.

Canada's Dominion Dynamics and Ukraine's Tencore will jointly manufacture the UGVs in Canada

This morning I was thinking back to a day I spent in July 2019 with Bruce Beach, the man who became famous for building Ark Two. It’s a 10,000 sq ft nuclear shelter built from 42 school buses buried 14 feet underground in Horning’s Mills, Ontario, near Shelburne.

I called Bruce and asked if he’d give me a tour. He said yes, on one condition: I had to give him 3–4 hours of help. He called it “Sweat Equity.” I had no idea what that meant, but I agreed.

Breakfast, then chores

I showed up early in the morning and he was already making breakfast: toast with a white egg sauce and egg yolks. Then we sat and talked about his life. Bruce was born in Winfield, Kansas and was a former computer science professor. He spent a year in the Arctic as a U.S. Air Force control tower operator and studied what he called the “world language problem” for more than forty years. He also told me he once owned a large research ship and was a one-third owner of the company that built the robotic arm used to recover the space shuttle Challenger. One of their arms is in the Smithsonian.

After breakfast he asked me to come help him start the lawn mower. I could see where this was going, so I mowed his lawn. Then I stacked wood and prepped a garden for his wife Jean, whose family has lived in Horning’s Mills for over 200 years. My payment was Dr Zip, a Dr Pepper knockoff he kept by the case. I probably drank five of them that day.

Getting into the Ark

At the property he handed me the keys to the gate. Before we went to the shelter, he had me stop the car and run through the woods to see a 50-foot waterfall at the site of an old mill. He had plans to use the river to supply water to the Ark.

At the entrance there’s a small green concrete doorway with a heavy steel door. Bruce showed me two time capsules holding his plans for rebuilding society after a nuclear war. They covered government relations, a new International Language Institute (something like a UN), and a scale model of its headquarters.

Then he gave me a flashlight and directions to the generator. I went down into the dark, damp shelter, 14 feet underground, crawled through a knee-high opening, and climbed a ladder to the generator room. Bruce met me there and showed me how to start it.

Bruce was very clear that he wasn’t a survivalist or a prepper. He called himself a reconstructionist. The Ark was designed to be run by women, with the purpose of raising and protecting children so that society could be rebuilt.

Inside

The entrance is a straight ramp down followed by a sharp 90-degree turn into the shelter. Bruce explained that he designed it this way because he believed radiation travels in straight lines and can’t go around corners.

The focus on children shows up everywhere inside:

• Bathrooms with full-size sinks and toilets next to child-sized ones
• A play area, a nursery, and a “quiet room” for crying kids
• Child-sized bunks with two kids per bunk, one head at each end, sleeping in 12-hour shifts

The dentist’s office

Bruce wasn’t surprised at all when I got excited about the dentist’s office. He said everyone who sees it is either thrilled or terrified. It has an old dental chair, rusty instruments, and an old x-ray machine. It looks like a horror movie set, but it was a real, working dentist’s office built in the 1980s. I just hope the supply of Novocaine was well stocked.

About Bruce

Bruce described himself as an optimist about humanity’s long-term future and a pessimist about the near term. He was deeply interested in religion. He was a Christian Science student, read Swedenborg for almost fifty years, once called himself a Zen Buddhist, and studied many other faiths. He met Jean at the Bahá’i Temple in Wilmette, Illinois, where she was guiding visitors at the front door. In his words, “she’s been guiding me ever since.”

When I asked what he did for a living, he said he was an inventor, and that Jean would argue about how successful he’d been.

He was a humble, peaceful man with a contagious laugh and a huge personality. He built all of this because he wanted society to continue if the worst ever happened.

Bruce passed away in 2021. I’m really grateful I got that day with him.

The best compliment I’ve ever received

Bruce took a lot of people through the Ark over the years. He told several of them, and me, that my video was his absolute favourite of all of them. I still can’t really believe that.

📹 The full video tour with Bruce: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3pHt1lkHuM

📸 Full write-up with many more photos (the dentist’s office, supplies, the kids’ rooms, and more): https://freaktography.com/exploring-the-ark-two-nuclear-shelter-with-bruce-beach-buried-school-bus-shelter/

Happy to answer any questions about the day or the shelter!

Police currently investigating swatting incident at Oshawa school linked to group

One of the most famous battles of the war, the Battle of Queenston Heights was the struggle for a portion of the Niagara escarpment overlooking Queenston, where more than 1,000 American soldiers crossed into Upper Canada. Part of the American force reached the top, circled the British artillery position and forced the British from the Heights. General Isaac Brock, one of the most respected British military leaders of his day, was killed leading a counter-attack. Mohawk chiefs John Norton and John Brant and about 80 Haudenosaunee and Delaware warriors held back the Americans for hours — long enough for reinforcements to arrive so that the British could retain the crucial outpost.

October is Women’s History Month! Today and every day, we recognize the contributions of women to the labour force and the vital role they play in shaping Canada’s economy and society. Here are a few key points about women in the Canadian economy from this year’s “Women’s History Month… By the numbers” feature:

• In 2025, 85.0% of women aged 25 to 54 participated in the labour force, up from 52.3% in 1976.
• Among workers aged 25 to 54, women earned, on average, 89 cents for every dollar earned by men in 2025, up from 81 cents in 1997.

---

Le mois d’octobre est le Mois de l’histoire des femmes! Aujourd’hui et tous les jours, nous reconnaissons l’apport des femmes au marché du travail et le rôle essentiel qu'elles jouent dans le façonnement de la société et de l’économie du Canada. Voici quelques faits intéressants sur les femmes dans l’économie canadienne provenant de l’article de cette année « Mois de l’histoire des femmes… en chiffres » :

• En 2025, 85,0 % des femmes âgées de 25 à 54 ans étaient actives sur le marché du travail, comparativement à 52,3 % en 1976.
• Parmi les personnes âgées de 25 à 54 ans, les femmes gagnaient, en moyenne, 89 cents pour chaque dollar gagné par les hommes en 2025, en hausse par rapport à 81 cents en 1997.