steam tunnels
916
entering the steam tunnels under the campus. It was mainly juveniles
who went down for MIP parties, and pesudo-satanic cult meetings. The
grafieti on the walls were evidence of this. About four years ago,
the entrances were sealed. Recently there is evidence that people
might once again be entering them. This arosed my curiosity, and I
did research on universities with tunnels underneath them. I came upon
a book written by William Dear, a private investigator who worked
in Texas. The book is titled, "The Dungeon Master", and is about
the disappearance of a 16 year old boy at Michigan State University
during August of 1979. To put things briefly, the book told of elaborate
games of fantasy (namely the game Dungeons and Dragons (c) created
by TSR) being held in the tunnels underneath the university. It also
brought up the fact that this was being done all throughout the
nation, in tunnels that lead under different University buildings.
My question is, does anyone have any experience with this? Do
these tunnels exist at most universities, and if so, what goes on
down there in them.
I get the fun job of checking these things out this week. Thanks
for the intriguing info.
Derek Schott
Department of Public Safety/OSP
Oregon State Univeristy, Corvallis OR
Terry Kennedy, Operations Mgr.
> My question is, does anyone have any experience with this? Do
> these tunnels exist at most universities, and if so, what goes on
> down there in them.
Well, here at SPC we're too cheap to have steam tunnels. We have these
low-quality pipes which carry steam between the new[er] buildings and the
older buildings whose boilers have departed for that great boiler room in
the sky.
Every year in the late winter, we would have what I called the "the ann-
ual <name deleted to preserve my job> steampipe fiasco", where the pipes
would burst and spew steam around the quadrangle, usually damaging whatever
happened to be near the steam pipes. This was usually either my campus net-
work cables or the 5,000 volt power cables, sometimes both. The pipes would
be fixed in the cheapest possible manner, usually by welding patches on
them.
A few years ago they finally ran out of pipe to patch, and installed a new
set of pipes, encased in concrete. Of course, they didn't replace the data
conduit at the time.
We _do_ have some access tunnels, but they're in the Jesuit Residence,
which sort of takes the fun out of them. Also, the largest of them are only
about 3 feet square, of which the bottom 3 inches is dust. Not the sort of
thing you'd crawl into for a good time - I (and a bunch of helpers) got to
pull some fiber optic cable through there last year.
ObFolklore: SPC also has the odd-looking scupltures around campus. However,
it's easy to determine what most of them are - since the SPC symbol is the
peacock, if you guess that any given artifact is a peacock, you'll be right
maybe 80% of the time.
Terry Kennedy Operations Manager, Academic Computing
te...@spcvxa.bitnet St. Peter's College, Jersey City, NJ USA
te...@spcvxa.spc.edu +1 201 915 9381
Brian Louis Rogers (BLuR)
|>Path:
|
roundup.crhc.uiuc.edu!m.cs.uiuc.edu!wupost!usc!rpi!batcomputer!reed!orstcs!ja
acobs.CS.ORST.EDU!schottd
|>From: sch...@jacobs.CS.ORST.EDU (916)
|>Subject: steam tunnels
Since I haven't noticed anyone from the U of I (University of Illinois) I
figured that I would 'pipe' up (sorry, didnt mean to) and mention that
we have steam tunnels here.
If I remember correctly, most of the entrances have been closed and locked
over the years but you can still find a number of places where you can
still get in (the problem then would be finding a new way out, or mapping
the area you entered so you can return and exit there).
As far as the DnD thing goes, I havent a clue. If someone else here knows
please tell us. Now you have ME curious.
-----------------
My dotSIG fell off
bl...@uiuc.edu
916
I discovered some interesting things. First, there have been people
going down in them since 1959 (earliest date on the walls that I could
find). Second people have been going down in them as late as this
year. I also believe that I have found the way people are getting into
the damn things. We have a new construction site that branches off
to the main tunnels. Pretty easy for a student to find it if he is
looking hard.
I was surprised at the room in the tunnels. Two people could
walk side by side most of the way, and if you were under 5'8"
you didn't have to duck your head. There were some tight spots,
but not too bad. It was unbearably hot and humid; except for
one spot which was very dry, and unbelievably hot. I stayed there
for no more than 30 seconds. Couldn't stand it any longer. One
thing I found humorous was the writting on the walls, telling how
hard it was to get down there. Without keys and a map, I would
consider it almost impossible to traverse much more than 20-25%
of them at a time. But, 4 years ago, there were few locks on
these things.
