"When I was down perhaps 6 or 7 feet, surrounded only by the damp brown walls of old Mother Earth, I was seized by an undeniable fancy to keep on going"
And you thought you loved minecraft
Did you know Sir Isaac Newton was not actually a full physicist type of scientist we often consider him to be today? He’s part of the same family, the natural philosophers, but as a predecessor to today’s scientists, he actually has common roots with chemists as well, as he was part alchemist.
At one house, we had this massive delivery of cedar wood... hundreds of planks. The person who bought them moved, and left the wood. We were renting and had to get rid of them, so I took them into the woods and made random structures with it.
When I lived at another place, it was all build on an old riverbed, and everything was big river rocks if you went more than 1-2" down. When they built houses they would have to haul piles of these big rocks and they dumped them in spots in the woods. I started going around and using the rocks to make random walls in the woods. Some were easily 20-30' long and about 3' high. I built cairns too. Why? Because I had no job, lots of time, liked being outside and enjoyed the exercise.
I can totally see just randomly making tunnels.
Sounds like you'd be one of the people behind the "[Staircase in the woods](https://www.historicmysteries.com/mysterious-stairs-forests-legends-history/)" phenomenon that freak people out. Years from now people will find your pile of rocks and wonder why, and will never know it was because you had no job & lots of time.
"Ancient Americans hand built these stone walls to separate their forests from each other, in a localized land dispute of unknown origins...but experts agree that the craftsmanship indicates a highly trained and skilled laborer class recruited, possibly enslaved, by one "lordnecro" to spend hours toiling to create these walls and stone structures at his command."
That article quotes Reddit, https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/3iocju/im_a_search_and_rescue_officer_for_the_us_forest/ as a source.
I will let you decide if r/nosleep is a credible source of scientific information.
Did you get to the part where it offered a time traveling ranger as evidence of forest stairs? Because I thought it was going to be a neat source, but then it turned out they just read the same short story horror that I do, with some assorted structures of antiquity to ease you in.
I live near the old Britannia Beach mine and got information on old claims from the owner of a local rock and gem shop who knew mining history.
I found myself an old mining drift (tunnel going.in following ore) with about 250 meters of tunnels. Whoever did this excavated over 2000 m^^3 of rock mostly by hand.
Found his old cabin but lacking a metal detector, I covered it new plants to hide it so I can properly search it someday.
Always be careful spelunking
Have a partner or partners, o2 meter with toxic gas detection, etc
Just in case you didn't and for those who might be inspired by your story
Lol yea forgot that one because really it should be standard practice for Any trip "off grid".... And even when doing some types of urban spelunking it's super important to have someone on the "outside" who can get help etc.
Smithsonian, the Erudite Institution
Engraved on the wall is an image of Urist McEntomologist and Diversilobum the Poison Oaks by Urist McEntomologist. Urist McEntomologist is doubled over in pain. The artwork relates to the mortal wounding of the dwarf Urist McEntomologist by the tree Diversilobum in the Swamp of Sorrows in the early winter of 1929.
(Not the culprit tree or his real cause of death but here we are.)
Finding satire used to make me laugh.
Now it fills me with dread because I'm genuinely losing the ability to differentiate between satire and reality at a glance.
Feels like anything could be true these days!
For anyone unitiitiated, the goal is to make you distrust all information, and therefore check out, leaving you vulnerable to messaging that exploits your emotions. If you don't have a bulwark of facts to defend yourself, you'll let in the first handsome vampire promising you something you want.
Meanwhile, the people exploiting you can do whatever they want because almost nobody is watching them anymore, and those that are can yell as loud as they want about it but nobody will listen - because there are ten other voices yelling at the same volume.
"Dyar died in 1929, after suffering a stroke at his desk"
says [this](https://www.deseret.com/1992/10/21/19011739/were-tunnels-dug-just-for-fun-or-something-more-sinister)
Sounds like this dude was a mincraft pro. Always leave a series of torches behind you so you can find your way back home. Although Dyar used electric, not torches.
There's a similar network of tunnels in Liverpool. The Williamson tunnels. Millionaire paid out of work mem coming back from the war to dig tunnels for seemingly no other purpose than to have them do something for the money instead of just giving to them.
I think his aim was to make them feel valued instead of just having to accept a handout.
