The Undisclosed Location Disclosed: Continuity of Government Sites as Recent Past Resources

Vol. 1 No. 3 Summer 2010

PROVIDENCE TAKES A CLOSER LOOK AT ITS RECENT PAST THERE’S MORE TO PROVIDENCE RHODE ISLAND THAN ITS 18TH AND 19TH CENTURY HISTORY AND THE PROVIDENCE PRESERVATION SOCIETY IS READY TO SHOW IT

INDIANA’S MATRIARCH OF MODERNISM: AVRIEL SHULL

CREATING A NEW IMAGE: MODERN BRANCH BANKS IN PHOENIX ARIZONA

ENDANGERED: CORPUS CHRISTI MEMORIAL COLISEUM

PLUS:

AGING MODERNISM

THE UNDISCLOSED LOCATION DISCLOSED: CONTINUITY OF GOVERNMENT SITES AS RECENT PAST RESOURCES

RPPN BULLETIN SUMMER 2010 3

In 2004 the State of Maryland was both project

proponent and regulatory reviewer in the Section 106

consultations tied to the construction of a proposed

telecommunications tower at Lamb’s Knoll, a

mountaintop ridge that straddles Washington and

Frederick counties west of Frederick. A Federal

Communications Commission licensee, the State was

required to identify historic properties, evaluate their

significance under the National Register Criteria for

Evaluation, and determine whether the proposed

project would adversely affect properties listed in or

eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic

Places. Properties likely affected Lamb’s Knoll included

the Appalachian Trail, a 1920s fire observation tower

turned telecommunications tower, and a Cold War-era

army facility.

Maryland’s agency for emergency telecommunications

infrastructure retained a cultural resource

management firm to conduct the Section 106

compliance studies. The firm’s initial 2003 report

noted the presence of nearby nineteenth century

farmstead and surrounding Civil War battle sites, but

there was no mention of the twentieth century

resources. The Maryland Historical Trust (the state

historic preservation office) reviewed the 2003 report

and concurred with its authors that no historic

properties would be affected by construction of the

proposed tower. Located less than 500 feet from the

proposed tower site and rising approximately 100 feet

above the mountaintop, the former Cold War facility

was notably absent from all discussions turning on

historic preservation and the proposed tower. Hidden

in plain sight and visible from miles around, the Lamb’s

Knoll facility is one of a handful of former continuity of

government sites built in Maryland, Pennsylvania,

Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C., that

were designed to house large numbers of federal

officials in underground bunkers while the exposed

concrete towers that housed sophisticated radio

equipment kept communications open among the

survivors, the military, and civilian populations.

The

Undisclosed

Location

Disclosed Continuity of

Government Sites as

Recent Past Resources

by David S. Rotenstein

www.recentpast.org 4

The article stems from my involvement in that 2004

project. I was retained by a coalition of environmental

groups including the Harpers Ferry Conservancy and

the National Trust for Historic Preservation to evaluate

the historic properties the groups believed that the

State’s consultant failed to identify in the initial round

of Section 106 consultation. Between 2001 and 2008 I

did many Section 106 projects for FCC licensees and I

had been working on histories of postwar

telecommunications networks. By the time I had been

brought into the Lamb’s Knoll project I was sensitive to

the historical significance embodied in

telecommunications facilities like the repurposed fire

lookout tower and the Cold War facility.

Aided by an active Internet community devoted to

Cold War communications sites, especially Virginia

resident Albert LaFrance’s copiously illustrated “A

Secret Landscape: America’s Cold War Infrastructure”

website and Cold War Communications listserve, I

began to find the cracks in the top secret cloak that

enshrouds the Lamb’s Knoll facility and its sister sites

throughout the Mid-Atlantic. LaFrance’s Secret

Landscape site includes declassified document scans,

articles from popular and trade publications, and first-

person accounts from the engineers and others who

built, maintained, and operated private and public-

sector Cold War communications networks. Although

the Lamb’s Knoll project ended in 2004 when the FCC

determined that the State of Maryland’s proposed

tower would not adversely affect historic properties,

my interest in the Cold War sites continued and in

early 2010 I was able to conduct an oral history

interview with a former army sergeant who spent two

years assigned to one of the facilities. This article

presents a brief overview of the facilities and the

challenges they and other top secret military and

national intelligence sites pose to preserving the

recent past.

PRESIDENTIAL EMERGENCY FACILITIES

When terrorists struck the morning of September 11,

2001, Vice President Richard Cheney was whisked

from his Washington office to a secure “undisclosed

location.” Cheney’s undisclosed location is rumored to

have been a Cold War era facility buried deep beneath

Raven Rock Mountain near the Pennsylvania-Maryland

border. Located east of Waynesboro, Pennsylvania,

the Raven Rock Military Complex is also known as Site

R and it was designed as the Alternate Joint

Communications Center (AJCC) where senior military

officials were to be taken in the event of a nuclear

attack. Site R was among the first relocation facilities

built in the 1950s and early 1960s as federal planners

conceived of and realized a Federal Relocation Arc

extending outwards from Washington where key

documents and people could be sheltered during and

after a nuclear exchange.

