It is in a rural part of Canada where something really unexpected was lying under the snow covered earth. There was hardly some person who knew about that and even fewer people have ever seen it, but the local authority never tried to stop its creator from doing this shameful work.
A man named Bruce Beach whose age was 83 years old, he was motivated by sheer fear, he was burying buses after buses to construct a big underground system of maze. Recently this man decided to show the world his creation and the whole reason why he was doing that.
How did a man like Bruce from the fields of Kansas end up by burring school buses in the snow in middle of Canada? Though now an old man Bruce is the product of his time. He is a person who lived through the Vietnam War and the Cold War.
Bruce was a victim of terror of his era and he wanted a safer life for his wife and children. For which he decided to move to the snowy Canada.
In 1970's, Beach clan moved to a village called Horning's Mill which was Bruce wife's hometown. The Town is about 90 minute drive to Toronto and near Ontario.
Bruce had made some major plans for new life in Canada.He knew that Horning's mill was the best place for his ambitions which was to make sure his own safety as well as his family.
Bruce started to working on his plan step by step in the early and middle 1980's. At the first step, he began to gather old school buses ending up with the number 40.
Bruce used to buy these out-of-use school buses at the average price of $300. He shipped the vehicles at his home. No one ever thought what he would do with the large collection and where the vehicles would go. Only Bruce knew what was he going to do.
Bruce could choose different types of vehicle for his vision but he selected school buses for a specific reason. The roof of the school buses are made with steel for the safety of the childrens.
This specialty of school buses ensure that they can handle the weight of dirt above after being buried. On the other hand, school buses are large and open enough for people and supplies.
The next step of Bruce master plan required a large chunk of his 12.5 acres of land. Bruce began to dig a hole that could encase his total 42 buses with the help of a small army of volunteers.
Bruce connected all the buses of his collection trough a tunnel that formed a series of rooms and storage space after burring the 42 buses underground. Though he didn't stop there.
Finally his bunker was ready under the Canadian land and the next step was protecting it from outside threats. To protect the entire bunker Bruce built two feet of concrete over the entire system.
After that he add 14 feet of additional dirt to cover the entire top of the concrete construction. He made the bunker invisible to the outside world. After knowing the Bruce's dream structure people must be astonished.
Although Bruce 's life project was quite impossible but the initial phase of the project was finally over. Indeed he made a astonishing 10,000 square feet of blast proof space in this underground fortress in the land of Canada.
Very few structures in North America are as large as Bruce's one. Bruce named the structure "Ark Two" where 500 people could comfortably fit and stay alive in the case of nuclear blast and any other disaster.
This type of project can't be done by only one man. It is difficult for anyone to believe, given that the entire compound consist of 42 school buses thrown into a hole together, but the structure of Arc Two is sound good because Bruce took help from an engineer on this project.
In fact, Bruce has confirmed that the engineer he worked with in the completion of Arc Two is the same who has constructed Toronto's subway system. And Toronto is the largest city of the country and on it's subway tons of commuters safely taking each day, the engineer must really expert in his work.
Bruce had to recruit more help to construct Ark Two. He gathered at least 50 volunteers from the nearby town of Horning's Mills who used to spend their vacation assisting Bruce in his planning with the back breaking labor included. Many other also donate their efforts to maintain and improving the buses.
Why would any person give their time to a project of someone who has been called things like "nutty", "a kook", and worse? Read more to find out.
Bruce declared guaranteed admission at disaster time for those who would donate their help in the construction. And Bruce's nearby living people who wanted a safe spot in Bruce's safety masterpiece could work in the construction.
Volunteers used to spend few weekends each year doing work at the construction. They used to do work like renovations and routine maintenance work at the shelter.This was the only small price they had to pay for the promise of safety at the time of disaster strikes. And Bruce was quite sure that it will strike.
How people can get inside the shelter called Ark Two? Visitors who are allowed to enter here, first they have to enter into a small rusted portal which is the only visible part of the construction above ground. The portal basically contains a bunker and a power generator.
Visitors then will have to descend trough the 14 feet of dirt before reaching the concrete structure and knowing what wonders are lying beneath.Soon we'll learn about all the unexpected features of the underground masterpiece.
