Most people have never heard about it, but right outside of a major Canadian city one of the world's strangest and best-kept secrets lies buried, hidden deep underground.
Screenshot via BruceBeachArkTwo/YouTube
Placed there by a single man with a unique vision, his epic project has inspired countless people - and angered many others, including local authorities. Who is this man, and what is this project that he's dedicated his life to? Read on to find out.
Canada's Best Kept Secret
Since the early '80s, Bruce Beach has been secretly buying school buses and burying them underground in an undisclosed location, somewhere in rural Canada.
His strange project has drawn criticism, praise—and the intervention of law enforcement, and while it is not very well known, those who have heard of it can't help but have a strong opinion about it, one way or another.
Screenshot via BruceBeachArkTwo/YouTube
Recently, Beach has decided to share his work with the world—as well as his reasons for working on it for so long. So what is Bruce Beach's secret, and why is it so polarizing?
A Safe Refuge
Bruce Beach was born in Kansas in 1934. Having lived through the horrors of the Vietnam War and the tensions of the Cold War, Bruce and his wife decided to move to Canada, in order to live in a safer environment. They felt that Canada's seclusion would allow them a higher degree of safety, but moving to the Great White North wasn't enough.
In the late '70s, Beach was bothered by the rising threat of nuclear war between Russia and the States—and rather than sit around and wait for the bombs to fall, decided to do something about it.
Screenshot via BruceBeachArkTwo/YouTube
His decision would end up turning into a project he named "Ark Two," and which would capture the imaginations of countless like-minded individuals when he finally revealed it to the world.
Horning's Mills
In the early 1970s, Beach moved to his wife's hometown—the Canadian village of Horning's Mills.
Approximately a 90-minute drive from Toronto, Horning's Mills is isolated, scenic, and most importantly, safe.
Screenshot via BruceBeachArkTwo/YouTube
Standing smack dab in the middle of the Great Leaks, it wasn't just a beautiful location—it was also perfect for Bruce's plans, and by 1980, he had already sketched out an elaborate blueprint for what would prove to be one of the most interesting and outlandish projects the Canadian province of Ontario had ever seen.
Building the Ark
Starting in 1980, Bruce Beach began acquiring old school buses. Buying them for approximately $300 a piece, Bruce wasn't interested in their engines or their mobility, but rather in their solid, sage structures.
Screenshot via BruceBeachArkTwo/YouTube
Slowly accumulating a collection of 42 buses and storing them in a tightly packed formation in an old lot near his home, by 1985 Bruce was ready for the next step of his plan.
Specifically School Buses
Bruce Beach had some very specific plans for his Horning's Mills project—and he chose to use school buses because they boasted several features which make them perfect for his plans—and infinitely preferable to any other similar vehicle.
First, school busses had roomy, open floorplans. But more importantly, school buses are required, by law, to have their roofs reinforced with steel beams.
Screenshot via BruceBeachArkTwo/YouTube
This makes them safer for their child passengers in case they end up in an accident—but also allows them to carry much larger weights on their roofs. Weight that could result from dirt being piled on top of them, when they're buried underground.
If You Build It, They Will Come
After Bruce finished setting up the school buses in a tight formation in a large swath of his 12.5-acre property, he began the slow, difficult process of cutting their chassis and turning them into a massive, interconnected structure of winding corridors, rooms, storage spaces, and bulkheads.
Screenshot via BruceBeachArkTwo/YouTube
But Bruce didn't do it alone. As he began construction, a small army of like-minded volunteers began to show up, and over the next few years, would help complete the construction of the complex.
The Buses, Submerged
After several years of slow-paced, but deliberate and thoughtful work, Bruce's bus building complex was complete, and he was ready to take the next step.
Making sure the buses' chassis were airtight, he began pouring concrete over the structure, encasing it forever in the thick, resilient substance.
After the concrete had set and dried, Bruce proceeded to cover the construction with an additional 14 feet of dirt.
Screenshot via BruceBeachArkTwo/YouTube
When he was done, the entire underground complex was completely invisible to outside observers - and safe under a thick layer of concrete and earth.
10,000 Square Feet of Survivalist Utopia
Finally, the initial construction of Bruce's vision was complete. He had built 10,000 square feet of a fortified bunker, capable of withstanding a nuclear blast—and of housing over 500 people within its underground walls.
Screenshot via BruceBeachArkTwo/YouTube
Naming it "Ark Two," this megacomplex made of school buses and concrete is one of the largest underground structures in North America—a huge accomplishment on any scale. But building it, it turned out, was only half the battle.
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