The Federal Relocation Arc included above and bel0w-

ground sites located within a 300-mile radius of the

nation’s capital. Sites included existing buildings like

the Greenbrier Hotel and college campuses

throughout the region. The sites were administered

through the Executive branch’s White House Military

Office. Communications personnel were attached to

the White House Communications Agency (WHCA).

The Presidential Emergency Sites were “literally holes

in the ground, deep enough to withstand a nuclear

blast, and outfitted with elaborate communications

equipment,” recounted former White House Military

Office Director W.L. Gulley. According to Gulley, funds

to support the sites wound their way through a

circuitous route in the Defense Department.

“Authorization to spend the money, although it was

allocated to the Army, was given to the Navy—

specifically, the Chesapeake Division, Navy Engineers—

who did know what the fund was for.” All oversight for

these facilities originated in the White House Military

Office.

(opposite page) CORKSCREW TOWER SITE. Photograph courtesy of

Paul Rosa, Harpers Ferry Conservancy.


The sites in the Arc, key to ensuring open lines of

communications, were built in a network that relied

upon line-of-sight microwave technology, i.e., each

transmitter and receiver had to have an unobstructed

line-of-sight between its nearest neighbor for the

network to be viable. These microwave hops were

usually no more than fifty miles apart. “I’m assuming

that when they did their studies they knew specifically

where the main terminals were going to be and they

looked for locations that they had line of sight to,”

explained John Cross, a retired Army sergeant who was

assigned to WHCA. And they were all, you know,

within probably maybe forty miles of each other.”

According to John Cross and other former government

employees there were 75 Presidential Emergency

Facilities among the 90 or s0 Federal Relocation Arc

sites. Only a handful of the properties was designed as

a key communications node in the continuity of

government microwave network. The sites were

known by their locations, i.e., Raven Rock or Lamb’s

Knoll; and, they each had codenames, all of which

began with the letter “C.” (see chart on opposite page)

Each of the sites included a 100-foot cylindrical tower,

two-thirds of which was solidly built to house

transmitters and receivers, supply rooms, and quarters

for the skeleton staff which oversaw the facilities

around the clock. The upper portions of the towers

held parabolic antennas aimed towards the next

facility in the network. These antennas were shielded

by radio frequency—transparent plexiglass that

protected the antennas from the elements and

concealed them from view while enabling radio waves

to pass through. The towers were connected to

elaborate underground bunker complexes and entry to

the facilities was through massive blast doors.

Because the towers were highly visible yet top secret,

no official explanation of their functions were ever

released. Locals near the Lamb’s Knoll site speculated

that the tower was a missile silo. Cannonball, where

Cross was stationed, and Camp David’s Cactus site

were believed to be water tanks. “People around

Mercersburg thought it was a water tower,” Cross

recalled. “We used to buy water from the City of

Mercersburg and we had a water tanker that we’d

haul water back up to the mountaintop so they saw

that and they saw, you know, the water tanker and

they just figured that they were getting better water

pressured that way.” During Soviet Premier Nikita

Khrushchev’s 1959 visit to Camp David with President

Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Cactus facility’s tower

sported an observation deck and signage to reinforce

the perception that the structure was in fact a water

tower.

CANNONBALL TOWER SITE, MERCERSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA.

Photograph provided by John Cross.

(opposite page) LOCATION OF PRESIDENTIAL EMERGENCY

FACILITIES.


THE UNDISCLOSED LOCATION DISCLOSED

Presidential Emergency Facility Sites

Site Code Name Other Name Location

Crown The White House Washington, D.C.

Cartwheel Fort Reno Washington, D.C.

Crystal Mt. Weather Berryville, Virginia

Corkscrew Lamb’s Knoll Frederick County, Maryland

Cowpuncher Martinsburg Roundtop Summit, Virginia

Cannonball Cross Mountain Mercersburg, Pennsylvania

Cactus Camp David Thurmont, Maryland

Creed Site R (Raven Rock) Waynesboro, Pennsylvania


(top) CARTWHEEL SITE, FORT RENO PARK, WASHINGTON, D.C.

The Cartwheel tower is the leftmost structure. The two masonry

buildings on the right are historic water towers. Photograph by

David S. Rotenstein, 2010.

(middle) CARTWHEEL SITE. Close-up of concealed antenna decks.

Photograph by David S. Rotenstein, 2010.

(bottom) CANNONBALL TOWER. Cross-section drawn by John

Cross.