All in all, pretty amazing stuff. Dind't find any bodies, but
it was quite interesting. Any other people have any comments on
this? I would be especially interested in hearing from someone
who attends Michigan State University.
Derek Schott
Department of Public Safety/OSP
Kevin D Colagio
[stuff deleted so that I can get the post out...]
My question is, does anyone have any experience with this? Do
these tunnels exist at most universities, and if so, what goes on
down there in them.
Here at Rochester Institute of Tech, the tunnels are open to all students. In
fact there is a corner store (like a mini 7-11) that we call the corner whore,
and Nate's which is like a fast food place. The laundry rooms are down there
as is an arcade. I have no idea if they were ever closed off, and I can't see
why a school would design it in such a way as to be unusable.
As a side note, we are not "allowed" (yeah, right!) to play games down there
(i.e. paintball, lasertag, hockey, etc...) due to the fact that if you come
running around a corner, you can run into someone real easy. We also have the
National Technical Institute of the Deaf here, so the deaf population has no
way of hearing someone running toward them (if that someone is around a
corner.).
Hope that hepls!
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
- Kevin Colagio...student at large - I am looking - In Gods we trust, =
= aka = for something - All others pay cash. -
- KDC...@cs.rit.edu - to put here. - -Vladimir Taltos =
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Andrew Payne
>My question is, does anyone have any experience with this? Do
>these tunnels exist at most universities, and if so, what goes on
>down there in them.
Here at Cornell we've got a couple of steam tunnel networks under some of
the buildings on campus. The tunnels tend to come in two flavors: big,
clean ones (we call "stand ups") that are really more like sub-basements; and
small (3' x 3'), dark, dirty ones you have to crawl through. Tunnels
tend to be populated with steam pipes (surprise), telephone, and more recently
fiber and Ethernet.
There's no evidence of "D&D"-type stuff going on---maintenance people seem to
be the only ones that frequent these tunnels. The networks really aren't that
extensive: I'm not aware of any that connect buildings that aren't already
connected above ground somehow.
--
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Andrew C. Payne, N8KEI UUCP: ...!cornell!batcomputer!payne
INTERNET: pa...@tc.cornell.edu
Gregory A Jerrett
are hotter than hell and people have a tendency of going down there to get
drunk.
The most interesting thing about them is that about four years ago,
we had a crime spree on campus. Thieves were using the steam
tunnels to get into buildings on campus and steal very expensive
equipment.
Some like to go down there to trip.
As for D&D stuff, I wouldn't be surprised if some people go down there
for a kick, I imagine it's pretty stimulating, but nothing
on the order of "D&D cultists sacrificing virgins to Satan." That's crap.
N.W. Choe
Well, STEAM TUNNELS. The UofC is blessed with steam tunnels. Note to
UofC readers: I WILL NOT tell you where to enter. But we've entered
them and found them to be very interesting. We make it a point not to
destroy anything- or even to come close. Peek and seek is all we do.
There's quite a few buildings we've entered. It's a lot of fun to emerge
totally grimy and sweaty (it's HOT down there) and calmly get on the bus.
I'll write up some stories later if anyone's interested.
* * * * *
N.W. Choe
nw...@midway.uchicago.edu
Beaver Consulting Co. Chicago
Brian Carl
>|>From: sch...@jacobs.CS.ORST.EDU (916)
>|>Subject: steam tunnels
>|>
>|>might once again be entering them. This arosed my curiosity, and I
>|>did research on universities with tunnels underneath them. I came upon
>|>a book written by William Dear, a private investigator who worked
>|>in Texas. The book is titled, "The Dungeon Master", and is about
>|>the disappearance of a 16 year old boy at Michigan State University
>|>during August of 1979. To put things briefly, the book told of elaborate
>|>games of fantasy (namely the game Dungeons and Dragons (c) created
>|>by TSR) being held in the tunnels underneath the university. It also
>
>As far as the DnD thing goes, I havent a clue. If someone else here knows
>please tell us. Now you have ME curious.
As a Spartan (Mich St.) alumnus, I feel impelled to clarify a few things
about this 16 year old / DnD thing.
