you see this dark hole steps that lead down and just ground water below that, but back when they made it, it was during the Cold War and so the idea was that if there was a nuclear attack, everyone in the school could go down in the bunker. So it fits 800 people and it actually goes out under the parking lot and all the stuff is still in there all the canned food and the blankets and the idea was that people might have to be down there for a while

After hearing such significant revelations, we had one last thing to do seeing the bunker for ourselves

Duane Pierson:

This is the old boiler room. And one of the things which is really important to notice look above you it’s all concrete. Like I don’t know how many feet but really thick walls. So this would have been where some of those containers were so this was this was the actual crawlspace if you look down here, it goes down there and it used to go into a tee so when I first got here I crawled down there and you can actually see where the piping system goes. So you can see it also it’s closed off now so those little barrels there was drums that were in my office this is where they were. Anyway yeah this is bomb shelter, Fallout Shelter, wherever you want to call it was located and with the water system available you know this would have been someplace that people could have been a little bit of time anyway. So that’s where it is.

The mystery has been solved. The bunker has been explored and truth has been told. That’s all from hidden Harwood… for now.

Voice montage:

Do you know anything about a bunker underneath Harwood?

What there is?

What if we literally know nothing. We Know nothing.

I’ve heard of it but I don’t know a lot like I don’t know about it. I just heard that it’s there. That’s it and that there’s like food and water for it’s like something terrible were to happen.

I now know it exists.