thrice all american: Tacoma's Tunnels, Take Three

Tacoma's Tunnels, Take Three

· Posted Thursday September 14, 2006 by jamie

A couple of new interesting finds in the search for information on the alleged tunnels of Tacoma…most everything this time around deals with the Chinese tunnels. (For previous Tacoma tunnel posts see part one and part two.)

The first interesting item comes from a search on Google’s new news archive search, where I found a Washington Post article from May 27, 1906 titled Rat-Hole of Tunnel Where the Chinese Foiled the Law. Labeled as being “From the Tacoma News”, the gist of the article is that the reporter joined a local boy in the exploration of a cave purportedly used in the 1880s to smuggle Chinese immigrants into the country. (Per the article, “it it is doubtful if, aside from boys, half a dozen people had ever explored it.”) The tunnel, stated as starting at a swamp “near the Steilacoom Line”, purportedly extended for more than two miles, but had significant cave-ins making it only passable in sections. The story is that the tunnel led ultimately to the farm of a Chinese gardener who would harbor illegal immigrants until they were ready to join the workforce. The tunnel itself contained at least one cavern, since filled in by a collapse, where explorers had found Chinese books and coins, and it is suggested this was a hiding place for when authorities came to the farm. The article is capped by the account of an “old settler” who came across the tunnel while out hunting a bear, full of all sorts of bigotry and copious use of the word “Chinamen”. In the immortal words of Walter Sobchak from The Big Lebowski, “also, Dude, Chinaman is not the prefered nomenclature. Asian-American, please.”

I also came across an interesting post on Erik Hanberg’s blog from about a year ago discussing the various rumors of tunnels used to smuggle Chinese back into town after the 1885 expulsion. What was new for me in this post was that China Lake, the namesake of the park near South 19th and Orchard, is named for one of these rumored tunnels. As Erik says, this is likely due to some abandoned excavation pit or railroad tunnel opening near the lake. I’ll have to go check out the park sometime to see if any of whatever feature that led to this rumor remains.

Even taking the WaPost article into account, I remain highly critical of the “Chinese Tunnels” stories. It just doesn’t seem necessary to dig tunnels when our area is so forested and vast. But either way it makes a fascinating urban legend, and I’m sure there’s a ton of info out there remaining.

As always, if you have an interesting angle on any of the tunnels theories, I’d love to be filled in. Just shoot me an email.

Meanwhile, I’m going to dig a bit further for some of the news archives…

Link to Washington Post article.
Link to ErikEmery.com post.

Previously on ThriceAllAmerican.com: part one and part two.

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