The 16 year old boy *was* a student at MSU at the time of the incident,
he was a certified genius and was working on his second (?) undergraduate
degree. From interviews with the few people who knew him at all, he was
described as the sterotypical "nerd," very much to himself and socially
disfunctional for the most part. Though evidence is sketchy, there have
been a number of accusations that this boy was also a homosexual, and
that his disappearance is more easily explained based on that "fact";
namely that he was invovled with some shady characters and invovled in
secretive acts with them, etc., etc. [NOTE: this does *not* imply any
generalized bias against homosexuals; it was presented in the investigation
as potentially important information as it explained the boy's possible
connections with said "shady characters".] There were also reports of a
person matching his description being seen in the Chicago area approximately
2 years after the disappearance.
The DnD thing was greatly over-emphasized in "The Dungeon Master," and
appears to be in most respects an attempt by the author to capitalize
on a potentially fantastic situation in which the majority of evidence
was circumstantial at best.
To my knowledge, the steam tunnels underneath MSU's campus have been quite
secure since that incident, though there are still the occasional reports
of juveniles making an entrance through unsupervised construction/repair
work areas.
/brc
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brian R. Carl | "Mate, that parrot wouldn't VOOM if
bc...@ccscola.ColumbiaSC.NCR.COM | you put four million volts through
..!ncrcom!ncrcae!ccscola!bcarl | it! It's bleedin' demised!"
NCR CCSD Columbia |
(803)-796-9740 | ---J. Cleese, MPFC
The views expressed herein are mine, mine, mine. NCR can't have them.
Steve Hammond
>the disappearance of a 16 year old boy at Michigan State University
>during August of 1979. To put things briefly, the book told of elaborate
>games of fantasy (namely the game Dungeons and Dragons (c) created
>by TSR) being held in the tunnels underneath the university.
I was in high school at the time in the area. The 16 year old college student
didnt seem to enjoy college much and dissappeared into the tunnels for several
weeks. Apparently he was stealing food from the dorms at night.
Most of the universities I have heard of have the steam tunnels. Michigan Tech
was considering opening the steam tunnels for student to go between classes
instead of the -40 wind chill outside.
--
Steve Hammond NeXT-h...@churhst.ccs.itd.umich.edu other-...@umich.edu
They'll have to kill me before I die.
Gregory A Jerrett
consequently ruined his chances for a college football scholarship, killed
himself.
He left a note which indicated that he was depressed, weak and
didn't think he could go on without football.
However, he had a couple of dusty miniatures and some role-playing
games from when he was in junior high(the last time he played).
So, of course, the local rag starts screaming about how DnD made this
kid kill himself!
His parents knew it had nothing to do with DnD, but the yahoos around here
had to sell some newspapers. I guess when reality sucks, people will believe
whatever fantasy makes them feel better.
The truth is, this kid killed himself because he couldn't see any future
without football. I used to play and I think this is truly sad.
On the lighter side and to bring this around to folklore, I find these
evil-college-students-are-bringing-Satan-into-our-lovely-town stories to be
very amusing. DnD represents only a small fraction, but I'd like to hear all
kinds. Anybody have any stories about how locals hate their bread and butter
college students?
a.j.s. nusbacher
>these tunnels exist at most universities, and if so, what goes on
>down there in them.
1. The University of Rochester has an extensive tunnel system that is used
as a main university thoroughfare, especially in winter. Graffiti and painting
are permitted in certain tunnels, and some of it is very impressive.
2. A friend of mine used to make extra money patrolling the tunnels of
Purdue.
3. The University of Toronto is almost entirely connected by steam tunnels,
most of which are quite large. The tunnels are closed to the public. The
tunnels are infested with huge (1-3cm) cockroaches, and occasionally the Facili-
ties and Services chaps go down and spray them, and they come boiling up into
the sub-basements of buildings. Our revolver club used to keep plastic bullets
on hand for shooting at them in the basement rifle range.
Legend has it that the roaches escaped from the Ramsay Wright Zoological Labs
years ago, and that they are tropical roaches. They certainly look like they
belong in the jungle.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Aryk Nusbacher .. .. Celebrating the 20th Anniversary
||_|| of Women Members of Hart House
Hart House | I | || || || || .. ..
Informal Education in the University | | . ||_||__________||_|| || ___||
| O |___|_|__________________|__| / \ |
ar...@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca | | o oo oo oo o |__| |
|_A_|_______A_oo oo oo A__^^^______|
_____________________________________________________`------------____________
Keenan Royle
>In article <1992May05.0...@CS.ORST.EDU> sch...@jacobs.CS.ORST.EDU (916) writes:
>>My question is, does anyone have any experience with this? Do
>>these tunnels exist at most universities, and if so, what goes on
>>down there in them.