In the meantime, at the time of emergency who will be allowed to use the Art Two?
Anyone can bet that at the time of disaster for which the shelter was built for, there will be a lot of people who will knock at the door to enter into the Ark Two and Bruce must be very careful when he decides who is allowed and who is not.
If anyone would enter with a infectious diseases, it could take the life of other at risk and some people are seen healthy despite being quite ill. But the master planner Bruce found out a solution to this problem.
In the time of emergency or disaster, those who will come to enter the shelter will face a screening process as well as a shower. Even there will be a special decontamination chamber for the same reason.
The chamber contains a stainless steel double sink, a shower, a separate bathtub, a special area for decontaminating food and other items and this is the first place where people pass through upon entry.
Now, you find out all about the Ark has to offer!
If anyone stuck in a shelter the basic needs to stay alive will be electricity, plumbing and access to water. Bruce has designed a plan covering all these basic needs. He arranges a number of diesel generator and it's three month fuel.
The plumbing system is good as well, for example, a large enough septic tank and private well for enough drinking water because you can't depend on a water source outside shelter at the time of emergency.
Basically "Preppers" refers to those people who think that disaster and emergencies are not only just possible but likely. As preppers consider it as a must, they spend a great deal of time and a lot of money behind this.One volunteer Ontario Survival Network who worked at the construction had said this about Bruce's bunker:
"When you go inside the bunker for the first time, it looks like a different planet, you will feel like you are on Mars. When you hear about a underground construction of 42 school buses, to fathom it is nothing compared to going in and actually seeing it.... It's crazy in there.
Although the Ark Two has the offerings of pretty basic things, you can rely on Bruce that he has covered you with ample provisions. You will find two big industrial kitchens in the bunker and Bruce has managed one of his cook friend to stay in the bunker at the time of disaster.
Bruce planned to use one kitchen for the purpose of cooking and another one for washing dishes. He also constructed two room for storing food and other items. But in the end it became the biggest hurdle for Bruce to keep food in stock.
For the owner of an emergency shelter, one of the most important work is keeping a good stock of food, when you actually don't know the time you will be in need of those food. Bruce told that it was one of the most difficult part of work with the Ark Two.
He told the National Post that he didn't know how many tons of food they had thrown over the years. Thirty years was passed after the work of shelter was finished, the nonperishable canned food they had loaded for the shelter, was going to expire during that time.
Bruce Beach had taken 40 years to make the plan for Ark Two, as a result he didn't forget anything at the time of building the shelter. The shelter contains living and sleeping spaces called bunk room, restrooms, classrooms, a radio communication center, a doctor's office, a library, day rooms, a mortuary and even a dentist's chair!
There were other facilities which include a surgery, laundry rooms, conference room and a nursery with a separate room called "cry room". There was also a lot of place for for storage within the 10,000 square feet shelter.
Men and women had to live separated in the Ark Two. Bruce decided to do that because if the families would stay together in the bunk rooms, there would not be enough space or rooms for the others. Why Bruce took such kind of strict rules in shelter?
According to Rad4U, a website dedicated to nuclear survivor resources which said that, "in order to get the most number of people into the shelter he has to do that." According to government standards it is said that each of the seven bunk rooms had 24 bunks. There were shared on three shifts by adults and two shifts by children.
There were special provisions in place for the children who were forced to shelter at Ark Two to ensure their thrive in the outside world once the disaster would have passed. Though there were nursery and daycare, Bruce arranged classroom for kids where they could continue the process of their learning.
Bruce also had built a playground where the kids could play during the disaster time. The room was filled with lot of toys and other gaming equipment like multiple chess sets and other learning things which Bruce thought important.
The situation for which Ark Two was built, in such situation it's occupants would need to the contact with the outside world to stay in touch with them. So Bruce installed a radio system that could broadcast both AM and FM frequencies.
They built the communication system so strong that it could reach both Canada and United States and it could bring all the key information that was needed for everyone in Ark Two to survive in the disaster time.
Next is more about "preppers" and Bruce's opinion of them.
