Inside the World's Largest Underground Survival Community: 575 Luxury Bunkers for 5,000 People (2024)

The rambling, green hills of Fall River county located near the Black Hills in South Dakota, is the location for a spectacular new underground survival community featuring individual bunkers for 575 families and a total underworld population of 5,000. This is Vivos xPoint, and it is the world’s largest shelter escape.

From the remote road, you first come across a landscape of hundreds of earth-covered domes in perfect rows with their concrete exteriors providing a stark contrast to the lush surroundings. This was Fort Igloo, where for over 24 years the US Army’s Black Hills Ordnance Depot created jobs for thousands of workers and their families. This was a community that many former residents still have fond memories.

Among the original residents was famed television newscaster Tom Brokaw, who lived there when he was just a boy along with his family. Brokaw wrote fondly about his time at Fort Igloo in his memoirs, “While my Dad was at work in igloo, Mother was at home with three boys under the age of four. My youngest brother, Mike, had been born at the base, just fifteen months after Bill. We were confined to that small space during the harsh winter months, and yet I cannot recall any sense of hardship or any bickering between my parents. As my mother likes to remind me, "Everyone was in the same boat."

He continues, "My entire world, from the surrounding arid hills to the uniforms and vehicles, was khaki brown or olive green - except for some strangers confined to a stockade on the edge of Igloo, who wore bright orange uniforms and spoke a strange language in rapid-fire fashion. They were Italian prisoners who had been shipped a long way from the front lines of southern Europe to sit out the war in South Dakota.”

Because of the remote location, almost all of the civilians lived in federal housing at the Fort. The Igloo community also included schools, shopping and entertainment facilities with a theater, bowling alley, country bar, swimming pool and a recreation center.

More than 800 bunkers were used to store weapons and ammunition for the military, and in the 1950’s it was listed as one of the largest cities in the state. Fort Igloo was closed during the summer of 1967 when the government shut it down. It has been over 50 years and the ghost town of Fort Igloo will now be transformed by Vivos and its founder Robert Vicino into the xPoint Survival Community.

The massive complex is spread over a sprawling and remote, off-grid area of approximately 18-square miles. It is strategically and centrally located in one of the safest areas of North America, at a high and dry altitude of 3,800 feet, relatively mild weather and well inland from all large bodies of water. It is over 100 miles from the nearest known military nuclear targets.

Vivos will provide 24-7 onsite security, with military trained guards, “members only” access gates, state-of-the-art security devices, camera systems, onsite management and offices, all within the high security, military fenced property.

Water is pumped from two water wells, reaching thousands of feet deep into an artesian aquifer, then stored within the massive underground, reinforced concrete water tanks, with a water distribution system being deployed to each bunker. Each bunker is buried and protected under thick berms of earth, with extensive grading for drainage, across the gently sloping grasslands.

Onsite amenities are planned to include, a General Store, a members-only Restaurant & Bar, BBQ areas, a Community Theater, Hot Tub Spa, Gym, Medical Clinic, Hydroponic Gardens, Meeting Rooms, Classrooms, a Chapel, Horse Stables, Shooting Ranges, Vivos Equipment and Construction Supply Depot, Woodworking Shop, Maintenance Shop, Metal Fabrication Shop, and a fully built-out showroom bunker to demonstrate how each can be outfitted and equipped.

Each bunker provides enough floor area, with attic potential, to comfortably accommodate 10-20 people and the needed supplies, which would last for a year or more. An autonomous shelterization from virtually any catastrophic event. All bunkers feature a standard 26.5’ interior width, with lengths of 60’ and 80’, each with a 13’ high ceiling to the top of the interior arch. Protection will be mitigated for virtually all known threats as each bunker includes a massive existing concrete and steel (4’ x 8’) blast door, that may be additionally sealed to stop all water, air and gas permeation; an air and exhaust ventilation shaft, and space for a rear ceiling escape hatch that can be embedded into the concrete structure as a secondary emergency exit.

Vivos promises the biggest feature is the extremely low and affordable price with each bunker being privately sold for $25,000, with a land lease and bunker lease for 99 years. Owners can bring as many friends and family members for their private bunker at no extra charge. Each bunker is offered in its “as-is” condition, ready for outfitting and provisioning by the buyer, including the needed interior mechanical systems (plumbing, electrical, power generation, air filtration and exhaust), and the build-out and furnishing to suit personal needs.

Vivos or any contractor can provide the components and equipment systems required. Vivos can also provide a totally turnkey shelter. New owners decide if they want solar or wind power to back up generators; a nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) air filtration system; back-up battery power and an inverter; a hydroponic and aquaponics garden area; geothermal heating and cooling; low voltage lighting systems; a full kitchen, the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, dining and living areas, a theatre, flooring and wall finishes, the size of your storage area, private security safe(s) for your valuables and toys, satellite service, virtually everything to meet your personal requirements and concerns. The bunkers will be a blank canvas to prepare as much, or as little as you like, with no restrictions on when you can use it, or how many people will share it with you when catastrophe hits.

According to developer Robert Vicino of Vivos “We are repurposing the bunkers into the largest survival community on Earth. With one stroke, Vivos xPoint will accommodate as many as 5,000 people to ride out whatever natural or manmade events may come our way. With each bunker providing shelter for up to 20 people, Vivos xPoint makes a life-assurance shelter solution affordable to virtually every family and group. We have already received hundreds of requests from people wanting to claim their own bunker. The project is now underway, and soon each bunker will be under construction to suit the fit and finish that each family/group requires. We are even receiving requests to store precious metals and collections from elite buyers, now moving their treasures out of Europe, in anticipation of WW3 across the EU. “xPoint” was coined as the: Point in time that only the prepared will survive.”

Check out the video presentation from xPoint below:

The largest doomsday bunkers in the United States are not only for civilians. In 1992, a Washington Post writer by the name of Ted Gup exposed the hidden bunker at Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia. For decades the retreat of government and Presidents, the resort has a massive bunker located below the West Virginia wing complete with an auditorium large enough for the House of Representatives and a separate space for the Senate Chamber. Holding a television studio, hospital and living quarters for all members of Congress in the event of a nuclear war. Tours are now available of the bunker to visitors of the resort.