The Big Secret Deep Inside America's Resort

We just returned from yet another trip to The Greenbrier, which bills itself as “America’s Resort” in White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia. I have been there so many times that I can picture it clearly with my eyes closed. 

I don’t visit the Greenbrier for new travel adventures; I go to spend time with Joe, his sister Janice, and her husband Mike, and to remember a time when my parents took us there for vacations. It offers the comfort of the familiar.

Greengrier Lobby

Famous for her “modern baroque style,” the late “Queen of Color,” Dorothy Draper, decorated the sprawling hotel, which is lively with bold hues and large geometric patterns. It embodies a “more is more” approach, expanded upon during her lifetime by Draper’s acolyte, Carleton Varney.

Guest room wallpaper detail

Despite its cheery botanicals and sunny aesthetic, a dark secret lies deep inside the Greenbrier that sharply contrasts with the flowery Draper style and the Southern gentility it represents. 

To reach it, one must go through the sprawling, spooky West Virginia Wing, with its cavernous ballrooms and empty meeting spaces. The largely vacant wing is weird and eerie, reminiscent of The Overlook Hotel in The Shining.

Secret entrance deep inside
The West Virginia Wing

Eventually, you reach the corner of a small lobby decorated with yellow wallpaper in a neoclassical motif. A close inspection reveals an indented handle, and pulling it opens a massive, gray door. Hidden behind that door is an emergency nuclear fallout shelter, also known as Project Greek Island, built in the 1960s during the Cold War. 

Left: Draper-inspired bedroom;
Right: Bunk Beds in the hidden bunker

This once-top-secret facility was designed as a relocation center for Congress in case of an evacuation from Washington, D.C.

The hotel atop the bunker

I once met a Greenbrier employee whose father helped build the bunker. The project was so secretive that he kept it from his family. The construction of the West Virginia Wing was a cover to conceal Project Greek Island. The government funded the entire project, including the hotel’s expansion with 85 new guest rooms and 3 ballrooms.

The bunker was never activated. For thirty years, it was stocked weekly with food, medicine, and other supplies. 

A hidden tunnel where supplies were stored

There were numerous rumors about a hidden fallout shelter. Still, the secret was not revealed until May 31, 1992, when The Washington Post disclosed the existence of the Greenbrier bunker, leading to its declassification. It has since been featured all over the media. 

Today, the Greenbrier offers regular tours of this “captivating historical landmark," while the bunker now serves as headquarters for a mysterious data storage operation that serves Fortune 500 companies. 

We took a bunker tour last Thursday; it made the Cold War seem vivid and all too real. You can watch a CBS News segment on the bunker here.

The Greenbrier’s bunker has the opposite vibe from the rest of “America’s Resort.” Now a tourist attraction, it was constructed as the last resort during a national emergency.

A sign in the resort's hallways 

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