Posted on 03/19/2010 7:59:05 AM PDT by Constitution Day
As reported in this week’s Chatham News, there is activity at a long abandoned Cold War era bunker that housed a military telecommunications system. The facility is assumed to have closed in 2000 when trucks carried off much of the equipment. Residents in Chatham County have recently noticed activity at the site. New signage has been put up, warning against trespassing and malicious destruction of equipment “used or intended for use” for military or civil defense functions.
The Chatham County Planning Office has also taken notice of the activity, paying a visit out to the site and confirming that there are vehicles there. The Planning Office has not been contacted regarding any new applications for permits at the site.
For 45 years, the facility was the site of a top secret operation, run by AT&T. The mission was operated underground in a bunker that was built to withstand an atomic bomb blast. While it was secretive, what is known is the bunker housed a system called the Automatic Voice Network (AUTOVON). This system was in essence a massive relay and switching center.
AT&T spokesperson, Amy Bristle said she could not comment. While AT&T will not disclose if the Defense Department or any other goverment agency is secretly using the 194-acre property, there are rumors circulating among local residents about operations by the Southern Army Command.
In light of all the insanity going on in our country currently, one does have to wonder if there is something covert happening at Big Hole. Could the Military be preparing in case a backup land line communications system is needed? Or could it just be that County Commissioner George Lucier is preparing a hideout for when he loses his seat this November? Time will tell!
Built in the Sixties during the Cold War, a top secret underground AT&T communications facility off of Mt. Gilead Church Rd. on Big Hole Road near Pittsboro has been shrouded in mystery ever since.
Now it appears the facility, long the subject of much speculation over the years, has apparently closed...
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. "I wiped it all out of my head," he says. "When I went out the door, I never looked back."
Coming from a public utility employee turned small-town public official, that might sound pretty melodramatic. Unless, that is, the door walked out of was the secured gateway to Chatham County's underground enigma, the Big Hole. 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. command and control system in the event of nuclear war... (excerpt)
It’s VFR today. Just take off from Siler City Muni and overfly the area.
I did not see any restricted airspace in the immediate vicinity.
Ping, thought you might find this interesting!
Here's an aerial shot of the site from Google Maps.
Seems to me that something is up there are a number of projects presently under way involving close Cold War military facilities across the nation. Also there has been recent reports of reviews and surveys being done of old fallout shelters in a number of major metropolaton areas.
NC ping please!
Since the original AutoVON was non-digital, it might just be one of the few ways to communicate after a nuclear airburst blows out tens of trillions of digital everything.....
I wasn't aware of the trend you mention, though. Spooky.
Here's more info from Cryptome:
Eyeballing the Big Hole Communications Bunker
About to take out Iran and concerned of Chicom response? They have a small arsenel, compared to ours, but could still hit numerous cities if the missiles got through.
I meant to ping you on this. May be of interest.
Wolf, what’s the local intel on this?
I meant to ping him! Thanks.
Has anyone noticed any work being done on old transcontinental telephone land-line easements? Those cut across huge portions of real-estate and are still marked with signage in some rural areas.
Interesting....
****** from the same article ******
Details about the facility from John Allison and Al Dodson, who served as managers at Big Hole in the 1970s and ‘80s, showed up in press accounts in 1972, 1980 and 1984. According to the former AT&T men, Big Hole is a bona fide fallout shelter, fully equipped for outlasting a nuclear attack. To begin with, the entire underground portion of the facility, which descends “several floors,” is suspended from a superstructure ceiling to cushion bomb blasts. The bottom floor sits on a shock-absorbing cradle of gravel and coils. The walls, a foot-and-a-half thick, are sheathed in copper to deflect electromagnetic pulse.
Power generators are backed up with fuel stores, and there are bunks, medical supplies and food sufficient for a staff of about 30 to stay underground for at least three weeks. A decontamination chamber and internal filtering system would keep the air breathable.
Its nuclear war communications capabilities were never tested, but AUTOVON eventually evolved into a global system that carried all kinds of military messages, from the high-priority to the mundane. It became, among other things, a free long-distance telephone service for military personnel. Using a specially configured phone and access codes, members of the armed forces could place free calls to other AUTOVON-equipped personnel.
The system saw heavy use. An AUTOVON directory published by the Defense Communications Agency in 1987 reported that there were 180,000 access phones on the network, and that, on average, the system was handling 1.1 million calls a day.
About that time, technological innovations transformed Big Hole. With the onset of satellite and computer communications, the Defense Department began phasing out the analog AUTOVON system and replacing it with more sophisticated digital systems that were consolidated into what became the Defense Switched Network. The Defense Information Systems Agency, which oversees the network, told The Independent that AT&T “deactivated” the Chatham site in 1996 “in a downsizing redesign to prepare for the Defense Information Systems Agency’s transition to the Defense Information Systems Network-CONUS (DISN-C) in 1997.”
Must be a super-secret site when the road that leads to it has a name like "Big Hole Rd."
Notice the fascinating network of trails to the NNE of the site?
LOL! Read my #10...everyone out there knows of its existence, just not its current purpose.
The neighborhood off to the W of the site is called The Preserve at Jordan Lake. There are some pricey homes for that area there.
I understand that most of the land around the lake itself is owned by the federal government and controlled by the US Army Corps of Engineers.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.