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Editor’s Note: The deadline for our $50,000 Tuition Giveaway is January 31. Rather than nag you every day with a post that starts and ends with “TIME IS RUNNING OUT,” we’ve decided to keep the scholarship top of mind by re-running some of our favorite college-centric stories and quizzes.
You’ve heard the saying, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way”? Well, where there are bored college kids, there are ways. At many campuses across the United States, students have managed to wiggle into underground maintenance tunnels or skulk up roof access ladders. This practice is known in some circles as tunneling, roof and tunnel hacking, urban spelunking or vadding. The tunnels, set up to channel steam and other utilities (that T1 line has to come from somewhere) are filled with pipes and machinery and typically lined with scrawls of graffiti from past travelers. Stories of these tunnels are made of both truth and legend…
Miskatonic (Bradford)
The ghost hunters at HollowHill.com claim that the tunnels at Bradford College (now defunct) are not only haunted, but also have a famous connection with H.P. Lovecraft. According to legend, Lovecraft dated a girl at the college who helped him bury the real Necronomicon in an unused tunnel that ran under the pond. The tunnel was sealed off and the exact location of the evil book is unknown.
Hey, Free Uranium! (Columbia)
Columbia University continually vows to lock and guard their extensive underground tunnel system. Understandable, given that in 1987, freshman Ken Hechtman and his merry band of tunnel hackers (known as ADHOC: Allied Destructive Hackers of Columbia) used the tunnels to steal uranium-238 from Pupin Hall. Despite the tunnel lockdown, student spelunkers still manage to sneak into the labyrinth – which winds around the 19th century Bloomingdale Insane Asylum, abandoned bomb shelters, and Manhattan Project research facilities – to throw parties.
Exterior Decorating (MIT)
Freshmen at MIT can take an Orange Tour led by upperclassmen who know their way around the roofs and tunnels. It’s an important tour to take, because MIT students are infamous for the pranks they pull by hacking university buildings. The IHTFP Hack Gallery documents all types of structural hacking. The Great Dome on the McLaurin building, for instance, has been transformed into a giant R2D2, the one ring to rule them all (above), and most famously, a parking spot for a police cruiser.
Underground Creek (UCLA)
UCLA’s six mile network of tunnels is allegedly one of the cleanest, and connects to all major buildings on campus. The tunnels mask an underground room 100×200 feet wide with a thirty feet drop lined in brick, dubbed “The Bridge” because it once served as one. A creek used to run across campus, but was later dammed up and filled in for construction purposes. When it rains, the tunnels sometimes still flood with water. Rumor has it that the system was so extensive it even reached the residence halls, but that these tunnels were sealed up for security reasons when UCLA’s dorms served as the Olympic Village during the 1984 summer games.
Be the Ultimate Underground Dungeon Master
Due to sensationalist journalism in the late 1970s and early 1980s, skulking in steam tunnels is also associated with Dungeons & Dragons and Live Action Role Playing (LARP). These urban myths claim that hardcore role playing gamers traipse into the steam tunnels while prancing about hitting each other with sticks and pretending to be paladin elves and sorcerer dwarves. The disappearance of Michigan State student James Dallas Egbert is often used as an attack on RPGs. Many misconceptions about the dangers of roleplaying gaming and LARPing stem from stories of these steam tunnel incidents.
The alt.college.tunnels newsgroup and defunct sites Steam Tunnels and Infiltration all have information about college steam tunnels. Specific campuses have student-run sites as well, which can be located on Facebook and through Google searches.
Oh! The places you’ll go! (Or not. You’re not really supposed to.) Obviously, the areas hacked are restricted, so you’d be, er, trespassing and definitely violating university policy. That said, if you do ever venture down the campus hidey holes, be sure to wear long sleeves and the proper footwear, and take plenty of water and a flashlight. Do not go alone, do not go inebriated, and understand there are dangers like sudden drops, heatstroke, burns, electrocution, and asbestos, just to name a few.