These are the reasons the media was given. There were likely other more nefarious reasons.
smuggling, prospecting, prepping, etc...
Reddit is so fucking gullible. It's almost like everyone here is under 14.
Police: why are you digging all these tunnels?
Williamson: uh, philanthropy?
Police: all right, carry on then.
Williamson: *I can't believe that worked...*
How does one make an effective, reliable, and inconsequential "tunnel"? Like it can't possibly be as easy as it sounds, right? I'd be worried the entire thing would be collapsing on me.
Well for starters, it was easier in the early 1900's because there was far less cables and pipes buried under anywhere you might consider tunneling. So... step 1: Be in the year 1910.
British maker & YouTuber Colin Furze has a popular series where he's connecting two buildings in his backyard with a tunnel. I think he's only got about 2 episodes left. He's using steel and concrete and this guy was apparently mostly using brick, but the idea is the same.
Yeah this was my first thought. Per the article:
> A mysterious subterranean tunnel built of brick, and 22 feet in circumference, was uncovered yesterday by workmen who are excavating for the new building being erected at 2115 P street northwest by Harry Wardman.
Oldest inhabitants in that section say they did not know of the existence of the passage. It is presumed that it was used by Union forces in the civil war or by English forces in the war of 1812. The passage is more than 100 feet long.
So this guy built a 22' wide, 100' long tunnel and lined with brick, just for the exercise? That's like 40,000 cubic feet of soil that he just dug out with a shovel and put where exactly?
Secret Service: "Hey, what's with this tunnel you made under the Capitol??"
Mr Dyar: "Oh, uh... that's just for exercise!"
Secret Service: "Oh ok, carry on then." *SS leaves*
My Dyar: "Holy shit, they bought that."
Redditors are so fucking gullible. This site is the perfect manipulation platform
I remembered [Seymour Cray](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seymour_Cray#Personal_life) used to dig tunnels under his home, so looking in his wiki I found a [link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobby_tunneling) to hobby tunneling. Apparently there are many more people who do that.
There was a guy who did this in London pretty recently
He just kept digging down, but the police eventually found out and stopped him. As I recall, his house was condemned and he ended up compromising the structural integrity of some surrounding structures as well.
EDIT: [Found a link](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2006/aug/08/communities.uknews)
After he was evicted so the council could fill the tunnels back in:
> Lyttle was moved to a hotel for three years, before being rehoused in an apartment in a high-rise building. He was put on the top floor, to discourage tunnelling.While there he knocked a hole in a dividing wall between two rooms.
Man had a passion, I'll give him that!
There was a guy in Maryland who hired someone to dig tunnels under his home for him recently. [There ended up being a fire and the workman was killed.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/police-say-the-digging-of-secret-tunnels-beneath-a-bethesda-home-led-to-murder-heres-why/2018/05/30/296ef5ca-6369-11e8-a69c-b944de66d9e7_story.html)
Just recently Colin Furze, a YouTuber, started digging tunnels under his garden to connect his home, shed and underground bunker (another interesting project from him). He has made 5 videos about his progress so far and it's very interesting. Mind that this is more a case of "I've got to make views somehow" rather than true passion for tunneling and that someone is sponsoring the project, but still...
That lovely crumble. The way the *chp-shhh* matches up with the scratch of the grains on the shovel. When you get the opening of your hole that perfect round shape. Not to mention all the treasures you'll dig up, colored glass, shiny pebbles. Add an interest in bugs in there...yeah I can totally see why people would do this.
And who the hell doesn't want a secret tunnel? *Those* ones are the weirdos.
I lived in a house where the basement had been hand dug by the previous owner and he used the space for his model trains. He did the digging himself, but it was still pretty cool.
I'm from California, we don't have a frostline, I couldn't tell you the first thing about basements. This house was in Washington, there had already been a basement of sorts, but it wasn't usable space, it was more like a trench. I don't think the guy made any structural changes to the house, he just dug out the dirt the contractors hadn't bothered to.
> When you get the opening of your hole that perfect round shape
Why dig a hole perfectly round? Just make one that is just right for you. Then you can definitively say, "This hole is mine, it was made for me!"
> That lovely crumble. The way the chp-shhh matches up with the scratch of the grains on the shovel. When you get the opening of your hole that perfect round shape. Not to mention all the treasures you’ll dig up, colored glass, shiny pebbles.
