For those new to this thread who are reading this first - Mike, the owner, dug it out from 1995 to 1997 by hand with no mechanized equipment to help him. This was at 10,000 feet elevation with short summer seasons. The most expensive consideration was buying concrete (about 100 bags of 80 lb concrete) to the total of $1000 - $1500.

Unfortunately there are no pictures (that I am aware of) of the 1995-97 digging as this was before digital cameras and the builder was on his own with no-one to take pictures. (I don't think he began taking pictures until 1999-2000?).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-aybkSBOgo

The plan (not followed to the letter, but you'll get the picture)



The Blast Door:

These are steel and reinforced with concrete in the event of a big TEOTWAKI.



Roof Cross-section (sort-of):

Three layers of logs, 6 layers of waterproof sheeting, concrete and dirt



Bunk-beds and Ladder for accessing Emergency Hatch



Emergency Hatch



Landscaping and drainage ongoing:



Gun Port



Stores and Tools





Covert Exhaust system for Stove (tree stump faces road):



Roof goes into the Mountain! Maybe one day they'll be another tunnel going to the Cabin Build (that's another story though ;) )



The design and plans shown in the vid are of a small pole shelter triple-clad with roof logs and sheeting (waterproof).

This allows the weight of concrete and earth on top for the overhead. For the walls logs and steel 'H' Beams along with more sheeting (waterproof) then earth.

The internal space resembles an 'L' shape as recommended for fallout / blast shelters. This is small but incredibly strong and resistant to cave-ins, earthquakes, disasters. The shelter is multi-functional with two bunks and two stoves providing heat.

A main entrance with a steel blast door and an emergency exit / trapdoor are installed.

The year round temperature is about 35 - 45 degrees without being heated.  The bunker has been featured on multiple social-sites and Mike is often contacted by television companies for it to be shown on mainstream broadcasts. The Colony short-listed him for appearing on the show but ultimately another was chosen.

However when the challenging conditions are revealed to TV companies (short accessible seasons, snow fall requiring snow-mobiles etc) the producers normally go for an easy access bunker elsewhere and underground shelters that are more fancy.

This is doable by any able-bodied male (or female if driven enough) with the right location.

The location inspired a fictional film which was shot at Mike's Bunker called After The Fall / Raiders of the Mountain Hold:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT8pKI_Gztg

I'd have many more pictures to show you BUT the retarded hosting site has crashed / won't let me upload any more pictures. :(

If you have any questions, please ask and I'll try and get a bit more specific. :)

Buy a septic tank. Hire a backhoe. Save yourself a couple years of hard manual labor.

The guy had fck all cash Rody, he lives free, refuses to take welfare and does things his own way to fit around the location he's in.

To answer your questions, no road access to the side of a mountain (that is across springs, slopes etc).

Have you got the drill crew that can blast and get through dozens of feet of rock? :) Hire a backhoe? I guess that and transporting it hundreds of miles is cheap as rocks?
Compost toilets are your friend. :)

 
Pretty sure Rodent meant use the septic tank AS the bunker to make it easier, but this is pretty neat to see a hand built version.

How to do it? Simple, don't dig in FL.

drill, blast small vein mining is what I've done for a living. A compressor big enough to supply 90 psi through a 1 in hose will run the drill and the slusher used to remove the blasted rock. In mining the goal is to full cycle, drill,blast,muck atleast one 6 ft advance each shift. Ground support can be the challenge until your into good solid hard rock.  I always wanted a hole in the wall home/bunker.  A remote no access bunker without modern tools could still be done. Have to hand steel drill into the hard rock.  I used to work with hand steel world champions. Carson city nevada has the hand steel mining contests. I used to enter the jackleg contests myself, The last one I entered was in Park cty utah.3rd place.

How to blast though? Can't get blasting caps these days without licenses and other BS?

The steel hand drill sounds cool and uber-macho stuff.

Like this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gp2WAie2uuk

watch-ryder yeh thats hand steel drilling. Single jack. Each steel 6-8 inches longer than the last getting deeper. keep in mind the holes drilled or tunnel direction could be horizontal, down or straight up following the vein wherever it may go. Nowdays a machine called a jackleg or stoper is used. Air-hammer drill.

I remember seeing those photos in one of my father's old copies of American Survival Guide (it was rather new at the time).

Yep, ole' Mountain Mike is an old-school kinda guy that's for sure. He dug that shelter in an L shape for added nuclear buffering.

PS. That avatar is from Fallout 3! :)

What about water rising up from the floors or through the sides?

What's with the concern for blast effects?  Is there an Air Force base or missile silos nearby?

It doesn't happen. The mountain has very good drainage, is of rocky, rocky soil. No leaks in from the sides.

The only slight leak is at the entrance section, in the bunker core it's dry as a bone. Water flows around the edges of the trapdoor too and into the landscaped area and away from the shelter etc.

They aren't too far away. Also it's not too far from Yellowstone so that's a consideration as well. It was also formulated in the dying days of the Cold War too.

This might interest the PAW and old-school B movie lovers...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT8pKI_Gztg

It was filmed on-location where Mike's bunker is! :)