Here is a view looking South. Although this picture was taken from the roof the same view can be seen from the porch. The roof will be a sun deck accessed by a spiral stair from the courtyard. The roof is 18" thick concrete.
Sunday, September 26, 2004
Saturday, September 25, 2004
Thursday, September 23, 2004
LONE STAR BUNKER
In the West Texas mountains above Fort Davis, Texas, stands a concrete bunker that had been abandoned for 25 years. I am in the process of making it a home. Cutting doors and windows into 2ft thick concrete walls is difficult, very difficult but it's done. My wife has developed a relationship with a jack hammer and I found a chainsaw that will cut 14" deep and walk down the wall at an inch a minute. I'll leave it to you to figure out how many inches are involved.
Barbara and I had spent some time looking at property in Fort Davis, Texas, a small town in the mountains North of the Big Bend National Park. We live in Austin so the further from civilization the better. I do mean further! We drive six and a half hours to get there so we can work a day and a half. So far we have worked about 45 days (in a two year period). The time spent together is nice though and we while away the hours listening to CD's (no radio West of Junction).
We found the bunker by accident. We had flown in to Midland/Odessa and driven the 2.5 hours to Fort Davis to meet with a realestate lady who knew the territory. She took us to all of the areas which are being developed and although they were nice they didn't have that appeal that would hook us. Two days of looking drew no results so we headed back to the airport for the flight back to Austin. We stopped for dinner in Odessa. On the way in I grabbed a "thrifty nickle" ad paper just to look at while we waited for the enchiladas. On the front page in the upper left corner was an ad for a couple of acres and a structure back in Fort Davis. I tried to call by got no answer so it was back to Austin.
Several days later I got the owner on the phone and we made plans to go back and take a look. First problem; the owner, a Philipino lady was giving directions to a half deaf Texan so all I got was "structure, and Dolores mountain; next was to figure out what a structure was. So another trip and a day of search. We found the mountain (how can you hide one?) and drove past this big concrete bunker several times befor we figured out that it was indeed a structure. No windows, doors or ventalation (next discovery, an air shaft that ran some 50' to a cliff) half buried, and a steel hatch on the roof. The hatch was 32X32 and a steel box ran down through the interior and through the floor to the tunnel that ran to the cliff. At floor level was a steel door with dogs on it like ships have. I was the first to go down, but that's another story.
Barbara and I had spent some time looking at property in Fort Davis, Texas, a small town in the mountains North of the Big Bend National Park. We live in Austin so the further from civilization the better. I do mean further! We drive six and a half hours to get there so we can work a day and a half. So far we have worked about 45 days (in a two year period). The time spent together is nice though and we while away the hours listening to CD's (no radio West of Junction).
We found the bunker by accident. We had flown in to Midland/Odessa and driven the 2.5 hours to Fort Davis to meet with a realestate lady who knew the territory. She took us to all of the areas which are being developed and although they were nice they didn't have that appeal that would hook us. Two days of looking drew no results so we headed back to the airport for the flight back to Austin. We stopped for dinner in Odessa. On the way in I grabbed a "thrifty nickle" ad paper just to look at while we waited for the enchiladas. On the front page in the upper left corner was an ad for a couple of acres and a structure back in Fort Davis. I tried to call by got no answer so it was back to Austin.
Several days later I got the owner on the phone and we made plans to go back and take a look. First problem; the owner, a Philipino lady was giving directions to a half deaf Texan so all I got was "structure, and Dolores mountain; next was to figure out what a structure was. So another trip and a day of search. We found the mountain (how can you hide one?) and drove past this big concrete bunker several times befor we figured out that it was indeed a structure. No windows, doors or ventalation (next discovery, an air shaft that ran some 50' to a cliff) half buried, and a steel hatch on the roof. The hatch was 32X32 and a steel box ran down through the interior and through the floor to the tunnel that ran to the cliff. At floor level was a steel door with dogs on it like ships have. I was the first to go down, but that's another story.
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