Appalachian State built on a presidential bomb shelter??!!

From TheApp Student paper in 1996

Secret Naval facility in Varsity Gym
Jeff Sprouse
Reporter

Imagine you are a student attending Appalachian in 1969. Chaos is all around. Hawks yell at doves. Nixon is president. And while playing a pick-up game at the new Varsity Gym, underneath you is a classified Naval Emergency Communications Command Post operating 24 hours a day. "How can that be?" you ask. A secret naval facility underneath one of the most used spaces on campus? Well up until 1982, the Navy paid rent on the space. The evidence is still there. Just go down to the Health, Leisure and Exercise Science Department. While the space has been converted to classrooms, the three inch metal doors, disconnected security systems, fire proof vaults and ventilation system still remain. The facility, which operated for 20 years, was an emergency command post. In the event of a domestic war, military personnel would have been operating from the facility. It was stocked with a large supply of emergency food and water. The post was manned by a full-time "Civilian" employee of the Navy who was the only local resident with access to the facility. The Navy originally contacted then president, Dr. Plemmons about utilizing some campus space in 1962. Arrangements were made for the Navy to utilize space in Broom-Kirk Gym until better facilities became available. This occurred in 1968 with the construction of the Varsity Gym. The Navy worked with the gym’s architect on how their facility would be constructed. They had special needs, such as a ventilation system that could filter radioactive particles as well as special lighting and wiring. One wonders if Naval involvement greased the wheels of government in order to obtain the over two million dollars needed for construction. When the gym was completed, it was hailed as a state of the art sports facility, including a never before seen roof system. The facility’s existence was hidden from the general public. In an interview with the Appalachian conducted in 1988, then Vice Chancellor of Business Affairs, Ned Trivette stated, "Those of us who worked with it had a security clearance, and we could not talk about it then." Details of the daily goings on are sketchy. In the attic of the gym was a vast array of antenna. The Navy held yearly drills. Curious faculty and students were turned away from its doors. At press time of the 1988 Appalachian, the Navy had not commented on the facility. In the same interview, Ned Trivette said, "It was a communications facility with radio equipment, lots of files and that was basically it. There’s no secret underworld down there." Whatever its purpose, it was once a closely guarded mystery on campus. Rumors of its existence sparked fear that ASU was a designated target for a Soviet missile strike or a manufacturer of nuclear bombs. If it was just a communications facility, why was its existence such a closely guarded secret? We may never know. Most participants have moved on. There is no reference to it in the University archives. The Navy has no comment and the files are classified.

I attended ASU after HS graduation in 1978. Varsity gymnasium was built in the sixties with Federal money, thus it has no namesake. That is why it is simply Varsity Gym. The underground section was built under the auspices of a fallout shelter, but this is suspect as there was armed staff there at least until 1982, and a door on the Street side of the gym has a stairwell that goes down to a door and ends without any signage. Their is a standard gun turret hole in what appears to be at least a 1 foot thick cement wall next to the maximum security door with no windows.

US govt cars were quite often parked there; and unmarked military personnel with crewcuts were seen entering at times. In 1980 they constructed the worlds largest windmill on Howards Knob above Boone/ASU and at that time, there was quite a bit of activity at the VArsity site, and it was quite clear that an underground facility was built beneath the windmill itself on the mountaintop. The level of secrecy and security made it clear they had something to hid and that it was far more than an experimental windmill (supposedly a NASA project according to signs and reports). It is unlikely it is of particular strategic importance, though it can clearly be used at will by the govt.

To be clear, the underground facility at the gym has nothing to do with the steam heating of the Univ, as I have been in the steam tunnels during their operation. and they connect at the central heat facility next to the gym.

I lived in Boone when I was a teen, went my Jr and Sr years of HS at Watauga high.
'86-87
I worked on ASU campus washing windows in the Library.
My mom later worked at the center for Appalachian studies on campus.
As a Boone resident teen, my friends and I have been in the underground tunnels quite a few times.
They are for the most part service tunnels with access under the drains.
There is also tiled floors and workrooms, computer or data storage rooms and active people that work down there.
Ive been to a doorway and looked into an empty room with keyboards monitors and a coffee pot with the light on!
That was the most Ive ever seen, and we left after that.
Ive only been one floor deep and have no clue if it goes deeper.
There is alot of government activity around the campus, and in a small town like Boone that relies on tourism and the college for an economy, they don't ask too many questions.

I always assumed it was either government data storage or had something to do with the computer program at ASU.

Ive heard stories that it was a Missle silo, or Missle command in the 80's and that the gym had a unique roof that could open so the missle under the gym floor could escape..
I saw no evidence of missles or anything more than Ive told, and it was a fun local mystery for us to investigate as teens.

I feel pretty sure that I saw a bit on this either on a web-site or on some documentary. As soon as you mentioned a facility underneath a university, I remembered something about a funny looking gymnasium, and then you said that it was meant to look like a cloud. shrugs But, some vague memory of a documentary isn't going to help you much, sorry!

If I remember right, though, the one I'm thinking of involved some communications equipment being found on site as well, so people got in trouble when they got too close.

Edit: I had only read the first page, where no real information was given. Now that I've posted this, I saw the second page, and someone posted the text of an article about this very thing.