>
>Purdue.
The tunnels are now full of motion detectors.
You wouldn't get 10 feet before you would have the Police swarming all over you.
Steven L. Johnson
>As a Spartan (Mich St.) alumnus, I feel impelled to clarify a few things
>about this 16 year old / DnD thing.
I think I can come a little closer. Being peripherally involved in
both the marathon DnD sessions and the steam tunnel mapping projects
prior to and during the time that this student was at MSU, and that
he was on the same floor in the dorm as I, gave me ring side seats
to the media circus feeding frenzy that occurred.
>The 16 year old boy *was* a student at MSU at the time of the incident,
>he was a certified genius and was working on his second (?) undergraduate
>degree.
He was a bright kid with CS major getting good grades and under
tremendous pressure from his parents. I don't know what 'certified
genius' is, but this rumor of a prior undergraduate degree is
unfounded.
>From interviews with the few people who knew him at all, he was
>described as the sterotypical "nerd," very much to himself and socially
>disfunctional for the most part.
The media was much more interested in pursuing 'the story' than in
talking to the people that knew him.
>The DnD thing was greatly over-emphasized in "The Dungeon Master," and
>appears to be in most respects an attempt by the author to capitalize
>on a potentially fantastic situation in which the majority of evidence
>was circumstantial at best.
No kidding. In real life:
1. The DnD games were above ground. I don't believe he was a regular
in any of the games.
2. There were some DnD players involved in tunnel exploration, but
largely these were two distinct groups of people. To my knowledge
and the people I spoke with he was never in the steam tunnels
either with a group or by himself.
3. The DnD brought to real life in the steam tunnels was a media
invention by somebody who couldn't tell DnD maps from tunnel
maps. It was just too good a story to let facts and the
complete lack of supporting evidence get in the way.
True folklore.
-Steve
Norman St. John Polevaulter
<ro...@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> says:
>In article <1992May6.2...@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca> a
>ar...@gpu.utcs.utoronto.c (a.j.s. nusbacher) writes:
>>
>>2. A friend of mine used to make extra money patrolling the tunnels of
>>Purdue.
>The tunnels are now full of motion detectors.
>you
At Penn State, there is a decent-sized network of steam tunnels. There
are gratings leading down all over the major campus sidewalks (most of
them locked, admittedly). From what I hear, tunnel exploration was
popular during the early '80s, but the bleedin' fascist administration
has since then filled the tunnels with motion detectors. Once false move
and police everywhere. (Oh, the bit about motion detectors is in fact
true. Confirmed by someone on the campus police force.)
Grumble sigh.
Allegedly there are some major bomb shelters underneath East Halls here,
as well; complete with government surplus rock candy, vintage of 1960!
Anyone want to corroborate this? (apparently last semester they put
deadbolt locks on the entrances, though -- ARRGH!!)
[Your blood pressure just went up.] Mark Sachs IS: mbs...@psuvm.psu.edu
DISCLAIMER: Penn State cares about my money, not my opinions.
"All my father wanted to do was make a toaster you could really set the
darkness on -- and you perverted his work into those horrible machines!"
Larry Bliss
>
>At Penn State, there is a decent-sized network of steam tunnels.
>as well; complete with government surplus rock candy, vintage of 1960!
>Anyone want to corroborate this? (apparently last semester they put
>deadbolt locks on the entrances, though -- ARRGH!!)
At University of California campuses, too, the steam tunnels have been
designated bomb shelters and repositories of government surplus food.
As an undergraduate at one U.C. campus in the late 60's, I had a
part-time job working for the Environmental Health and Safety office.
Each year we had to go into the tunnels and inventory the crates of
crackers, cheese (ugh), and bottled water. And each year, there was
evidence that some of the spelunkers had "sampled" the surplus food.
Those tunnels are now full of motion detectors, too.
*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*
Lawrence Bliss, Director/Advising and Career Services | Live your life
University of Southern Maine | as an
96 Falmouth Street, Portland, ME 04103 | exclamation,
(207) 780-4199 | not an
BITNET: BL...@MAINE.MAINE.EDU | explanation!
Bliss%Maine....@mitvma.mit.edu
Lee Moore
open to the public and the one that isn't. At some points, the public
one is on top of the other one this is not well known. The closed one
covers quite a bit of distance as was actually documented in the student
newspaper about 15 years ago. It now has two many locked grates to be
useful for transportation.
