Mystery undergound city

In Kansas no less!

http://www.propeller.com/story/2008...nd-city/?icid=200100397x1208127164x1200448977

That is cool... imagine the stories that could flow, if the walls could talk.

Cool...Just like Seattle's underground

http://www.seattle.gov/tour/underground.htm

Thinking: it is in Kansas... pretty much that puts it in a zone of tornado activity, right? What if it was built out of a wanting to survive tornados and not having to rebuild, and the aspect just grew old and people kept migrating their business back up to the open streets.

Thats pretty fascinating. It would be so interesting to know what went on down there.

Am I showing my age? Does anyone remember the Beauty & the Beast TV show. These underground cities brought back the memories.

I remember that show Gizzy lol

Yeppers, I remember that show!

I wonder if it was used during prohibition?

There are ways to date the age of the underground maze of buildings, although they may not have all been built at the same time.
My thoughts are that, depending on the age, it could have originally been built to: 1) support either the Underground Railroad free slave movement, 2) or as a very sophisticated alcohol distribution/ warehousing probably by organized crime in another state, or 3) something connected to Leavenworth Prison and its inmates.
( I don't know the true and correct name of the prison, sorry- but I know there is an infamous prison of long duration there. )

OR, maybe it started out as freed slave temporary quarters, was used later in Prohibition by the mafia, and also has ties to the prison. It is quite large, covering many city blocks, according to the reporter, so maybe it had multiple uses for different periods of US history.

I don't think storm shelters come into play with this for several reasons. I don't see any need for many separate buildings with separate walls and doors, etc if it was for a storm shelter. In the 1960's and before, the government plans as all were taught by the Civil Defense designated one large common area as a storm ( or nuclear fallout) shelter for a geographical region. Not many small buildings with numbered doors.

One thing I noticed was that electricity was present and a bare lightbulb was lit. Unless this was contamination of the original scene by the TV production crew or sightseering tours, which I doubt, again, I don't think the purpose was storm shelters, since the electricity usually goes off before the storm hits. Also, there should have been signs of old gov't issue first aid kits from the old USA Civil Defense, blankets, cots, emergency rations if the function was to provide short term housing from an approaching tornado.

I think it was constructed long ago, possibly with buildings added at some point after electricity was prevalent due to need, and that MANY people know or knew exactly what it was used for. People talk, and pass info down from generation to generation. People know. They just aren't talking yet.
I think this has the potential to be an interesting bit of folk history.

I wonder just how many of these underground cities there are? Interesting!

I love that show on History Channel where the guy goes into underground cities, tunnels, etc. The did one about Underground NYC which was interesting. Apparently underneath Grand Central there was a special railroad section constructed for FDR when he came to visit that allowed him to go straight into the hotel so no one would see him in his wheelchair. They believe the train car that is still sitting down there is the one he used.

I love stuff like this. It is so cool to think about walking over these underground dwellings. Europe is full of them. I would love to do a tour sometime.

The town my father grew up in in Missouri was a major stopping point on the underground railroad and a lot of the houses and businesses have secret passageway's, trap doors, etc. My grandparents house has a trap door that leads into a small room that was used to hide passing slaves. I thought that was the coolest thing in the world when I would visit.

That is so cool!

NY and NJ have a lot of abandoned military sites (especially the Nike missle bases that ringed NYC during the Cold War) that have extensive underground networks.

There is an abandoned subway under Newark that, at one time, featured stores near the station...There are still displays and merchandise from 40 or more years ago there, waiting for the next car of customers.

I go with something illegal.. or military.

First, with the underground freedom centers, most of those have been located when the slaves had children of their own and talked about the old stories of how they escaped and where. And as large as this one appears to be, there should have been several of those stories to survive. Also, it would have taken quite a bit of money to not only build this, but to keep it secret. Underground railroad sites tended to use private homes and caves so that they didn't attract a lot of attention in the preparations.

Whatever it was used for, the presence of electric indicates that it was either built after electric became commonly used or else it was in use over a long period of time. The presence of stores has me puzzled. If it was a place to purchase alcohol during prohibition, then either they had the authorities well paid or it wasn't what it was used for. Because at some point raids would done and the presence would have been known. And again, family stories would have documented it after prohibition was repealed.

If it had an official purpose, it would have been documented in the area history. Since the 1800's, offical histories have been kept through historians, newspapers and etc. So I think that rules out storm shelters.

Illegal activity- they have a vested interest in keeping it quiet, even after they quit using it. Military- well a lot of what the military does and did still isn't known.

Very interesting story and I would love to hear more about this.

Is this the same place? Parts of it sounds pretty similiar.

A blog from an "urban explorer"

Post details: kansas city and b & h underground

http://www.undergroundozarks.com/blog/index.php/2006/03/30/kansas_city_and_b_and_h_underground

ETA: Not the same place, but interesting nevertheless. Read the comments about the book and other items someone found down there that could give hints to previous usage.

Interesting guesses for the previous use of the Leavenworth site. Some are pretty out there, but some are interesting.
http://skullsinthestars.com/2008/08/08/the-leavenworth-underground-city-mystery/

INTERESTING ARTICLE ABOUT OKCs HIDDEN UNDERGROUND CHINATOWN CAN BE FOUND AT:

http://newsok.com/article/3069770/

Springfield Underground currently has available underground space that may be custom built for buildings ranging in size from 100000 to 1000000 square feet. ...
<CITE> </CITE>

http://www.springfieldunderground.com/available.html

Reminds me of Disney...it has an underground city that is fairly large. They move all the food, merchandise, workers (like plumbers), etc. That's always fascinated me.

Reality Orlando said:

Reminds me of Disney...it has an underground city that is fairly large. They move all the food, merchandise, workers (like plumbers), etc. That's always fascinated me.

Click to expand...

When I was in HS, our band was the lead band on Christmas Eve for the big Christmas Parade at Disney World.

While we were there, over a period of almost a week that Christmas, the staff at WDW gave us a tour of the underground. At the time, it was " ho hum" to a 14 year old like me. Now, I would give anything to see it as an adult.
It is there, and it is truly amazing!

I also don't know how the staff put up with over 150 kids swarming all through the place during our very very long tour, LOL. We were well mannered but still, that's a lot of kids to have in the work areas for hours. The thing I remember most was how tired I was after it was finally over. Since we were used to marching/ performing for hours at the time, we must have been down there for the better part of one day.