These are just some of my favorite stories about little-known places and tunnels at universities – I know every college has its secrets. Does your school have any interesting tunnel lore?
Comments (46)
Comment
University of Illinois has a pretty extensive network of steam tunnels. I had a friend who was a tunnel spelunker and at one time had a pretty good map. The limiting factor, I’m told, in spelunking steam tunnels is the temperature inside them. And a retired faculty friend from there tells me that the tunnels have observation cameras so the cops can scoop out the explorers who pass out during the adventure (but I don’t know if this last is true or not.)
posted by lleachie on 2-10-2008 at 6:28 pm
Southern Oregon University in Ashland Oregon had a small circle of students who knew their way into and around the tunnels; and I was privaledged enough to be on the inside.
The strangest event? It was the summer of 2002 and our library was being renovated. Imagine our surprise when at 2am we emerged out of a tunnel unmarked on our decades-old school property steam tunnel map to find ourselves right in the middle of the new library!
Well, that part wasn’t so strange. The next part certainly was, though.
The lights were all on, and around the corner was a room filled with about 300 or so books. All of them related to american policy, middle east conflict, political satire… it was incredibly weird to see those books pulled from the shelves and tucked away in the not-finished building site.
It was even more weird to be stopped and questioned by a construction worker who was working at 2am. Alone.
I felt like I’d been dropped into a conspiracy theory movie.
And the books?
All reported lost/missing.
posted by Brammi on 2-10-2008 at 7:33 pm
I used to cruise the steam tunnels at the University of Detroit when I attended architectural school there in the early 1980’s. They were fairly limited because of the small campus, but they led into a wonderland of abandoned coal-handling equipment (bucket loaders, conveyors, etc) in the basement of the original power house. They also lead to the unfinished below-ground classrooms of the engineering building, stockpiled with obsolete scientific equipment from the 40’s and 50’s, rooms full of old oscilloscopes and other test equipment, and several bomb shelters still stocked with boxes of ’survival crackers’. There was rumored to be a disassembled airplane down there somewhere, from the pre-war ‘aviation club’. One time we scared the crap out of a guard, who must have heard us talking – he poked his head around the corner of a door into the coal room, just as we jumped up and yelled “Boo!”. I didn’t know a human could move so fast!
posted by Greg Steinmayer on 2-11-2008 at 8:13 am
We got into the tunnels at Oregon State. It was dark but way cleaner than the ones pictured above. UCLA tunnels look like that? Dirty…
posted by epuck on 2-11-2008 at 11:41 am
During my time at USC I never explored the tunnels, per se. However, in the basement of Trojan Hall, near the laundry machines, you can find a door that leads to a basement/boiler room facility. If Trojan Hall was connected by tunnel, that would be the place to start. The door was usually locked, but on occasion you could find it open and do some exploring.
In Doheny Library the stacks extend underground for at least four or five floors. On many of the floors you can find access hatches that measure 2′x4′.
It is possible to conceal a person or persons in the mechanical ducts behind the hatches and party in the stacks. So long as you can avoid the cameras and staff.
Finally, there is a campus legend about a tunnel connecting Bovard auditorium to a tool shed across the street, near a parking lot once reserved for the University President.
posted by John on 2-11-2008 at 11:50 am
At UC San Diego there’s also steam tunnels…the campus is known as a pioneer in the biotech realms…apparently there’s secret DARPA funded experiments that are conducted to breed the ultimate super soldier by mixing animal and human embryos…but when the experiments fail, they turn their monsters free in the tunnels to dine on naive undergrads…beware of bat-boy! =)
posted by Tyler Durden on 2-11-2008 at 12:04 pm
I used to explore the University of Illinois tunnels in 1992! I got an AutoCAD map of the tunnel system, as well as all campus utility lines and buildings etc from the Civil Engineering dept using the ruse that I was working on a freshman drafting project and needed the CAD map of the campus. You can actually enter a lot of university buildings from their sub-basements through the UIUC tunnels, and the tunnel under Foellingher auditorium is really cool, it’s an arched brick tunnel with little stalactites emerging from between the bricks.