Lee Moore -- Webster Research Center, Xerox Corp. --
Voice: +1 (716) 422 2496
Arpa Internet: Moore....@Xerox.Com
Eric Johnson
>Most of the universities I have heard of have the steam tunnels. Michigan Tech
>was considering opening the steam tunnels for student to go between classes
>instead of the -40 wind chill outside.
Here at the University of Manitoba most of the buildings are connected by
tunnels which are designed for human traffic as well as the requisite
power/comm lines. In fact they've spent most of the lpast year adding
more tunnels between the Admin/UCenter/Science complexes. This is
because here the temperature can hit -30 w/o the wind chill. BTW they
measure wind chill by the number of watts/m^2 lost per minute ( I think that's
right) typical winter day having a w.c. factor of 1800. I think its because
people would be too demoralized if they announced a w.c. of -120 ten days
in a row.
--
_______________________________________________________________________________
Eric Johnson | Commit random acts of kindness
ejo...@ccu.umanitoba.ca | and
BITNET:ejohnso@UOFMCC | senseless beauty.
Mason Jones
:
: [stuff deleted so that I can get the post out...]
:
: My question is, does anyone have any experience with this? Do
: these tunnels exist at most universities, and if so, what goes on
: down there in them.
I attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and I know that
there are steam tunnels on that campus, connecting many of the
buildings. I'm fairly certain they're still used for some of the
older buildings, including the old Engineering buildings on the
main campus. I went to Junior High School way back when in Ann
Arbor also, and the tunnels also went to our Junior High. I recall
some students getting in trouble for sneaking into the tunnels
and walking to campus. I never found a way into them myself from
our dorm, but I'm sure there was a way, just locked.
VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV
Mason Jones Charnel House Productions
P.O. Box 170277, San Francisco 94117-0277 U.S.A.
...{uunet,sun}!hoptoad!dante!mason or dante!ma...@hop.toad.com
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Kevin Kadow
)>My question is, does anyone have any experience with this? Do
)>these tunnels exist at most universities, and if so, what goes on
)>down there in them.
)
)3. The University of Toronto is almost entirely connected by steam tunnels,
)most of which are quite large. The tunnels are closed to the public. The
)tunnels are infested with huge (1-3cm) cockroaches, and occasionally the Facili-
)ties and Services chaps go down and spray them, and they come boiling up into
)the sub-basements of buildings. Our revolver club used to keep plastic bullets
)on hand for shooting at them in the basement rifle range.
)
)Legend has it that the roaches escaped from the Ramsay Wright Zoological Labs
)years ago, and that they are tropical roaches. They certainly look like they
)belong in the jungle.
These probably aren't roaches... All the buildings on the IIT campus are
connected by steam tunnels, and these are infested with huge water beetles-
They grow to be 2-5 cm (These can be BIG!) and are brown and roach shaped.
--
Anything you say can and will be distorted, remixed and used against you.
tech...@iitmax.iit.edu kad...@harpo.iit.edu
My Employer Disagrees.
Aki Shoji
A bunch of my friends and myself would occasionally romp through these
tunnels back in our freshman year ('85-'86). Maybe you should try it
some time! (We entered through West Campus, manhole near Sperry)
Eli Brandt
>Allegedly there are some major bomb shelters underneath East Halls here,
>as well; complete with government surplus rock candy, vintage of 1960!
Here too. Does your hard candy come in big (25 lb, I think) metal
tins? I wonder if they standardize this...
You'd think that bomb shelters would be more useful if people were
told where they were. But that's administration for you...
>[Your blood pressure just went up.] Mark Sachs IS: mbs...@psuvm.psu.edu
N.W. Choe
water bugs. I guess that's what they were. They certainly liked wet
patches. Sometimes the walls would be swarming with them- not a pretty
sight. Nor a pretty site.
There are gates in the steam tunnels, but these can be easily
circumvented.
ie crawl under them or over them. (These are chainlink fences about 6"
from the floor to the bottom of the gates.)
To get out, we've opened up other grates. That's because most of them were
wired and chained. Bingo- open them up, and exit. Next time we went down,
they'd be relocked. BFD.
I've found some pigeon bones down there. And a live cat. I expect that one
came from the other. The cat scared us mightily, since we couldn't see
anything except its glowing eyes in the distance. Thinking it to be a
huge rat, my friend didn't want to proceed. But we then saw that it was a
cat.
