One of the mysterious sod-covered bunkers
We wondered what in the world they were. We finally came to the end of them - there seemed to be hundreds of them! - and there was a gravel road with a sign at the end of it. We went up the road, and here is what the sign said:
And this was a close-up of a bunker:
What is it? Or was it ?
We had to go on with our curiosity unsatisfied. But later at our motel we learned that these bunkers were used during WW II to store ammunition. There are 700 of them! They are the last, most visible remains of NAD - the Naval Ammunition Depot - which originally covered almost. 50,000 acres, had 2000 buildings, and employed 10,000 people! It was located in Hastings because in the center of the US, it was outside the range of German and Japanese bombers. The government took the land, condemned 232 properties and displaced 192 landowners by emminant domain, a fact which an article claims still arouses resentment among descendents to this day. From 1942-1946, Hastings was one hopping place! It is also the place where Kool-Aid was invented. And it has the largest whooping crane diorama in the world! Definitely a tourist destination!
Today, a company called Prairie Bunkers Data Centers is offering some of these bunkers as highly secure data centers for your business. They have the advantage of being secure against just about everything including a nuclear blast, the local electric rates are very low - about 4 cents a kwh, and a local hog farmer - 200,000 hogs! - offers the option of fuel cells fired by methane. Wow!
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