"Preppers" refers to the people who believed that a catastrophic incident would be happened must in future. They had spend a lot of time and resources to prepare shelter at the time of social disruption and nuclear war.
Bruce seems to be the perfect definition of a prepper and he was the feature for a series in National Geographic's channel called "Doomsday Preppers". But how he felt staying in a gathering with the people who helped him to build the structure.
It is seen that Bruce had some pretty strong opinions about most of the Preppers. Though Bruce liked the as he had spent the best part of his life with them at the time of preparing the shelter for an unknown emergency situation. He started to felt that his motivation to build the construction had come from a different place.
Bruce found that most of the preppers wanted their personal safety by which they were inspired. They had no concern about the safety of others.He considered himself as a selfless person to save so many people. But many other preppers just wanted their own safety and the safety of their family.
To talk about family...
Now lets take a look of the thinking of Bruce's family about his lifetime work? The name of Bruce's wife is Jean who is now an 90 years old woman. She had a clear view about his mission and had always supported her husband through helping him in the planing of administrative task and taking inventory of supply.
His children were adults but the ever didn't show any interest in their father work. And Bruce himself said that sometime even Jean got tired of the constant talk about the construction of Ark Two.
Everyone didn't like the incredible work that he had undertaken.Even some local authority had tried to shut down his work of underground bunkers. Though Ark Two was built for helping the people, the Ontario's government declared it as a public hazard. They wanted it to be gone and to ensure that really happened they had spent a lot of money.
As Bruce had made all that bunkers without any legal permission, he had to appear in the court more than 30 times in his lifetime only for this construction.
As the Ontario’s Fire Department also wanted to shut down the Ark Two for good, they had sent teams to the site twice and had sealed the whole construction.
And when Bruce hosted a number of preppers ar Ark Two, the fire department had come to the shelter again and threatened them to close the close the shelter a third time. After this incident Bruce thought that these were distracting him from his real mission which was saving life of people at the time of emergency.
When Bruce used to work in the Air Force, he was the operator of a radio control tower and later he learned the computer science. As he wanted to start a nuclear war, based on his experiences he thought that bombing on India by Pakistan would bring the nuclear war as a result.
But he admitted that he actually didn’t know when that would happen. As a result, he uses to say that this would happen in next two years and that would be the end of the world. Then he started saying that "after two weeks this will happen and if I am wrong, I'll revise my date"
But according to Bruce, All would not be lost. To get a positive message continue reading.
Now the question is who will be welcomed at Ark Two to take shelter? Now it seems that everyone will be eligible. Actually Bruce created a network named " SAFE" community.
The abbreviation stands for "Safe America For Everyone". This mean at the time of emergency everyone who will need a shelter will be welcomed at the Ark Two regardless off their race, culture, language, politics or religion. The website of "SAFE" says, "Anyone is welcome to join the Ark Two Refuge Facility - so long as they do so before the catastrophe occurs."
Bruce believed that though everyone should have an optimistic view of the future, but they need to be aware of the threats of the major war and catastrophe. He used to believe in "now more than ever," people should think about their option for the time of crisis rather wasting time on smartphone.
Even disaster was like a reborn to him, opportunity to rebuilt and improve human life. He had explained this on this website, "I am an optimist about the long term future of mankind but a pessimist about the immediate future."
Bruce Beach was not the only person who turned a school bus into something amazing. On the next, see how a German couple converted a school bus into their dream house.
A couple named Felix Starck and Selima Taibi from Berlin, Germany, wanted to leave their regular lives behind and wanted to do some extraordinary. Felix works as a filmmaker and Selima is a musician. They create a music under a brand name called Mogli. The young couple wanted to live their life on road and watch the undefined beauty of the world.
They planned to make their journey through North and South America, and wanted to live their life on road and watch great outdoors scenarios all around them. Many people thought them as day dreamer but the couple stayed strict on their plan. You can follow their incredible journey that they named Expedition: Happyness.
When Felix and Selima started to execute their plan, their first work was finding a vehicles. though they have many option, they thought converting school bus into home would be the best option. They also wanted to have a means of of transportation along with a place to call home while they will be on road.
