Ever since the establishment of the Minot Air Force Base and the Grand Forks Air Force Base in 1957, North Dakota has been considered a potential target for enemy nuclear weapons. This knowledge created anxiety among some of North Dakota’s citizens. One response has been to build fallout shelters in backyards or basements.
On this date, in 1961, the Bismarck Tribune reported that Bismarck had issued its first building permit for a fallout shelter. Frank M. Rose, an electrical engineer for Dakotas Electric Cooperative, paid one dollar for the permit and began constructing a basement fallout shelter at his home, on South Highland Acres Road. Other families in Bismarck had built fallout shelters before 1961, but city officials had not yet written an ordinance governing the structures.
Frank Rose devised his plan for a fallout shelter partly in response to rising tensions between the U.S. and Russia during the Berlin Crisis of 1961. President John F. Kennedy had met with Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna, with Khrushchev demanding that the U.S. withdraw its soldiers from West Berlin within six months. That’s when President Kennedy publicly called for more public and private fallout shelters in case of a nuclear attack.
Rose responded to Kennedy’s plea. It took him just three weeks, working in the evenings and on weekends, to build his "do-it-yourself fallout shelter" with the help of his two sons. Using concrete blocks and some lumber, Rose created a space measuring 8 feet by 9 feet, with a ceiling height of 6 feet 4 inches.
The Rose family outfitted the shelter with food, water cartons, a kerosene lantern, first-aid supplies, and even a deck of playing cards, preparing to endure a two-week period following a potential nuclear explosion.
Rose commented that he would be perfectly satisfied if he never had to use the shelter for its intended purpose, as it could serve other functions. “It makes a good fruit cellar,” he said, “or even a nice quiet place to get away from the rest of the family.”
As decades passed and the world did not end in nuclear Armageddon, thankfully, the Rose family’s fallout shelter proved to be a mighty-fine fruit-storage cellar.
Dakota Datebook by Steve Hoffbeck, Retired MSUM History Professor
Sources:
- “First Fallout Shelter Permit Issued in City,” Bismarck Tribune, September 25, 1961, p. 16.
- “Do-It-Yourself Fallout Shelter Cost Just $178.62,” Bismarck Tribune, October 10, 1961, p. 17.
- “Frank M. Rose,” Bismarck, N.D., City Directory (Kansas City: R.L. Polk & Co., 1960), p. 287.
- “Frank Martin Rose,” U.S. Find A Grave Index, Ancestry.Com, accessed August 23, 2024.
- “Frank Rose,” Grand Forks, ND, U.S. Census, 1950.
- Dept. of State, Office of the Historian, “The Berlin Crisis, 1958-1961,” https:/history.state.gov/milestones/1953-1960/berlin-crisis, accessed August 23, 2024.
- “Common Sense in Civil Defense,” Bismarck Tribune, September 16, 1961, p. 4.
- “Before Building a Shelter,” Bismarck Tribune, September 23, 1961, p. 4.
- “Here’s Text of Speech by President Kennedy,” Minneapolis Star, July 26, 1961, p. 55.
- Drew Pearson, “Kennedy Will Urge Americans To Develop Fall-Out Shelters,” Bismarck Tribune, July 20, 1961, p. 4.
