In a vote by the Clark County School District Board of Trustees members authorized the sale of what some suspect as the last Cold War bomb shelter in Las Vegas Valley on Thursday.
The Arden bomb shelter site located on a 2.6 acre parcel sold for the above asking price of $990,000 for an astounding $1.9 million to the US Express Couriers, a company based in Henderson Nevada.
The bunker sat in a corner of Las Vegas Valley, which is now populated but at the time was remote to the valley, located in the Rainbow/Blue Diamond area back in the 1950s. The site was intended as the Clark county government’s headquarters in case of an atomic emergency.
The school board did not believe that the property, which was valued at just less than $1 million would bring in such a phenomenal price, but a bidding war ensued between US Express Couriers and Las Vegas Pavers which brought the asking price of $1 million up to just shy of $2 million.
Mark Hall-Patton, formerly of the Las Vegas Museum, said the site had a high level of toxicity associated with it because of the lead paint and the railroad ties soaked in creosote used in the construction of the bunker. At the time the construction of the shelter was up to industry standards. Today these standards would not fly due to the toxic nature of creosote soaked railroad ties and lead-based paint.
The shelter was meant to house 27 men and nine women, the governing body of the city who still had to run the city from this command center. It was reminiscent of the Greenbrier Hotel found in Washington DC. A fancy hotel which had an underground space which was meant to house the entire Congress. The Arden bomb shelter was our version of this same structure in Washington DC. What the US Express will do with this new structure is still a mystery.