Other people would think this type of lifestyle as madness but this adventurous couple was inspired by the idea. They started to search for a school bus in America at the time of staying in Berlin.
Luckily they found a bus that would fulfill all of their requirement. But still they had a lot of work ahead of them to be done. The bus was not in the the perfect shape that they wanted, it was needed a lot of repairs before started the converting of the buses into something that they were expecting.
After buying the bus they shared a post on their social media account where they said, "We got all of the flooring out yesterday, but we found one huge hole in the floor. The bus has a lot of rust, but that’s the problem or the risk when you buy a bus located in Florida while in Germany."
But they didn't lost hope and instead got to work.
After buying the bus they were planning to repair the bus. After they arrived in America, their main focus was getting the bus ready for the journey. They divided the work between themselves like Selima worked on getting the sticker off the bus and Felix started to work on repairing the floor.
As the bus was not built for anyone living, they had to make some adjustment including insulation, as they planned to travel on the snow. Their next post on social media account was, "pumped to get some sub-flooring and insulation in today!"
The couple had purchased the school bus from online before booking their flight to America, and the purchasing price of the bus was $9,500 USD. Although this was very much disappointing for them to find a amount of rust and holes in the bus, but they knew that to continue the project head-on, they had to keep a positive mindset.
Their next post on social media was, "We found more rust yesterday. We're gonna fix the holes by screwing in some metal sheets but before we have to get rid of the rust."
Now the question was which one of them knew how to do that?
Though the couple was very much optimist, but they didn't have any carpentry background and any experience to tackle this kind of situation by which they could get rid of rust and repair floor. As their luck was with them, they got connected with a nearby couple in North Carolina who gave them a lot of valuable advice.
The couple had already converted a school bus along with themselves and they had passed down their knowledge to Felix and Selima. After getting all the things in hand, they were seemed natural. Then Felix posted that, "Mogli just built us a bed… no big deal I guess!"
And the twist is the couple weren't going on their adventure tour alone...
Though he could not help the couple in building the bus, Rudi the Bernese Mountain Dog was joining with the couple in their adventurous journey. The good thing of buying a bus instead of a tiny home was this pup was taking up some spaces.
The couple was also exited to take Rudi with them and let him know what is snow all about. They also told their followers about Rudi that he was a source of inspiration to them and how excited they were to add Rudi in their upcoming adventure.
After completion of building the frame of the bed, they started to build out the kitchen. As the floor of the school bus was long and narrow, they had to plan carefully to utilize every inch of the floor.
In such a tiny space like school bus it is the most important part to keep in mind that the design should be made in such way that they could make the best use of all the space. After completion of building the cabinet, they started to feel pretty good about their construction.
After completing the kitchen they came along with the bathroom. Felix posted some photos of Selima crouched down in a tiny space with the caption, "painting our tiny toilet." But they realized that their bathroom was too small than the bathroom of average home.
Selima made an unique plan to paint the space white so that it appear bigger. They also used handmade tiles to make it feel more like the bathroom of home. Throughout this kind of process the couple continued their optimistic spirits and cheered each other.
When the interior structure of the bus was almost complete, it was time for building up the exterior structure. Though the couple choose the school bus for making their home, they did not want it to be mistaken by people who could be thought it a real school bus which carries children to school.
So the adventurous couple decided to paint white color on the external side of the bus. But the color turned out gray and Felix shared that with his follower on his social media account. As they were not worried about the gray, they continue their painting anyway. And Felix decided to turn the black part into cream.
Soon the vehicle was ready to make it"s first adventure journey.
When things were started to take shapes no one could able to recognize the school bus as it was a bright yellow school bus once. Now it was turned into a home. At the time of designing the floor plan for their bus, they decided to construct a counter along with each wall.
In the Kitchen-Office gallery, on one side there was kitchen and on the other side they build desks for them. With the kitchens the Office was also a must needed part for them because Felix needed it to edit film as well as Selima needed it to work on her music. And the desk was also needed to update the content from their journey on their social media account.
The bedroom was an important part to keep in mind at the time of designing the floor plan. The couple wisely made the decision to keep the bedroom in the backside of the bus, because the backside is quite and private and most importantly removed from the other part of the home.
