Fresno, CA: Tunnels under Chinatown
David Harmon
Chinatown's urban legend
A tour will explore the rumored network of underground tunnels.
By Farin Montañez / The Fresno Bee
09/02/07 05:17:01
One of Fresno's best-known urban legends isn't just a legend anymore:
There really are tunnels under Chinatown.
A group working to preserve Chinatown is shining a light on what many
considered to be just a rumor, opening the doors to a dimly lit network
of basements and tunnels under Kern Street.
For decades, shopkeepers did their best to keep the century-old tunnels
a secret after a series of break-ins in the interconnected basements.
Even archaeologists hired by the city a month ago to look for the
tunnels were not initially informed that they actually were there.
On Aug. 3, the team began to investigate the possible existence of the
tunnels using ground-penetrating radar.
Results from the radar data have not been released.
Officials from the city's Planning and Development Department -- which
hired the archaeologists -- could not be reached to explain why they
left the archaeologists out of the loop.
But Chinatown Revitalization Inc. officials are going public as part of
a fundraiser for the Fresno Fire Department.
The grand prize for the Chinatown Jazz Fest raffle will be a guided tour
for four of "Underground Chinatown."
The tunnels are accessed through backrooms of some shops along Kern.
They run along Kern between F and G streets, said Kathy Omachi, the
group's vice president. They were built as early as about 1880 through
the early 1900s, she said.
Underground Chinatown is made up of concrete floors, brick walls and
ceilings that vary from about six to eight feet high.
Evidence of what Omachi calls "Chinatown wildlife" -- alley cats, rats
and bats -- make some areas reek.
The space is mostly empty, but parts are used for storage -- old boxes,
piles of wood, random pieces of furniture.
Lighting is provided by a few bare lightbulbs that illuminate small
portions of basements. Gas and water pipes line the walls and hang down
from the ceiling.
Most of the slightly arched brick doorways are blocked off -- either
boarded up or cemented shut. What lies beyond remains a matter of
legend.
But folks have been talking ever since the archaeologists visited.
Rick Lew, 57, said he was taken into a tunnel by his father when he was
a toddler. The two entered from the backroom of the family's liquor
store and then walked about 20 feet in a tunnel that was about eight
feet wide and eight feet tall, he recalled.
It had a dirt floor, and its brick walls were strung with bare
lightbulbs.
"It was like a Friday night party atmosphere," Lew said. He remembers
recognizing people in the tunnel from his visits to stores along China
Alley.
"I remember seeing two ladies that were decked out in bright Chinese
dresses," Lew said.
"I can only think now that they were prostitutes. Back then I didn't
know what was going on. But I remember guys had smiles on their faces
when they came around."
These days the tunnels are used mostly for storage, if they are used at
all, but Omachi said there was a time when they were full of much more
activity.
Business owners and their families would dig underneath their shops to
create storage areas or living spaces, because temperatures were at
least 20 degrees cooler underground during the summer, Omachi said.
Families that owned more than one building would build tunnels to
connect those basements to make it easier to transport items from shop
to shop.
The tunneling system may have also been used to transport alcohol
underground during Prohibition, said Morgan Doizaki, president of
Chinatown Revitalization.
Regardless of what they were used for, one question remains: How far do
the tunnels go?
Oral history tells of a network spreading underneath all of Chinatown --
an area bounded by Fresno, Ventura, H and E streets -- and even
extending northeast under railroad tracks and what is now Chukchansi
Park, ending at Van Ness Avenue.
"But these are just people's stories and memories," Omachi said. "You
need scientific evidence and documentation to prove that they are really
there."
Chinatown Revitalization and the city of Fresno are waiting for the team
of archaeologists to do just that.
The reporter can be reached at fmon...@fresnobee.com or (559)441-6308.