Comments on: But where did the German newspapers come from?

But where did the German newspapers come from?

codacorolla — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 11:53:10 -0800

Hidden Tunnels, Bugs, and Bigamy: A Strange and True D.C. Story: "Reports indicated that the tunnels were long and extensive – that they may have reached as far as Rock Creek Park. Some electric lighting was discovered inside. For days, wild theories abounded – was it a Confederate soldier hideout? A stop on the Underground Railroad? A liquor depot for bootleggers? A counterfeiter's lair? Or maybe a secret laboratory for 'Dr. Otto von Golph's' experiments?

None of the above."

Via the D.C. NPR affiliate WAMU's Metro Connection.

By: MCMikeNamara

MCMikeNamara — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 11:58:23 -0800

Awesome though (spoiler alert) after reading the word 'bigamy' in the title of the blog post, I was really, really disappointed that the tunnels weren't between the homes he set up with two wives and it wasn't a part of his wacky double life scheme, like the restaurant scene in Mrs. Doubtfire but more subterranean with German magazines and less Pierce Bronsan poisoning.

By: segfault

segfault — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 11:59:26 -0800

He told the Washington Star that the urge started when he dug a flowerbed for his wife around 1906. "When I was down perhaps 6 or 7 feet, surrounded only by the damp brown walls of old Mother Earth, I was seized by an undeniable fancy to keep on going." ...What kind of flowers was his wife planting?

By: curious nu

curious nu — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 12:00:33 -0800

surrounded only by the damp brown walls of old Mother Earth, I was seized by an undeniable fancy to keep on going. If only they'd had Dwarf Fortress or Minecraft then.

By: MCMikeNamara

MCMikeNamara — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 12:02:59 -0800

Or how many more underground tunnels we'd have now if not for them. [NOT-ANTIGAMEIST]

By: The Whelk

The Whelk — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 12:04:18 -0800

"When I was down perhaps 6 or 7 feet, surrounded only by the damp brown walls of old Mother Earth, I was seized by an undeniable fancy to keep on going." I am reminded of time, growing up, when I dug holes. I have no idea why, maybe some vague idea of having an underground clubhouse but I ended up excavating half the backyard before someone noticed.

By: The Whelk

The Whelk — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 12:05:11 -0800

(it's probably a good idea minecraft takes these urges away from me )

By: Nomyte

Nomyte — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 12:05:20 -0800

Reminds me of "Beneath the Cellars of Our Town" in Steven Millhauser's The Knife Thrower.

By: hal9k

hal9k — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 12:05:45 -0800

Harrison G. Dyar, let the public spectacle go on for a couple of days before admitting to city newspapers that he himself had dug the tunnels from about 1906 until 1916, at which time he moved away to California. The train turned out to be faster even with the stop at Albuquerque.

By: kmz

kmz — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 12:06:51 -0800

If only they'd had Dwarf Fortress or Minecraft then. Headline: Hundreds Die In Gigantic Sinkhole Caused By Attempt To Recreate The Starship Enterprise In Tunnel Form Beneath City

By: MrMoonPie

MrMoonPie — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 12:07:26 -0800

Christ, what a hole.

By: codswallop

codswallop — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 12:12:34 -0800

I've read of similar stories in the past - like that professor who built a four level complex under his house in Washington State. If I didn't live in a very rainy river valley, I'd have something like this. Bad day at work? Kids too screamy? Current events too depressing? I'll be in my hole.

By: The Whelk

The Whelk — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 12:15:14 -0800

i have a cave under my house

By: MrMoonPie

MrMoonPie — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 12:16:37 -0800

Also previously

By: Navelgazer

Navelgazer — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 12:17:05 -0800

This is fascinating, though the quoted section is a bit odd, like, "After finding electric lighting, theories abounded of what pre-electric-lighting purpose the tunnel could have served."

By: crunchland

crunchland — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 12:17:17 -0800

He's got nothing on Dick Cheney.

By: ryanshepard

ryanshepard — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 12:41:43 -0800

A Shorpy user posted an interesting diagram of one of Dyar's tunnels from a 1932 issue of Modern Mechanics and Inventions when they discussed them last year.

By: JohnnyGunn

JohnnyGunn — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 12:49:29 -0800

What did he do with all the mother earth he removed to make the tunnels? Just a huge pile in his (1st) wife's garden?

By: JohnnyGunn

JohnnyGunn — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 12:51:19 -0800

Hit enter too soon. He carried the dirt out in pails. One at a time according to the link from ryanshepard.

By: happyroach

happyroach — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 13:06:33 -0800

I'm pretty sure that the tunnel was used by German spies that were smugglers. Naturally their plot was foiled by two plucky and inquisitive teenage boys.

By: stevis23

stevis23 — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 13:08:27 -0800

Did he hide the tunnels with a movie poster from the The Great Train Robbery?

By: Naberius

Naberius — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 13:11:18 -0800

...What kind of flowers was his wife planting? Corpse flowers from the sound of it.

By: miyabo

miyabo — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 13:34:00 -0800

It took me an embarassingly long time as a kid to figure out that the Underground Railroad was not, you know, an underground railroad.

By: adipocere

adipocere — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 13:59:57 -0800

I wonder just how difficult the engineering involved in this was.

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 14:09:00 -0800

I'd do something that crazy, given half the chance. I seem to love digging

By: Bovine Love

Bovine Love — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 14:37:52 -0800

Everytime I worry that I might be a little too crazy, something comes along and makes me feel good. The internet has been a great boon to my life.

By: justkevin

justkevin — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 15:06:19 -0800

Who is 'Dr. Otto von Golph'?