After watching at the bed Selima had built, no one could believe that they had no experience of making furniture before. You would see the entire space with a clean lines and beautiful design.
You may be astonishing about how they would power this thing!
With so many light and other electronic things on the bus, anyone would be wondering about from where the couple would get power supply for their home on wheels. For this, Felix showed the backside of the bus to their followers where their power station was being established. From here, they had a plan to plug the bus into the grid to get energy.
They had installed a solar panels on the roof of the bus. As a result, where ever they would go, they used to pull electricity from the solar panel. Though the bus had got a gas guzzler, but this solar panel helped them in reducing cost at the time of their travelling.
When the couple had comfortably set up their bed in the backside of the bus, they were thinking about the Bernese dog Rudi as well. And obviously he got a space for his own. The couple had set a big bed for Rudi in the front side where the could stay comfortably.
This way Rudi can be at the right place at the time of their hitting the road. Rudi had also got a custom elevated table for his doggie bowls. He was actually living the doggie dream.
When the couple was converting the school bus into a livable place, they had to pay attention to a most important part and that was storing all their belonging things. They had to make sure that there remain enough space to store their clothes and all of their gear.
They planned to make the storage under couches, for these reason they designed the couches deep enough and used the rear of the bus to keep other important things like Selima's music equipment. This was also helpful for them to keep the bus clutter-free.
Once they had completed building the bus with everything essential for them, then they wanted to decorate the outfit with more elements that would made the bus feel more like home. As the both couple was creative enough, they let their creativity flow as much as possible.
They hanged a graphic on the wall which was stating "live simply". However, the couple had gone through such a lot of struggle, it's hard to say anything was simple on the journey this couple. They had put a lot of hard work to live the lifestyle they both wanted.
There was only one thing remained to do...
After completing their huge feat of purchasing and converting a school bus into a livable home, everything was set to hit the road and the adventurous couple was also ready to see the Americas!
When they completed the whole work, they shared a post on the social media account which was, "After 12 weeks of daily failure we are quite done with the conversion and now we are ready to take our beauty all the way down to South America." They were so much inspired that they made a checklist from Alaska to Argentina. They continued, “If we make it that far- I have no idea, probably not! Are we going to have a great time? For sure!”
The home on a wheel had finally hit the road, they named their journey as "Expedition Happiness." They had already amassed their follower at the time of building their home on wheel, and when they set out their once- in- a-lifetime journey that made others to love them too.
They had decided to made their maiden voyage to Canada. Felix and Selima had already decided to do sight seeing on some big mountains. Little did their doggy Rudi that he knew what was in the store of the home when they reached their destiation.
Would they able to make it? To know continue...
Banff National Park was their first destination, the adventurous couple and their beloved dog had reached there safely. The park was famous for on of the greatest mountain of nature in North America and the couple wanted to experience it firsthand.
After arriving at their first destination, Felix posted, "Banff National Park we love you!!! Mowgli is enjoying the sun and me and Rudi go for a hike." The couple was living a beautiful life on the road in their home on wheel.
Just look at the Rudi's face for once, he was watching snow for the first time in his life and his reaction was priceless. Without doing any development with the thick nature, Rudi was able to run freely through it and he was living a dog's dream life.
Can you imagine how lucky the dog was to have his favorite human by his side at the time of travelling the greatest destinations in North America. The Bernese mountain dog really got his environment in Canada.
Next destination was Alaska!
Felix and Selima decided to continue their journey even further north to Alaska, after the Bnaff National Park in Canada. Everything was going smoothly in the tour as they have planned. The bus was giving them a great service as planned and they were able to see the beautiful wonders of nature at outside their doorstep just as they wanted.
In the journey towards Alaska they had made some homemade chocolate and they arrived at the place of Denali National Park from where they could see the tallest mountain in North America. Their life was good indeed.
What was the opposite of Alaska?
This adventurous couple didn't step out just for the snow. After Alaska they wanted to journey towards South through the forests of Pacific North West and along with the beaches of California. Then the couple visited the Death Valley where the couple were amazed by the difference between the snow and the heat of the valley. Though their pup couldn't adopting the heat.
