Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters

Take your next trip with Atlas Obscura!

Our small-group adventures are inspired by our Atlas of the world's most fascinating places, the stories behind them, and the people who bring them to life.

Visit Adventures
Trips Highlight
Macchu Picchu
Peru • 10 days, 9 nights
Peru: Machu Picchu & the Last Incan Bridges
from
Central Asia yurt night stars
Uzbekistan • 15 days, 14 nights
Central Asia Road Trip: Backroads & Bazaars
from
View all trips
Top Destinations
Latest Places
Most Popular Places Random Place Lists Itineraries
Add a Place
Download the App
Top Destinations
View All Destinations »

Countries

  • Australia
  • Canada
  • China
  • France
  • Germany
  • India
  • Italy
  • Japan

Cities

  • Amsterdam
  • Barcelona
  • Beijing
  • Berlin
  • Boston
  • Budapest
  • Chicago
  • London
  • Los Angeles
  • Mexico City
  • Montreal
  • Moscow
  • New Orleans
  • New York City
  • Paris
  • Philadelphia
  • Rome
  • San Francisco
  • Seattle
  • Stockholm
  • Tokyo
  • Toronto
  • Vienna
  • Washington, D.C.
Latest Places
View All Places »
The front of the mosque.
Şakirin Mosque
Ornate decorations are part of some of the music boxes.
Terranova Music Box Museum
Take some of Michigan’s produce home with you.
American Spoon
The Edmond Bombing Memorial in Mitch Park.
Edmond Bombing Memorial
Latest Places to Eat & Drink
View All Places to Eat »
Take some of Michigan’s produce home with you.
American Spoon
The local catch is delicious fried as well.
Terry's of Charlevoix
Carlson’s Fishery is a Great Lakes institution.
Carlson’s Fishery
Books are available inside for borrowing or purchase.
Cathedral Café
Exterior of the historic Dyffryn Arms pub.
Dyffryn Arms
Recent Stories
All Stories Video Podcast
Most Recent Stories
View All Stories »
Cely’s map is not only accurate, but captures the unique characteristics of Congaree’s trees and waterways.
How One Biologist Drew a Hyper-Accurate, Ranger-Approved Map of Congaree National Park
about 14 hours ago
Though they’re protected inside the park, wolves can be killed when they cross its borders.
Wolves Have a Bad Reputation. One Yellowstone Naturalist Is Trying to Fix It.
about 15 hours ago
Passersby stop to admire the punny offerings of Brooklyn’s only dinosaur bodega.
We Visited the Dino Bodega in (Jurassic) Park Slope
3 days ago
Native Americans have a longstanding, rich, and vibrant culture in Wyoming.
Wyoming’s Sacred Landscapes: A Journey Through Native American History
3 days ago

No search results found for
“”

Make sure words are spelled correctly.

Try searching for a travel destination.

Places near me Random place

Popular Destinations

  • Paris
  • London
  • New York
  • Berlin
  • Rome
  • Los Angeles
Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters
Sign In Join
Places near me Random place
All Canada Ontario Horning's Mills Ark Two Shelter

Ark Two Shelter

This extensive nuclear fallout shelter built from 42 school buses could house 500 people in its tunnels.

Horning's Mills, Ontario

Added By
Lew Blank
Email
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list
Aerial view of school buses prior to being covered   Courtesy of Bruce Beach
Aerial view of school buses prior to being covered   Courtesy of Bruce Beach
Entrance to Ark Two shelter   Toronto Star / CC BY-SA 2.0
Tunnel leading to the bunker   Courtesy of Bruce Beach
Bunk bed room   Courtesy of Bruce Beach
Kitchen   Courtesy of Bruce Beach
Sink room   Courtesy of Bruce Beach
Women’s bathroom   Courtesy of Bruce Beach
Bruce Beach with spigots that control a milk tanker that holds 5,000 gallons of water   Courtesy of Bruce Beach
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list

About

As political tensions rise around the world some doomsday preppers are preparing for the fallout of a nuclear war. None of them, however, are as prepared as Bruce Beach, who has created a massive subterranean shelter out of 42 recycled school buses, topped with layers of concrete and soil, in an attempt to save humanity from armageddon.

The Ark Two Shelter is located in Horning Mills, Canada, and covers about 10,000 square feet of land. Beach, who believes that nuclear war will inevitably occur in the coming years, began constructing the shelter in the early 1980s and has cumulatively spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on construction equipment and legal fees to build what he views as a necessity for the future of the human race.