By: yoHighness

yoHighness — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 15:19:21 -0800

All the google results for 'Dr. Otto von Golph' only refer posts of the same tunnel article. Heh.

By: jack_mo

jack_mo — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 15:31:45 -0800

Fascinating. Like a tiny version of Williamson's tunnels under Liverpool: no one knows why Williamson, a 19th century tobacco magnate, spent 35 years building his complex of tunnels and chambers, including a 70 foot long dining hall. I like the theory that the whole thing was a means of providing jobs to local people in a time of high unemployment, but he may have been building an underground bunker to save Scousers from an impending apocalypse, or generally just a bit whimsical (he also built houses with ridiculously oversized windows). All the google results for 'Dr. Otto von Golph' only refer posts of the same tunnel article. Heh. Which immediately made me think this whole thing is the opening salvo of an ARG, and the game designers forgot to put the von Golph content online.

By: sammyo

sammyo — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 16:21:48 -0800

When I was quite young me and my buddy had a tunnel and were headed towards the street (what could possibly go wrong) when my father discovered it. I think he really hated the little bit of work it took to fill it in. We where being responsible and shoring the sides up with boards and everything.

By: The Whelk

The Whelk — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 16:36:18 -0800

It took me an embarassingly long time as a kid to figure out that the Underground Railroad was not, you know, an underground railroad. That's okay, I knew it wasn't a LITERAL railroad but I had imagined they tunneled these elaborate networks to the north and that's why you always heard about cellars cause they would tunnel into them and use them as shelter.

By: Xoebe

Xoebe — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 16:43:26 -0800

I have always wanted to dig a secret warren of tunnels. I thought it was a pretty odd thing to want to do, but maybe now I have found my inspiration...

By: dhartung

dhartung — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 16:53:45 -0800

First documented man cave, perhaps? It took me an embarassingly long time as a kid to figure out that the Underground Railroad was not, you know, an underground railroad. Around here, we have the Milton House, built and run by an abolitionist, which actually does have a tunnel, which the man's diaries attest was occasionally used to hide the Underground Railroad passengers he would assist. Nearby, we ave the Tallman House, on the other hand, which although built by an abolitionist (who had a portrait of John Brown, and hosted Lincoln on one of his pre-Presidency speaking tours), has no attested link to the Underground Railroad. Nevertheless, before my dad arrived in 1964 and began teaching the volunteers from a professional historian's standpoint, tour guides would tell teeming throngs of schoolchildren that a tiny sewer drain leading down to the river was an escape route (when excavated, it turned out to be just 6" across), a shelf/stair roof access was for slaves to hide from the sheriff by lying flat on the tin (and burning hot in sunshine!) roof, and a fashionable multi-colored stained glass window [similar] was used for signaling passengers by lantern when it was safe to cross the river. It took years for the community-wide false "knowledge" of Underground Railroading to dissipate.

By: plinth

plinth — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 17:04:00 -0800

Seymour Cray also liked to tunnel.

By: gingerbeer

gingerbeer — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 18:38:07 -0800

I used to stay at the Palomar Hotel a lot, back when it was a Radisson. I had no idea there were tunnels under it! A friend of mine and her husband recently bought a house that had previously been a marijuana grow operation. They still have an escape hatch from their bedroom closet, she says. Perhaps that's our modern version of tunnels.

By: BlueHorse

BlueHorse — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 18:58:57 -0800

They still have an escape hatch from their bedroom closet... Tunnel or an escape hatch? Decisions, decisions....

By: Ink-stained wretch

Ink-stained wretch — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 20:39:38 -0800

In Fresno, California, Baldassare Forestiere dug out at least ten acres (and possibly many times more than that) of underground rooms, grottos, gardens and secret passageways down into the hardpan, using only hand tools, and harnessing mules to a scraper to help haul out the dirt. When he started in the early 1900s, he said it was to get out of the heat. He continued digging for forty years, and built three levels, including sub-basements some 25 feet down. There are repeated references to the holy trinity throughout (three planters, three shelves, three arches), and numerous niches carved for religious statues, and a tiny underground cathedral. The land that is still owned by the family only goes so far - long before they thought it might have historical worth or might attract tourists, acres were sold off to developers when the major highway (99) was being built. One of his hand-dug catacombs is now an extra basement for the nearby Carl Jr's. He lived in his own little area down there, with a sleeping nook and kitchen (including a working stove), and peep holes to he could see if anyone was approaching, so he could bolt. The tour guide admitted to me (reluctantly, away from the others on the tour, when I asked if he had what one might consider an unusual personality), that he was dearly loved, but the family did find him a little odd.

By: sneebler

sneebler — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 11:59:20 -0800

Dear mefi: My son is always digging holes in the backyard and garden, and I think he wants to tunnel. I bought Minecraft, but I fear this is only encouraging him. Why, just yesterday he asked for a pickaxe for his birthday. What to do? (Please, no links to the Lee Valley shovel page.)

By: marienbad

marienbad — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 12:25:32 -0800

So that's who built The Tunnel Under the World. So where did he get/why did he have the German Newspapers?

By: polyglot

polyglot — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 04:34:18 -0800

I dug another hole. It's filling with water.

By: Lovecraft In Brooklyn

Lovecraft In Brooklyn — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 00:51:07 -0800

filed under 'Unknown Armies campaign ideas'.

By: Lovecraft In Brooklyn

Lovecraft In Brooklyn — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 00:52:31 -0800

That's okay, I knew it wasn't a LITERAL railroad but I had imagined they tunneled these elaborate networks to the north and that's why you always heard about cellars cause they would tunnel into them and use them as shelter. We had tunnels in our basement in Connecticut. We assumed they were used by the Underground Railroad.