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Why did some people
in places like Wisconsin build

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fallout shelters
during the Cold War,

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far from what were considered
main targets?

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In the mid 1950s,
the Castle Bravo hydrogen

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bomb test highlighted
that fallout

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was a much bigger problem
than previously realized.

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Atomic Energy
Commission officials

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admitted to Congress
that radioactive

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fallout from the test covered
some 7000mi'.

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Hundreds of people
in the Marshall Islands

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region were impacted,
including a Japanese fisherman

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whose death was related
to acute radiation exposure.

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For the American public,
the fallout disaster

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made it clear that evacuating
target cities or living

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far away from such targets,
were wholly inadequate plans.

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Almost the entire country
could be at risk.

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The government response
was to encourage citizens

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to build fallout shelters.

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The idea was to ride out
the radioactivity

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in your shelter
for a period of time,

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until the radiation
fell to acceptable levels.

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Very few people
actually built fallout shelters,

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but their presence in places
like Neenah, Wisconsin,

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is a reminder
of the very real anxieties

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over nuclear Armageddon
during the Cold War.