We've gotten into a number of buildings, but we've made sure not to take
or damage anything. It's obvious that we are being tolerated as long as
we don't do any damage. I haven't been down in a while. But my friend has,
and he says it's really cool to just hang out in an empty building.
I think that we'll officially refer to ourselves as "Urban Spelunkers."
N.W. Choe
Eric P. Sobocinski
>: In article <1992May05.0...@CS.ORST.EDU> sch...@jacobs.CS.ORST.EDU (916) writes:
>: My question is, does anyone have any experience with this? Do
>: these tunnels exist at most universities, and if so, what goes on
>: down there in them.
>
>I attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and I know that
>there are steam tunnels on that campus, connecting many of the
>buildings. I'm fairly certain they're still used for some of the
>older buildings, including the old Engineering buildings on the
I worked for the in-house engineers at U. Michigan for a while as
a student and so had access to the steam tunnel maps. The system on
Center Campus goes to *all* buildings "on" the Center and Medical
Campuses (i.e. just about everything except for Perry Bldg, Oxford
Housing, and rented space like 611 Church), even/especially new
buildings. Very few are less than 6 feet in height, and some such
as those along Angell Hall are cavernous. There are a few around
the diag buildings that are as much as 100 years old and have an
arched-brick construction that's rather interesting.
North Campus has a few tunnels within small complexes of buildings
but nothing very impressive, some very small, and nothing interconnected.
Athletic Campus has essentially nothing: Most of the small steam
system it does have is direct-buried.
I saw very little evidence of wildlife in any tunnels I was in, not
even many insects. The steamfitters told me that was because most
of the tunnels get excruciatingly hot (100 to 130 degrees F) during
parts of winter and the heat kills off most things that get in during
the rest of the year. Most evidence of tunnel explorers looked
pretty old. Many Center Campus buildings have normal steel doors
into the tunnels, but those have been carefully locked since the mid-70s
when the lawyers told them all about liability problems. Also, in the
early 80s they started installing motion detectors. Seems that some
art thieves used the tunnels to get into Alumni Memorial Hall (the Art
Museum across from the Union), and thereby successfully bypassed most
of the security system (they were caught by a security guard who made
his rounds at an odd time, noticed tunnel-dirt footprints and called
police).
I had the advantage of doing most of my tunnelling legally through that
job, but I knew people who did so illegally. Back in 82 to 84 one could
apparently explore the tunnels at will, provided that the explorer could
find a way in and stayed away from museums and administration buildings.
Now, everyone I've heard of who tunnels gets caught unless they stay near
the dorms.
Strangely, most of the tunnels of legend don't exist. I suppose that's
probably a product of too many retellings coupled with not enough successful
explorers over the past two decades.
app
Doug - MIS x7889
there was a pretty fancy setup of underground passageways that went to all
the buildings on campus that were somewhat older. We discovered it one
night when I was sitting in a guys room and we wondered why there were
cracks in his floor -- turns out that his ground floor room had an
entrance to the tunnels below!
For weeks afterwards, until someone cought wind that people were going
down there, every night we would go down there with huge flashlights and
try to cover up our face somewhat since there was an incredible amount of
dust down there.
The actual passageway itself was only about 3 feet wide and about 2.5 feet
high with a dirt floor. You had to crawl in this space for a couple of
hundred feet around some corners and whatnot, carefully weave your body
through some seriously hot pipes that took serious yoga work to keep from
getting burned.
Eventually you would get to spaces that would lead to sewer pipes, and large
passages that you could actually stand up in and walk from building to
building. We brought an old telephone that we tore apart down there once and
connected it to a big block that apparently connected to payphones on
campus.
What I remember most is crawling on my stomach with 3 or 4 other guys along
those passages with dust so thick you couldn't see, and a space so narrow
that if you wanted to go back, you had to go backwards, as you couldn't
turn around. You have to fight clostrophobia pretty bad!
Someone eventually stole some items from a building and they suspected
that the thief had used the tunnels, so we were scared to go down there
again and get caught and be accused as the culprit.
-DM
--
Douglas Mason dou...@netcom.COM
Network administration / software development dou...@netcom.UUCP
Approach Software Corporation +1 415.306.7889
N.W. Choe
OK- more news on the steam tunnelling front. I may or may not be going
"under" again tonight. Then again, there are other things to do.