posted by Sharkey on 2-11-2008 at 12:08 pm
Princeton has some interesting steam tunnels too. When I was an undergrad there, some friends explored them one night. When I went with them the next night, the doorway was locked again. They had some cool pictures of what they found.
posted by Greg on 2-11-2008 at 12:13 pm
Bucknell has a pretty decent set of steam tunnels too, but sadly they are very well secured with extensive motion sensor alarms.
But I suppose these tunnels would be pretty useless, as you’d be hard pressed to get between two buildings actually worth traveling between.
posted by Ho0ber on 2-11-2008 at 12:24 pm
Umass Amherst also has extensive steam tunnels. From what my friends (5th Flr. Dickinson) and I found they did connect the buildings, but they were sealed at the entrances. Also, if I ever come down with lung cancer from asbestoses exposure this is my top suspect.
posted by Matt on 2-11-2008 at 1:23 pm
The University of Toronto has some great Tunnels. It’s easy to spot them during winter as snow will tend to melt quickly on the ground that’s above them.
The only group that seems to explore them is engineering students. Does anybody know if this is the same at other schools?
posted by Dest on 2-11-2008 at 1:30 pm
Georgetown’s tunnels are well known to most undergrads. There used to be a secret society that would meet there (their logos are all over) but so many kids found it that they abandoned their meeting place.
What’s interesting is the ‘Old Jes-Res’ on campus, or ‘Jesuit residence’. It’s an abandoned building where the jesuits on campus used to live (they have since moved to a new building). But inside the old building, you can see relics of all of the old dead jesuits who used to live there… really creepy.
posted by Jeff on 2-11-2008 at 2:03 pm
The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville has some great tunnels.
Back in the mid 80’s I spent an entire year ‘tunnel running’ and I never did make it through all the tunnels.
posted by David on 2-11-2008 at 2:11 pm
Downtown Sacramento California’s streets are really what used to be the bottom of the second floor. If you go into any of the buildings and can manage through social engineering to get down to the basement you find yourself in what used to be the first floor of the building. You can walk out what used to be the front door and you find yourself in the middle of what used to be the street. Take a flashlight, (a big one) it’s dark. Many of the furnishings from the early part of the century are still there. Huge ashtrays with cigar holders, vary large over stuff office chairs. A locked open bank vault. You can walk for several blocks.
posted by Elwood Dowd on 2-11-2008 at 2:31 pm
The Naval Academy has (had?) the Ho Chi Mhin Trail — the steam tunnels that led from Bancroft Hall to the Academic buildings. Swimming in the Naval Architecture tow tank was always a fun outing.
posted by Twosox on 2-11-2008 at 2:31 pm
McGill University (in Montreal) has some nice steam tunnels, but many of them have been made into student-useable ones. There’s an extensive network, and more being planned. Goes well with the series of underground shopping malls.
posted by MJ on 2-11-2008 at 3:03 pm
The Columbia tunnels are certainly very interesting and still hold some great secrets related to the Manhattan project – the program responsible for developing the atomic bomb. You’ll find a few non-students journeying down there to.
posted by ds on 2-11-2008 at 3:14 pm
UT – Austin has similar underground tunnels. I had a friend who’d discovered these tunnels a few years back. The locks were open when they got to the gates and once they were deep in the tunnels wandering around they were stopped by security and escorted out of the tunnels and than the university filed charges against each of the students. She told me that the charges were federal in nature and that they had to sign waivers that prevented any of them from talking about what they saw down there or the details of the incident/arrest.
posted by MohammadA on 2-11-2008 at 4:17 pm
This is at San Jose State University-
It’s now sealed off, but up until 1998 if you went in to…. let’s say Washington Square Hall, and *happened* to know about a panel in a storage room in the lower basement. You might be able to walk around the old bomb shelter network that runs through out almost all of downtown and the school. The 1st time I walked it with someone who knew the whole thing, it took us just over 5 1/2 hours.
