Sept. 1, 2026
By Julia Buskirk, Vernon Reporter
VERNON COUNTY, Wis. ––While providing routine maintenance on the Vernon County grounds where the Poor Farm and County Asylum once stood, one of the lawnmowers hit a divot. What first appeared as a slight depression in a field, revealed a concrete slab buried and sinking beneath the grass.
Beneath the concrete slab, a room spread out underground with remnants of beds against the concrete walls, deteriorated from years of abandonment. There were tins of surplus government meals, and a hole at one wall leading to where the basement of the old Asylum once stood.
County Staff had stumbled upon a Cold War era Fallout Shelter, unlabeled and undocumented.
“It’s a part of history,” said Phil Hewitt, Highway Commissioner of Vernon County.
A ladder leads into the underground Cold War-era Fallout shelter from the above ground entrance Vernon County Highway Department discovered in Fall of 2025 (Photo by Shawn Olsen). 
Surplus government supplies were found abandoned in the forgotten Cold War-era Fallout Shelter recently discovered by Vernon County Highway Department Staff (Photo by Shawn Olsen). Further exploration suggested the Vernon County Cold War-era Fallout Shelter once led underground to the now demolished County Asylum (Photo by Shawn Olsen). The Cold War-era Fallout Shelter on Vernon County grounds has been long abandoned and forgotten (Photo by Shawn Olsen)
But the threat of nuclear attacks used to be a pressing reality of people across the United States and in Vernon County.
After the Soviet Union’s successful nuclear bomb test in 1949 made the threat of nuclear war a reality, the U.S. federal government rapidly expanded civil defense programs first established during World War I. These programs educated citizens on shelter, evacuation, and training to protect against nuclear attacks.
The federal government deemed community-level bunker systems too expensive and unrealistic due to the country’s size and spread-out populations, so they promoted locally-run defense programs. Citizens across Vernon County rose to the task.
Beginning in 1951, the Vernon Memorial Hospital offered Atomic nursing classes drawing half of the county’s registered nurses to learn about care in case of atomic attacks.
In 1955, women were encouraged to attend workshops on aid and home nursing courses, “in case [Vernon County citizens] are visiting anywhere when the enemy strikes” (Vernon County Broadcaster 1955). 
By 1962, Vernon County officials designated potential public fallout shelters across Vernon County, including the Viroqua Post Office, the Viroqua High School locker rooms, the Root Cellar at the County Farm, and the County Jail (Vernon County Broadcaster, 1962).
Vernon County established a Civil Defense Organization in August 1956, catalyzing additional measures to prepare for nuclear attack.
Civil Defense Films were made available across the county free to rent, sharing films with titles including “House in the Middle,” “About Fallout”, “Rural Civil Defense”, “Time of Disaster”, “Rescue Breathing,” and “Your Civil Defense”.
In 1961, materials for a 200-bed emergency hospital in Viroqua were delivered, “stored for emergency use, be it natural disaster or through enemy attack,” reported the Vernon County Broadcaster.
By 1962, county officials designated potential public fallout shelters across Vernon County, including the Viroqua Post Office, the Viroqua High School locker rooms, the Root Cellar at the County Farm, and the County Jail. The federal government also distributed pamphlets across Vernon County detailing projects individuals could do to establish fallout shelters in their own homes.
Instructions for building a Fallout Shelter at home are found in this Cold War-era Vernon County Emergency Plan pamphlet handed out to people across the county (Vernon County History Museum and Center). 
Vernon County Family Emergency Plans were developed and distributed by the local Civil Defense Organization (Vernon County History Museum and Center). 
A local advertisement shows the era’s political and commercial push to develop fallout shelters in one’s own home (Vernon County Museum and History Center)
No records could be found of the particular fallout shelter discovered by Vernon County Highway Commission staff this year.
“We can dig it out if there’s money,” said Phil Hewitt, the County Highway Commissioner. But for now, the time capsule has been sealed and covered to prevent any injury.
As the Cold War ended, the public’s focus on nuclear war also faded, until grass grew and obscured this shelter and it fell out of local memory. Rediscovering this fallout shelter is rediscovering a time capsule into American and local history.
Brandon Larson is the current director of Vernon County’s Emergency Management, the modern incarnation of Vernon County’s earlier Civil Defense institutions.
“They were trying to plan for different types of hazards,” Larson says of the earlier Civil Defense Institutions. “Our hazards now are different from back then… and that’s what we do now. We plan for things, and hope they don’t happen.”
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A special thank you to the Vernon County History Museum and Center for their help finding local Cold War-era materials.
Have any additional information about this Fallout Shelter? Feel free to reach out to VernonReporter.Com. at news@vernonreporter.com
Julia Buskirk reports, paints, and writes fiction in Southwestern Wisconsin. She is a graduate of UW-Madison where she studied Conservation Biology and Journalism.
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