Here at the U of C, there are many many tunnels which connect to the
buildings on the quad. In addition, the tunnels connect under the Midway
(about two blocks wide) to the steam plant. We've been in there. I was
the first one to enter that building, late one night. My friend was
determined
to be the most deserving of that honor, but he couldn't figure out his way
over the gate. I squirmed over it, over many dusty pipes, and so gained
the
honor. Walking around there then, we quickly turned around when we heard
the
sound of workers playing cards in an adjoining room.
In one location, a sort of storage room like many basements, we scared
ourselves
out of our minds when the first guy walked past a mirror, looked back,
and saw
the reflection of the second in line (me).
I've written about how we escaped from the tunnels one night onto a
lighted
tennis court covered with snow. Why the U of C lights courts in the dead
of winter
is beyond me. As I wrote before, we were so hurried that we only left
footprints
leaving the grate, and none heading towards them.
One location is so hot that even with waterbottles, we were getting
worried about
passing out. Not good. We don't think of going down there alone. I bought
a bunch
of dust masks for underground use, but ended up not using those because
it was simply
too hot. As a matter of fact, the heat in the tunnels seriously led to
our discovering
them in the first place. We merely followed the absence of snow to find
the tunnels.
And then again, the warmth of the tunnels seemed to be very appealing in
the
freezing cold of winter.
Um, I don't know what more to say about the steam tunnels. I'll see what
else I can
remember at some later date.
Tim Klein
Don't believe a word of this book. Dear is a shameless sensationalist.
"Folklore" is a nice word for what he writes.
===========================================================================
Timothy Klein I wish TV had a knob so you could turn up
ti...@meaddata.com the intelligence. The one marked Brightness
...!uunet!meaddata!timk doesn't work. -- Gallagher
jeff waldeck
and having experienced both the MSU steam tunnels and role-playing gaming,
I would have to say that it would be a rare (and wacked-out) person who
would act out a fantasy game in a steam tunnel.
The MSU tunnels are quite extensive. Just about every building can be
accessed (although in some cases you must leave the tunnels and go
through the basement of a building before re-entering the tunnels again).
Many of my tunneling associates were also gamers. I think this is more
related to the fact that most gamers are not as social (i.e.- do not
go to bars/parties and get f*cked up every night) as your "average"
student, plus the fact that most gamers are a bit brighter and more
imaginative than your average student. Gamers tend to do things that are
away from "society" for entertainment (ie. - videogames, movies, computers,
and gaming for example).
When we tunneled, we were exploring the steam tunnels. Period. We often
decked ourselves in black clothes and ropes and tool kits (for obvious
reasons). We also often made maps. If anyone saw us, and knew we were
gamers, a logical (but wrong!) conclusion would be that we were "playing
fantasy games" in the steam tunnels. To "play fantasy games" in a steam
tunnel one would need swords and foes and stuff like that (as well as
treasure!). Since groups of more than 3 or 4 tunnelers were rare (most
students would rather party) it would be pretty hard to "play fantasy
games" in the steam tunnels. Besides, it would be much easier to use
your imagination to set the stage for gaming while never leaving your
dorm.
Unfortunately, another group of students started using the tunnels to access
buildings for the purpose of stealing expensive equipment (lasers,
computers, radios, etc) and eventually got caught and told all. The DPS
[department of public safety - a great name ;) ] and facilities locked up
the best access routes, etc. They also started throwing people out of
school for tunneling. That pretty much ended my college tunneling career!
Now I am a climber/caver, and satisfy the same needs doing this that
I used to do by tunneling (not too many mountains/caves in Michigan!)
Does anybody who ever went into a steam tunnel/sewer know anybody who
even once "played fantasy games"? I'm sure it has happened at least once
somewhere, but I bet it is very rare.
Jeffery Waldeck
je...@hpdmd48.boi.hp.com
Arlene Rapkin
>
>I've written about how we escaped from the tunnels one night onto a
>lighted tennis court covered with snow. Why the U of C lights courts
>in the dead of winter is beyond me.
So that you can see well enough to "ice skate" on the frozen-over surface.
This used to be a popular winter sport among Hopkins freshmen (the tennis
courts are next to the freshman dorms) although I didn't see anyone skating
this year. Sometimes, if there hadn't been enough snow lately, students
would bring out trashcans of water to splash the court so that there'd be
ice the next night.
-- Ari
Anyone got a spare Zamboni?
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Rohan Dutt
kyonshi
>> Jeffery Waldeck
>> je...@hpdmd48.boi.hp.com
> got the maps?