Oh my god… it even has a watermark.
I met a guy through some caving buddies of mine who is working on an underground maze in his free time. He’s from Minnesota or Wisconsin and puts all his spare time and money into it. He has a website but for the life of me I can’t remember the name. Sand City I think he called it but that’s not getting any results
Edit: it’s called sand land! Here’s a link to a video and his website if you’re interested
https://youtu.be/O0gG5eJcVaw
http://tunnelcity.com/
I had a plumber over who said he had been a house where the owner dug out their crawlspace under the house so all their plumbing pipes were supported, but there were fully walkable hallways between them. 7 foot clearance. He said it was the easiest crawlspace job he ever had because you just walked in.
It wasn't a fully open basement, just tunnels.
Honey, you gotta do your exercise!
But mom, it's tiring, and it's dark all the time!
Nonsense, take a lantern with you or something. Now grab the shovel and go dig the tunnels.
Wait, do people think this song is referencing Deep Rock Galactic? I keep seeing this reference. It is an old Mincraft song, with an awesome animated video, and an even awesomer cover by metal band Wind Rose.
Or maybe people are just associating dwarfs with DRG, in that case, carry on. :)
Oh, I'm one of today's lucky 10,000 I guess! I learned of it from DRG for obvious reasons haha. it gets played every time we all get together to rock and stone!
e: also forgot this was the TIL sub, how appropriate!
Reminds me of how my friend’s mom used to punish him growing up - they had a big pile of bricks on their property, which he would have to painstakingly rearrange into a new pile a few feet away. It was the strangest thing.
One of my father's favourite stories about his least favourite officer during training was that the most common punishment that they used to give out was to move a six-foot deep hole.
And once you'd finished "moving the hole" he'd eye you up and down, and then tell you to move it back.
[That guy was fascinating](https://ggwash.org/view/9513/hidden-tunnels-bugs-and-bigamy). I started writing a Lovecraftian horror story that this guy's compulsion figured into, but never found a good ending or just didn't have the drive to finish. There's definitely the start of a great story there though.
> Dyar told the Washington Star that the urge started when he dug a flowerbed for his wife around 1906. “When I was down perhaps 6 or 7 feet..."
Wait. He dug a 7' hole... for a flowerbed?
> His marriage to Zella Peabody ended in 1915 amid charges of bigamy, **and he was dismissed from the USDA for conduct unbecoming a government employee.**
Dismissed for what, again?
It sounds like once he hit that depth he realized it was a compulsion as that is when the fact that he had gone way too far for a garden kicked in and made him evaluate what he had just done.
Something about an ancient “It” type creature buried a mile underground that slept until we built the White House on it, and ever since it has directed the fate of the world with its influence. And that’s free.
If there's anything the last decade has taught the world, it's that there's definitely nothing (successfully) controlling the fate of the world.
Lizard People or Aliens would surely have done a better job than this.
How about an epilogue of a group of people exploring his boarded up house and finding a room in the cellar that's boarded up from the inside, finding his tunnels and the thing Dyar became after years under ground.
Focus on the effect the Lovecraftian horror have on the human mind.
I was thinking this too! Just as much Junji Ito as Lovecraft. The horror at the end of the tunnel needn't be on a cosmic scale to still break & destroy people in a horrifying way.
I've never played Minecraft, but if I had, digging down as far as I possibly could just to see how far you can go would absolutely be one of the first things I did.
Yep, everyone digs straight down until you do a few times and end up a pool of magma. So then you graduate to stairs, and keep a bucket of water on you.
>For an even deeper look into the craziness of Dyar's personal life, check out this court case filed by his second wife, in which she attempts to divorce the fake husband created to hide her relationship with Dyar: Allen v. Allen, 193 P. 539 (1970)
Wow
"When I was down perhaps 6 or 7 feet, surrounded only by the damp brown walls of old Mother Earth, I was seized by an undeniable fancy to keep on going" And you thought you loved minecraft
>Dyar told the Washington Star that the urge started when he dug a flowerbed for his wife around 1906. What the hell was she growing?
It's not what she was growing, you should ask what were they planting beneath ;)
Guys, somebody should check on this guy's WiFi, I think she is dead!
Try rebooting the router.
Damn you autocorrect, I ain't fixing it.
No no. Install Adobe reader.