The Cartwheel site is located among early twentieth

century water towers in Washington’s Fort Reno Park:

“Radar and other sound-sensitive antennas, dishes,

and horns were installed atop a new brick tower at

Reno—the one that does not hold water. The

underground communications center reportedly links

the White House with other large centers in the

Middle Atlantic states.”

Since the facilities were top secret, few detailed

descriptions of their interiors have surfaced. John

Cross never photographed Cannonball or the other

facilities he visited while assigned to WHCA. Cross has

prepared several line drawings illustrating the interiors

of Cannonball, Cactus, and Cartwheel. According to

Cold War communications enthusiasts, the concrete

towers were designed to deflect the force of a nuclear

blast. Cross explains their construction,

“Well it was solid concrete. You know the air system

was filtered so that if anything did happen all the air

intake would be shut down and you had a filtration

system. Everything was I guess primarily engineered

you know with the concrete. Now you know there was

always some possible problems with the antenna

decks where we had spare microwave dishes that

could be put in temporarily if anything happened that,

you know, a blast would be close enough to tear off

some of the dishes. We had spare dishes that we could

put in in a fairly short period of time, that we could

replace them. But the structure itself with concrete

was really about the biggest thing.”


David S. Rotenstein has a Ph.D. in Folklore and Folklife from the

University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. in Anthropology from

Georgia State University and is a historical consultant in Silver

Spring, Maryland. Dr. Rotenstein is a former Montgomery County

Historic Preservation Commission chairman and serves on a Zoning

Advisory Panel consulting on a revision to the County’s zoning

code. Publications in history include articles on

telecommunications history, cultural tourism, and the leather and

livestock industries and has written 13 Historic American

Engineering Record and Historic American Building Survey reports

as well as a number of regional and state encyclopedia articles.

Teaching experience includes the University of Pennsylvania,

Carnegie Mellon University, Montgomery College, and the National

Preservation Institute. Twenty-five years experience in National

Historic Preservation Act (Section 106) compliance and public

history in public– and private-sector positions.

THE UNDISCLOSED LOCATION DISCLOSED

By the early 1970s the Presidential Emergency

Facilities were being decommissioned. Cross recalls

closing down Cannonball in 1970 shortly after

significant upgrades were installed. Changes in

communications technology and continuity of

government plans obviated the 1950s facilities. Most

were transferred from Army control to other agencies.

Corkscrew (Lamb’s Knoll) and Cartwheel (Fort Reno)

were acquired by the Federal Aviation Administration

and their towers remain in use. Mt. Weather remains a

top secret facility and Cannonball was abandoned and

sold, its tower exposed to the elements and vandals.

The towers at Cactus (Camp David) and Site R have

been demolished.

Each of the remaining Presidential Emergency Facility

may at some point become part of a Section 106 case

in which the property’s eligibility for listing in the

National Register of Historic Places must be evaluated.

Recent Past properties, especially those tied to military

and intelligence infrastructure present unique

challenges stemming from a lack of understanding of

recent past resources, biases against properties of

such recent vintage, and the added layer of secrecy

inherent in such properties. In the Lamb’s Knoll Section

106 consultation from 2004, the State of Maryland’s

consultant wrote that the Presidential Emergency

Facility could not be evaluated for listing in the

National Register because of its top secret status. The

Maryland Historical Trust agreed:

“Constructed circa 1962, the U.S. Army Facility was

evaluated against Criteria Consideration G for

Exceptional important and subsequently

recommended as ineligible since the history of the

facility and photographs are unobtainable due to

security concerns. Until such time that the facility is no

longer to-secret and the significance can be examined

more thoroughly, the Trust concurs that the Lambs

Knoll U.S. Army Facility is ineligible for the National

Register.”

As the federal agency responsible for complying with

Section 106, the FCC issued comments that reinforced

the State of Maryland’s. “The MDSHPO *Maryland

Historical Trust] further advises that it is not possible

to determine if the Federal Facility is eligible given the

secrecy surrounding that property and its mission,”

wrote the FCC in its final opinion issued in July 2004.

Sites like Cartwheel, Corkscrew, and Cannonball were

critical continuity of government sites during the Cold

War. Their highly visible towers became part of an

industrial landscape defined by telecommunications

infrastructure essential to the information-based third

industrial revolution. Beyond their highly functional

roles in the ubiquitous military industrial complex,

they also were places where people worked and lived

daily. “I had a lot of fun, you know, even though it was

a job, I had a lot of fun.” recalled John Cross during our

twenty-first century interview using Skype. “You know,

the funny thing about it, I worked with people that

were both at Crystal and Cadre and Cartwheel for

years after we closed down those sites. But we never

discussed what went on at those locations.” As historic

preservation practice matures and greater significance

is attached to recent past resources, perhaps more

may be known about these sites, their roles in

American and global culture, and the people who built

them and worked there.

The Undisclosed Location Disclosed: Continuity of Government Sites as Recent Past Resources

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