I got hunngy after a while, my friend took me to a room with a small doorway that was about 3ft’ x 3ft’; he popped in then came out with some food (dinner rolls). I asked him when he got that from and he told me it’s was the restaurant he used to work at and he still knew some people there. I didn’t think about until later but then I remembered that that place was about 15 blocks away from where we started.
posted by SJSU94 on 2-11-2008 at 4:32 pm
Spent time at Bob Jones University in their Academy (HS equiv). We discovered the tunnels under the whole place, connecting dorms and buildings and such. There were some hat would taper off to narrow crawl spaces that would force you to get on hands and knees to go into but we never tried those. Best part was that there were power outlets so we would take our radios down and go listen to rock music that was prohibited on the campus!
posted by JM on 2-11-2008 at 5:19 pm
The UMASS Amherst Tunnels were pretty extensive back in the day. The Entrance frequently used was down on the low side near the Stockbridge barns, from there they went back towards the Library. I can recall coming out into the Student Union soaking wet, with a group of other explorers much to the wonder of those getting a coffee or studying. But then again, the Zoo never was a normal place.
posted by Ed on 2-11-2008 at 5:55 pm
The University of Hawaii at Manoa was built on top of a huge swiss-cheese like network of natural tunnels and waterways. A friend of mine in the Geology department told me he’s seen parts of a tunnel that supposedly goes from the schools campus center all the way to Magoo’s/The Varsity, a local watering hole about a mile away.
posted by Sassmo on 2-11-2008 at 10:08 pm
Carnegie Mellon have steam tunnels as well, my buds & i toured them constantly back in 86-88. until we got caught by campus security, and at that time was a “you get caught you get expelled” ruling of ST. we did not get expelled (or anything happen to us) but i did forge a email to my friend & laughed as he shit himself.
good times
posted by hoss on 2-12-2008 at 2:08 am
University of Chicago also has some steam tunnels.
posted by joe shmoe on 2-12-2008 at 3:18 am
St. Lawrence University supposedly has some extensive tunnels, even for such a small campus. But I was never able to get down there — those who promised to guide me graduated. My Sophmore year, the one or two entrances I knew about as being easy to get into, the buildings they were in were locked down when not in use. Some kids were found in flagrante delecto in one of the two buildings by a morning class, and admin decided there could be far worse going on (that building also served as a formal function hall and an archive), effectively ending my chances.
Although, that building had a basement ghost whose story would turn your hair white, so I suppose it wouldn’t have been the best of ideas anyway.
posted by ACute Angle on 2-12-2008 at 9:20 am
I and a few of my friends became quite adept at braving the tunnels under the University of Oklahoma in Norman. The tunnels led to nearly every building on campus, and dozens of underground storage rooms. Apparently these rooms don’t get visited very much, as the most recent dated items were tests graded in 1982 (this was in 1998). Some of the more unusual items we recovered from the storage rooms included a super-8 movie camera with a fish-eye lens, 1940s-era typewriters, a rather swashbuckling sword, and a NASA spacesuit helmet. I wonder what else is lost down there…
posted by The Big Z on 2-15-2008 at 1:49 am
At Duke University’s East Campus, there is a tunnel system that connects all the buildings, lovingly referred to as “The Tunnels” by the summer camp kids that go to Duke’s TiP program, and it can be accessed through pretty much any plain white door one sees at the bottom of the stairs of each dorm building, although these are usually locked, and I believe there is also a way to enter through the Union. The wiki that is maintained by said students is helpful, and also describes the method for getting onto the roof of the Union building, which may also interest you. Go to tipwiki.net, and search for “tunnels” and you will come upon the page, from which you can also get to the roof page.
