I scared them, as much as they scared me. When I first saw them, I had a suspicious feeling. "It was eerie down there and then I saw men. "It was strong enough to hold back a river," he said.Īrdwin was surprised when he discovered a construction crew way down in the shelter. It was worst going back up the stairs," he said. I wasn't in the best shape and had 30 pounds of equipment we wear when on duty. I had more than I could bargain for with just the sheer number of stairs. Two of the floors were used for the shelter. I kept going down flights of stairs," Ardwin said. It was a system of tunnels inside the dam. "Each step I was taking, I was thinking how amazing the size of it. It felt like I was walking in a cave," Ardwin said. He radioed the sheriff's department dispatcher saying he was going to explore the open door. He had heard rumors about a nuclear fallout shelter in the dam and when he opened the door Ardwin thought maybe there was some truth to the rumors.Īrdwin didn't have anyone to back him up, but he believed he needed to check the open door and follow the path down the flights of stairs. People were concerned then about the possibility of a nuclear war," Ardwin said. Three years earlier President Kennedy was murdered. "It was built during the height of the cold war in 1966. military and the public were serious about the threat of nuclear war with Russia. The shelter was incorporated during the original construction inside and below the spillway gates of the Millwood dam during the early 1960s. The door was one of several leading to the tainter gates used as a radial arm floodgate in dams to control water flows.Īrdwin was unaware the doors also lead to a nuclear fallout shelter.įinding the door open, Ardwin was going to learn a history lesson. Deputy Sheriff Austin Ardwin found an open door leading to a nuclear fallout shelter.Īrdwin was patrolling Millwood Lake driving along Arkansas Highway 32 on top of the dam when he noticed a door on top of the dam open. patrol of the Millwood Lake dam, Little River County, Ark.
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