After entering the shelter through a small above-ground portal, survivors of a nuclear attack would descend 14 feet below ground to access the matrix of interconnected school buses that make up Ark Two. The underground complex includes dozens of fully functional rooms into the school bus shells, including two kitchens, a radio communications center, a doctor’s office, an exercise area, and even a laundry room.

Beach has also managed to equip his shelter with a steady supply of basic utilities such as lighting, heating, running water, an intricate air circulation system, and three months worth of diesel fuel to power the shelter’s electric generators.  

Although the local government has desperately tried to shut down Beach's operation, cumulatively penalizing him with $250,000 in legal expenses, the man has refused to forfeit his life's work. In total, Ark Two has the capacity to house over 500 people. But don't get your hopes up, adults; Beach's plan calls for 80 percent of the shelter's population to be children, which he sees as the optimal way to prevent humankind from going extinct.

Related Tags

Nuclear Design Bunkers

Know Before You Go

If you want to tour the subterranean shelter, Beach will show you around if you contact him first, on the one condition that you contribute some manual labor to the project in return. The shelter’s not gonna maintain itself!

Community Contributors

Added By

lewblank

Published

December 28, 2017

Edit this listing

Make an Edit
Add Photos
Sources
  • http://webpal.org/SAFE/aaaarktwo/
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ark_Two_Shelter
Ark Two Shelter
Horning's Mills, Ontario
Canada
44.153731, -80.20487

Nearby Places

Creemore Jail

Creemore, Ontario

miles away

Maple Syrup Museum of Ontario

Hillsburgh, Ontario

miles away

Cheltenham Badlands

Caledon, Ontario

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Ontario

Ontario

Canada

Places 178
Stories 13

Nearby Places

Creemore Jail

Creemore, Ontario

miles away

Maple Syrup Museum of Ontario

Hillsburgh, Ontario

miles away

Cheltenham Badlands

Caledon, Ontario

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Ontario

Ontario

Canada

Places 178
Stories 13

Related Stories and Lists

Ark Two Shelter

Podcast

By The Podcast Team

Related Places

  • Nuclear bunkers in Nowa Huta

    Krakow, Poland

    Nuclear Bunkers of Nowa Huta

    An underground city beneath Krakow's postwar socialist utopia.

  • Cheyenne, Wyoming

    Quebec 01 Missile Alert Facility

    The only retired U.S. nuclear missile silo that is open to the public.

  • New Orleans, Louisiana

    Civil Defense Control Center

    An abandoned underground bunker not far from downtown New Orleans.

  • Aerial view of the Soviet summer camp.

    Bluemont, Virginia

    Soviet Embassy's 'Summer Camp' House

    Conveniently located within binocular range of a nuclear bunker, the "summer camp" area was a painfully obvious spy house.

  • Grove Park Inn

    Asheville, North Carolina

    The Grove Park Inn

    The U.S. Supreme Court's secret Cold War relocation facility in the mountains of North Carolina.

  • A door to the tunnels

    Xianning Shi, China

    Underground Project 131

    This Cold War–era underground city includes offices for Mao Zedong and Lin Biao.

  • Brno, Czechia

    Nuclear Shelter 10-Z

    A former top secret nuclear fallout shelter now operates like a hotel stuck in the Cold War.

  • Constructing the nuclear reactor.

    Greenland

    Camp Century (Project Iceworm)

    A Cold War atomic camp buried under the ice is now emerging because of global warming.

Aerial image of Vietnam, displaying the picturesque rice terraces, characterized by their layered, verdant fields.
Atlas Obscura Membership

Become an Atlas Obscura Member


Join our community of curious explorers.

Become a Member

Get Our Email Newsletter

Follow Us

Facebook YouTube TikTok Instagram Pinterest RSS Feed

Get the app

Download the App
Download on the Apple App Store Get it on Google Play
  • All Places
  • Latest Places
  • Most Popular
  • Places to Eat
  • Random
  • Nearby
  • Add a Place
  • Stories
  • Food & Drink
  • Itineraries
  • Lists
  • Video
  • Podcast
  • Newsletters
  • All Trips
  • Family Trip
  • Food & Drink
  • History & Culture
  • Wildlife & Nature
  • FAQ
  • Membership
  • Feedback & Ideas
  • Community Guidelines
  • Product Blog
  • Unique Gifts
  • Work With Us
  • About
  • FAQ
  • Advertise With Us
  • Advertising Guidelines
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms of Use
Atlas Obscura

© 2025 Atlas Obscura. All Rights Reserved.