Have fun!
posted by TiPsterforlife on 2-19-2008 at 9:59 pm
There are a lot of old and new Tunnels in Oregon on the west coast including inland of Oregon its documented that military instillations tunnels built during WWII these things make up miles and miles of underground tunnels connecting cities and towns.
Our so called War World II generation was very afraid and influenced by corporations build these things. Today 2008 they still use these tunnels and instillations underground this isn’t since fiction people this is fact.
In my personal journey began when I was 16 ,some friends of mine and Me skipt class just to see if the rumors were true about there being a door in the lunch room within the theater stage behind the curtains that lead downstairs where there were a channel of tunnels that lead to unknown places.
We ended up finding out for ourselves that these tunnel lead to somewhere!!! It was a very amazing experience for all of us !! I’ll never forget as we continued to explore these tunnels that went on for miles.
These tunnels connects to several locations amazing there are cross roads of tunnels that lead to all sorts of directions one of them leads you the Albany old court house and other questionable locations.
The is this one particular location underground Albany there is a tunnel that doesn’t allow you to go on because it is fenced up on the right side of the wall there’s white numbers sprayed panted on the wall. clueless? Oh well.
One day we found a wider and bigger tunnel that looks like a highway when we came back from our clandestine (snooping around if you will )
You realize something weird is going on? Life was fun back then but times are different know. For sure on that. But I always seem to wonder What if …I would of took my motor bike down there with a digital camera and a sack of lunch? Hemmmmmmmmmmmmm
Ah well people gota grow up someday, but not today.
posted by Magallon on 2-27-2008 at 2:34 pm
There are extensive underground tunnels under the campus of St. Vincent College in Latrobe, PA. I, with friends, have explored them extensively. “It is said,” that these tunnels were used by the Benedictan monks and priests of St. Vincent primarily to transport alcohol during prohibition. I have seen approximately 2-3 miles of underground, but at one time the tunnels continued a far greater distance.
posted by DC on 3-9-2008 at 5:30 pm
No idea whether this is still true to day, but during my years at Washington University in St. Louis (1982-1986), cruising the steam tunnels was so common and accepted that one of them had a working soda vending machine in it. It was possible to access most of the core campus buildings; you could start at Dunker Hall (basement), and get to the main administration building and most of the academic buildings; there was even a route over to The Umrathskellar (the campus bar, in the basement of Umrath Hall).
The administration never mentioned the tunnels to us, and the entry points weren’t posted with “no trespass” signs, so we just considered them part of our campus, pipes, dust, wiring, cockroaches, and all. In the Winter, particularly, it was a great way to make it from one class to the next, without having to go outside.
posted by thinkum on 3-10-2008 at 9:17 am
Hi thinkum,
I’m a student at WU and I’ve explored a few of the tunnels. I’m part of a group on campus who sort of explores them as a hobby. How much do you remember about them? Could we get in contact via email? I’d be very interested in hearing your stories and possibly locating more tunnels. Please send me something at opexler(at)gmail(dot)com!
posted by Jetsen on 12-17-2008 at 2:44 am
great!
posted by abbi on 1-12-2009 at 9:20 am
The 1984 Olympic Village was at USC, not UCLA.
posted by Tom on 1-12-2009 at 10:47 am
There is a door to one of the old tunnels at UK in my office!
posted by Lauren on 1-12-2009 at 10:50 am
Its not a tunnel per-se, but Wiley Hall at my old school Emory & Henry College has an old access tunnel to the steeple of the building thats hidden in the theatre. Its accessed only by climbing through a 2′ square hatch about 8′ above the stage, navigating through decades of wood and debris from shows and construction and climbing straight up a very tight brick shaft to the steeple. The building is now undergoing renovation, so it may be sealed up now :(, though only about 4 of us know its there.