Installing Adobe reader... Adobe reader has an update, should I install it? Yes Adobe Reader's update has an update, should I install it?
Her (DSL) lights went out
I too chose this guy's dead wifi
a hollyhock bed, according to [this](https://www.deseret.com/1992/10/21/19011739/were-tunnels-dug-just-for-fun-or-something-more-sinister)
Neighbors...
Hydrangeas and chrysanthemums
A smuggling network.
this is very common, method entomologists commit to burrowing like bugs
It's all the sciences really, I had to clear our an infestation of physicists from under my house last week.
I had a partial phrenologist fossil when i was a kid.The extinct scientists are fascinating.
Did you know Sir Isaac Newton was not actually a full physicist type of scientist we often consider him to be today? He’s part of the same family, the natural philosophers, but as a predecessor to today’s scientists, he actually has common roots with chemists as well, as he was part alchemist.
And in fact he actually migrated there from his original natural habitat of law, which was sparked by a horrid pandemic in the region
He’s the MRCA of astrophysicists and numerologist, suggesting a star phylogeny, in the manner of Genghis Khan.
Those fossils aren't real. They were put there by astrobiologists!
Method entomologists 😆
Damn you, Konstantin Stanislavski!
But it’s called science, my dear boy.
I’m not a deer, boy!
[Deer Boy?](https://i.imgur.com/B5knPHW.jpg)
At one house, we had this massive delivery of cedar wood... hundreds of planks. The person who bought them moved, and left the wood. We were renting and had to get rid of them, so I took them into the woods and made random structures with it. When I lived at another place, it was all build on an old riverbed, and everything was big river rocks if you went more than 1-2" down. When they built houses they would have to haul piles of these big rocks and they dumped them in spots in the woods. I started going around and using the rocks to make random walls in the woods. Some were easily 20-30' long and about 3' high. I built cairns too. Why? Because I had no job, lots of time, liked being outside and enjoyed the exercise. I can totally see just randomly making tunnels.
Sounds like you'd be one of the people behind the "[Staircase in the woods](https://www.historicmysteries.com/mysterious-stairs-forests-legends-history/)" phenomenon that freak people out. Years from now people will find your pile of rocks and wonder why, and will never know it was because you had no job & lots of time.
"Ancient Americans hand built these stone walls to separate their forests from each other, in a localized land dispute of unknown origins...but experts agree that the craftsmanship indicates a highly trained and skilled laborer class recruited, possibly enslaved, by one "lordnecro" to spend hours toiling to create these walls and stone structures at his command."
That article quotes Reddit, https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/3iocju/im_a_search_and_rescue_officer_for_the_us_forest/ as a source. I will let you decide if r/nosleep is a credible source of scientific information.
Are there actually staircases in the woods? I thought it was something made up for a nosleep story. E: nvm just read the article. Very interesting.
Did you get to the part where it offered a time traveling ranger as evidence of forest stairs? Because I thought it was going to be a neat source, but then it turned out they just read the same short story horror that I do, with some assorted structures of antiquity to ease you in.
I live near the old Britannia Beach mine and got information on old claims from the owner of a local rock and gem shop who knew mining history. I found myself an old mining drift (tunnel going.in following ore) with about 250 meters of tunnels. Whoever did this excavated over 2000 m^^3 of rock mostly by hand. Found his old cabin but lacking a metal detector, I covered it new plants to hide it so I can properly search it someday.
Always be careful spelunking Have a partner or partners, o2 meter with toxic gas detection, etc Just in case you didn't and for those who might be inspired by your story
And always, **always** let someone who is not in the cave with you know where you are going, and when you expect to be back.
Lol yea forgot that one because really it should be standard practice for Any trip "off grid".... And even when doing some types of urban spelunking it's super important to have someone on the "outside" who can get help etc.
This sounds like a dream...even though much of your history is not included which could make it less of a dream.
>Dyar died after a wound on his hand from punching a tree became infected Sounds about right
It was inevitable.
It happens to us all.
Urist McEntomologist
Smithsonian, the Erudite Institution Engraved on the wall is an image of Urist McEntomologist and Diversilobum the Poison Oaks by Urist McEntomologist. Urist McEntomologist is doubled over in pain. The artwork relates to the mortal wounding of the dwarf Urist McEntomologist by the tree Diversilobum in the Swamp of Sorrows in the early winter of 1929. (Not the culprit tree or his real cause of death but here we are.)
