In 1959, as Fidel Castro took power in Cuba and the Cold War raged, 92 Alameda County jail inmates and eight sheriff’s deputies, doctors and scientists were selected as part of an experiment to determine how human beings could endure underground for long periods of time in the event of nuclear war.

Related Articles The little-known East Bay nuclear war experiment on Alameda County prisoners Off in the foothills of Dublin, the men, wearing vests with their identification numbers, were placed into a large, half-cylinder-shaped room, 25-feet-wide and 48-feet-long, with open toilets, air conditioning, and shuffleboard, cards and checkers to pass the time. They stayed underground for two weeks.

“There was no standard design for a fallout shelter, so they conducted this experiment,” said Dublin historian Steven Minniear, president of the Dublin Historical Preservation Association, who is writing a book about the city’s history and the mysterious Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory that operated on old Camp Parks land.

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With North Korea and the United States rattling nuclear sabers this month, the Bay Area’s concern has stoked reminders of a time when the specter of nuclear war was a constant source of worry. And much of this Cold War history remains around us.

Some relics you can visit, while others are just memories.

The old Dublin test bunker is long gone, Minniear said outside Santa Rita Jail, where sheriff’s archives include newspaper clippings and photographs of the odd experiment. One Oakland Tribune article captured a volunteer’s diary from the experience.

“Lying beneath the ground, in a hole so to speak, prompts me to think of the futility of man,” the author wrote. “Isn’t it ridiculous that man, with all his intelligence, has to use it to learn how to survive from his fellow man.”

In 1958, Oakland officials built the Oakland Civil Defense Control Center to operate as a second City Hall if the downtown building were flattened by a Russian bomb. Inside the 14- to 24-inch thick concrete walls was a 60-kilowatt diesel generator, more than 30 days worth of fuel, water and food, 20 telephones, a kitchen and a control room.

Located beneath Woodminster Amphitheater in Joaquin Miller Park, the long-forgotten, self-contained shelter remains intact, providing mostly storage for the park’s maintenance crews.

A reporter and photographer toured the facility, hours before performers rehearsed for the upcoming show “Beauty & the Beast,” above. Dozens of water barrels remain stacked in a stairwell in the large complex, along with a box of crackers and first aid supplies. The light green paint remains, as does the row of phone banks, absent the old receivers, though.

The facility shut down in 1962 when the city’s emergency center was moved to the current police headquarters.

There are other former shelters scattered around the East Bay, including the Alameda County sheriff’s dispatch center in San Leandro, which still has its enormous doors in the facility built into a hillside. Until about eight years ago, an old shelter underneath the Hayward Plunge was fully stocked with water drums and rations before the city’s historical society collected the supplies.

Some remnants are more well-known.

Former Nike missile site SF-88L in the Marin Headlands has been restored and is open to visitors.

From 1953 to 1979, the Army built and operated almost 300 Nike missile sites across the country, designed as the last line of defense against Soviet bombers. About three dozen silos ringed the Bay Area, and many of the concrete shells remain and can be viewed on hikes.

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Atop Mount Umunhum, southwest of San Jose, are the remnants of the 682nd Aircraft Control and Warning squadron headquarters — the Almaden Air Force Station — which was tasked with protecting Central California from a Soviet attack. The base had about 86 buildings, including homes, stores and a bowling alley.

The station closed in 1980, and the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District acquired the property atop the 3,486-foot peak. One five-story concrete “cube” that housed the station’s large radar antenna remains.

Down below in Santa Clara County, as of 1978 there was shelter space for about 1.5 million residents to wait out a nuclear attack, including facilities at Stanford University, Moffett Field and Valley Medical Center.

In San Jose, at least 38 air raid sirens remain scattered around the city. If an attack were probable, the sirens would sound a steady blast for three to five minutes. An imminent attack was three minutes of a “wailing or warbling tone, or series of short blasts.”

One strange shelter was private. In 1962, a developer created the Windsor Square subdivision in Los Altos and pitched to prospective buyers a 50- to 60-person fallout shelter for the neighborhood. Twenty-three property owners paid into the homeowners’ assessment to build the $39,000 underground bunker buried in the front yard of a house.

The shelter became an albatross for the city to maintain over the years. In 1977, a neighbor asked the city if she could have a key to the bunker but was turned down. She complained to the City Council, according to a Mercury News article at the time: “Mrs. Smith says she is willing to accept a ‘reasonable answer’ for no key, but resents the city’s implication that ‘I was not adult enough to have a key.’ ”

The current owner of the bunker house pointed to his front lawn when a reporter asked about the fallout shelter, and said it was disclosed when he bought the house as being filled in.

“I was worried that it was not filled in or maybe that someone was living inside it,” he laughed.

In 1982, Contra Costa County’s plan in the event of nuclear war was to move the county hub to the Byron Boys Ranch deep in the Delta if Martinez was toast. Following Cold War directives from President Ronald Reagan, the Contra Costa Office of Emergency Services eight-page “Crisis Relocation Plan” had county officials set up “expedient shelters” at the ranch to continue operating the government.

Fallout shelter pamphlets from the 1960s indicate dozens of facilities across Contra Costa to find shelter if you couldn’t leave, such as Sunset Mausoleum in Kensington and a Saint Mary’s College dorm in Moraga.

But the hysteria was quickly squelched, as public opinion waned for spending public dollars on such measures.

County Hospital medical staff wrote a letter to the feds that they would not take part in emergency war training because it “encourages preparations for a war of catastrophic proportions.” And county supervisors called any population relocation efforts “idiotic,” considering that the plan assumed a two-week notice of a nuclear attack.

Meanwhile, the Concord Naval Weapons Station unofficially housed nuclear weapons, and much of the infrastructure remains. A Los Angeles Times article from the 1980s, citing research by two defense experts, identified the base as one of a half-dozen installations in California at which nuclear weapons were stored.

And there are some Bay Area facilities still in operation, like the Lawrence Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore labs.

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But, as one 1979 Oakland Tribune article declared, fears of a nuclear holocaust began to subside even as the Cold War dragged on with no end in sight.

“People in government haven’t wanted to talk about civil defense because that’s like the ’50s all over again,” Alameda County’s civil defense chief said at the time. “They’d rather talk about earthquakes.”

What you can visit

• Alameda County Sheriff’s Office archives: Near Santa Rita Jail, the archives are open the third Thursday of the month, but it’s best to set up appointments by calling 510-272-6878.

• Former Nike missile site SF-88L: The restored Marin Headlands historic site is run by the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and is open to visitors on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. On the first Saturday of each month, the facility does a mock operation.

• Remnants of other Nike missile sites can be viewed as well. Visit http://acme.com/jef/nike/ or www.atlasobscura.com/places/nike-missile-site-sf-51.

• Hayward Area Historical Society: The museum and research library are open Wednesday to Sunday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

• Mount Umunhum: Hiking trails will open Sept. 18 to visit the peak and historic “cube.”

• San Jose air raid sirens: At least 38 air raid sirens can be viewed around the city by following this map at http://arcg.is/2wc7OV6.

• Lawrence Livermore Lab: Tours of the facility are held on Tuesdays at 8:30 a.m. and last about 3½ hours. Participants must be at least 18 years old, and the maximum number of visitors is 14.

• Lawrence Berkeley Lab: Tours of the facility are held one Friday per month at 10 a.m. and last about 2½ hours. Participants are recommended to be at least 16 years old.

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• Woodminster Amphitheatre: The fallout shelter is closed, but the sign can be viewed at the theater’s main entrance in Joaquin Miller Park. The amphitheater has shows throughout the year.