posted by Andy on 1-12-2009 at 11:33 am
Andy — I wonder if the folks who built your Wiley Hall built the theatre at Hanover College too, because your description of getting into the steeple sounds exactly the same — HC also has a Wiley Hall, but it’s a dormatory…
Apparently there are tunnels under the college too, but all of the access had been walled up to prevent anyone from getting in.
posted by Maggie on 1-12-2009 at 1:18 pm
Hi Tom, I’m the author of this article. Although USC was an Olympic Village site, UCLA’s residence halls were, too. What’s more, the blocked off tunnels would run through Pauley Pavillion and Drake Tennis Stadium in order to reach the dorms. I believe the tunnels were closed to prevent anyone from using them to reach these Olympic sites.
posted by Marissa on 1-12-2009 at 2:22 pm
When I was a student at the University of Georgia, several of us would climb down into a creek bed that lead to a tunnel that went entirely underneath the football stadium on a diagonal from endzone to endzone. It came out in a cemetary just off campus. The idea was to make it through the tunnel without any source of light to navigate by.
posted by Rick on 1-12-2009 at 2:26 pm
Dest – where are the tunnels?! Where, as you mentioned, can you see the snow melting above them?
Bishop’s univeristy had no secret tunnels that I knew of. Lame.
posted by Jenny on 1-12-2009 at 2:46 pm
Maggie – depends on when Hanover College was built. E&H was founded in 1836. Wiley Hall had burned down once The current building was constructed in 1929 over the foundation of the original building which was a hospital during the civil war, and has a slew of ghost stories.
We probably have a tunnel system, but everything is still steam heating.
posted by andy on 1-12-2009 at 3:53 pm
The tunnels at Indiana University have floors that lean hard to the left and the tunnels themselves only turn left. Further and further left they go.
posted by Jim on 1-12-2009 at 3:54 pm
As far as I know, there are no tunnel systems around ASU (certainly not at West campus)… All I could think of while reading this article was an episode of Law and Order. The kids went urban spelunking and I wondered if people actually did that. Guess they do!
posted by tiffany on 1-12-2009 at 5:28 pm
Ball State University in central Indiana has a tunnel system, although it’s been blocked to students for years. I don’t know of anyone who’s been there. A cooler fact is that a lot of towns where I grew up have tunnels from the days of the Underground Railroad (central Indiana had a lot of Quakers). And of course there are the tunnels that go all over downtown Indianapolis, but they’re nice and carpeted and anyone can get into them, so I’m not sure they count here. :-P
posted by Joanna on 1-12-2009 at 10:25 pm
I remember back when I was going to Everett Community College Joey Diamond and I found a desolate stairwell that we dubbed “the old school hip-hop headquarters”. People would come into the lounge where we worked, and we would offer to show them the palace. We would blindfold complete strangers and take them there. Of course we would rap at them as well after reaching the destination.
posted by Munroe on 1-12-2009 at 10:34 pm
I have two actually. UB – SUNY Buffalo has steam tunnels running all under the South Campus that are very difficult to access. Fortunately, my roomate Mouse was a fantastically talented lock picker and found a way in through the basement of Goodyear Hall. What made these so special was that in some areas the tunnel lowered to only 3 feet high, necessitating a crawl through the mud with red hot steam pipes over head. In my one foray in, I managed to scare the dickens out of a dorm resident doing his laundry by bursting out of an unmarked door covered in mud, demanding to know where I was, then diving back in for good show. Good time, good times.
The second, not very well known at all, exists under one of the dorm buildings on the Medina Annex of Lackland AFB. The building sits atop a natural cavern that is only accessable by removing a metal cover on the floor of a janitors closet. The cavern was pitch black, had a large natural pool in the center, and no visible outlet. Getting back out was neither easy nor pleasant!
posted by Wolf on 1-13-2009 at 12:06 pm
@Elwood Dowd: Is that really true about Sacramento’s streets? I find that fascinating. Any idea where one might find information about reasons that the former first floors and streets are now underground and were left intact?
posted by Sarah on 1-13-2009 at 5:31 pm