Luckily Rudi began to recover very soon. On social media they described their experience like this, "Death Valley was one of the most impressive places on this trip. Rudi feels way better by now and kinda gets used to the heat."
The couple continued their journey towards South after reaching at the Death Valley. They were heading towards the warm air and ocean in Mexico. Throughout the trip Selima wrote a music and used the tracks in Felix's video, when they were turning their into documentary
The couple shared, "It's no secret that Mogli wrote some amazing songs while we were traveling." The life the couple had live towards the trip and the moment they had shared on Expedition: Happiness, would be enough for making anyone jealous.
But, there’s one missing from the photo….
While the adventurous couple was at the height of their trip and they were moving from one place to another and enjoying the nature at their doorstep. But there was one member in their group who was not feeling great about the trip and the member was Rudi.
The Bernese buddy could not able to adopt himself in the heat and his legs were also injured which required a surgery. They hospitalized Rudi and at that moment Felix posted that, "WE’RE GONNA MISS THIS. It looks like we have to stop our trip. Rudi has a serious illness and his health and happiness are our number one priority."
Could this be the end of their adventure?
The news of putting up their bus for sale gave their follower a big shock. Felix and Selima was thinking for the best of the dog and they trusted their gut feelings about ending up the Expedition: Happiness in Mexico. Though they had dream to travel South America, they knew that their dream can cost the life of their companion and they could not do that at any cost. Then they decided to put up their dream bus for sale.
But it wasn't gone in vain, they had experienced the North America just according their dream and even better. The new owner of the bus were planning to take the bus to Mexico. The couple was happy for that in one way and posted, "Our bus is going to reach our destination after all- even if it’s without us."
From the adventurous journey, the beautiful couple not only gathered a lot of memories but also gained a lot of insight and wisdom. They could easily embrace the experience and let go the part of the dream which they couldn't able to fulfill. They had converted a bus into livable home and traveled across three countries and also shared it with their followers, this was a kind of lifetime achievement for them.
Felix put the videos together which they had captured along the journey and Selima recorded his soundtrack and attached it with the videos. Now Expedition: Happiness will live on earth forever.
The Berlin couple had learned many things when they were on road, but one of the important thing is that the people of our society can live with much less than they believe that will be needed. And they not only lived in a small closed quarter but also built their home with their own hand, which is such a beauty.
People had shared their journey on Facebook, Instagram, You Tube, and even their own documentary which actually accomplish their journey on their own unique path.
If you look back at the creation of the couple, you will find them really amazing. Even they had no previous experience of converting into home or building furniture,but they did it and showed it to the world and people from all over world had admired their creation.
At the time of choosing design, they made some very smart choice to make the place functional as well as beautiful to live in. Moreover, they designed everything by keeping in mind that they will travel thousand of mile within the continent. Did you ever seen anything like this can be go so well like this?
Felix and Selima had come from different continent and they successfully converted a school bus into home on wheel and traveled three country in that different continent. They put that memories together and put them in a documentary, Expedition: Happiness, and then they they sold out the bus. Now what they were going to do?
Obviously, another adventure! After wrapping up their first project, the couple found out a new project to get excited about. Felix had set up a cycling and biking journey around the globe. This time also Selima created her own sound track and the film was popular in Germany for several years.
Looking back on their whole adventure, Felix and Selima had a dream to travel from Argentina to Alaska without having the trouble of finding house or hotel everywhere. They came up with a plan and successfully fulfilled their dreams.
Some memories will always stay with them forever, like the nights they spent together in the tiny bedroom. They will never forget the simple life they had leaded which was created by themselves and for themselves. And most importantly, they will never forget the love they had shared throughout their entire adventurous journey.
There is important thing that we can learn from the filmmaker and musician's experience which is nothing is out of our reach and no dream is too big. While all the other world was thinking that they were a daydreamer, they remained strict to their plan and succeed in creating a home on wheels from a school bis.
Whatever, now its all over and they have some very beautiful memory with them. The post about the journey the couple shared, "375 days ago we bought a school bus and converted it to a… call it what you want. It was the trip of our lives, that’s for sure."