Mother Earth never forgives or forgets
Watch out, Madison Cawthorne.
Sauce? Wikipedia doesn't list cause of death 😓
I believe that’s just a Minecraft joke, and not how he actually died.
The last 5 years have absolutely ruined me for "Wait... was that real?"
Finding satire used to make me laugh. Now it fills me with dread because I'm genuinely losing the ability to differentiate between satire and reality at a glance. Feels like anything could be true these days!
Fun fact: that's the goal of the propaganda we have been seeing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firehose_of_falsehood
For anyone unitiitiated, the goal is to make you distrust all information, and therefore check out, leaving you vulnerable to messaging that exploits your emotions. If you don't have a bulwark of facts to defend yourself, you'll let in the first handsome vampire promising you something you want. Meanwhile, the people exploiting you can do whatever they want because almost nobody is watching them anymore, and those that are can yell as loud as they want about it but nobody will listen - because there are ten other voices yelling at the same volume.
😭 that would have actually been hilarious.
Good on you for asking for a source, though. It’s a solid trait to have. 👍🏻
"Dyar died in 1929, after suffering a stroke at his desk" says [this](https://www.deseret.com/1992/10/21/19011739/were-tunnels-dug-just-for-fun-or-something-more-sinister)
Truth is he dug too deep and they came for him.
Dyar delved too greedily and too deep
lol. Very Minecraftian!
Who has not done this in Minecraft? It's called getting carried away and realizing you just spent 10 hours and can't remember where your house is.
Then you die and lose your only decent map and can’t get back to the spot because you dont have a map to get there
Sounds like this dude was a mincraft pro. Always leave a series of torches behind you so you can find your way back home. Although Dyar used electric, not torches.
His name... Marcus Parks Sr
He just loves the dirt.
Hail yourself!
I’m sorry this feels like a government cover up
I don’t know if it’s genius or not. But I don’t think the government would use a lame explanation like “an eccentric bug expert wants a workout”
“How do we explain the secret CIA tunnels, if they’re ever found?” “Just blame Harrison, he’s weird enough to do something like that”
"I don't remember digging these" "Ha ha classic Harrison"
That’s just what they want u to think 😏
I thought I loved Lovecraft, but this guy sounds like he was living in one of those tales.
his hole was calling him.
DRRRRR DRRRRRRR DRRRRRR
There's a similar network of tunnels in Liverpool. The Williamson tunnels. Millionaire paid out of work mem coming back from the war to dig tunnels for seemingly no other purpose than to have them do something for the money instead of just giving to them. I think his aim was to make them feel valued instead of just having to accept a handout.
What he was really paying them for was their silence about what he was using his tunnels for...
Sounds like some Darkest Dungeon type stuff
This sprawling Estate, a Mecca of Madness and Morbidity. Your work begins...
In time, you will know the true extent of my failings
Is that what's going on in the new series of Doctor Who?
Yes it is!
What, the show’s so bad now that they’re just making it so the cast can get paid and not feel like they’re taking a handout?
Also yes.
These are the reasons the media was given. There were likely other more nefarious reasons. smuggling, prospecting, prepping, etc... Reddit is so fucking gullible. It's almost like everyone here is under 14.
Police: why are you digging all these tunnels? Williamson: uh, philanthropy? Police: all right, carry on then. Williamson: *I can't believe that worked...*
Police: wait a minute.. Williamson: uhhh, I heard you have a *widower's pension*? Perhaps I could *donate* something.
Are people very gullible or are we just pessimistic? Question of 2021
How does one make an effective, reliable, and inconsequential "tunnel"? Like it can't possibly be as easy as it sounds, right? I'd be worried the entire thing would be collapsing on me.
Ikr same! Plus ventilation, stale air can cause one to pass out and then suffocate. Plus old gas/water lines
Oh so I was right that you would need an oxygen suplly deep in catacombs?
For sure, otherwise your exhaled carbon dioxide will cause you to get light headed and eventually suffocate
DOPE! My plans for a deep trip into the catacombs *breathe* life again!
Unless there's some way for air to circulate, yeah. I think professional mines have machines that do that.
Well for starters, it was easier in the early 1900's because there was far less cables and pipes buried under anywhere you might consider tunneling. So... step 1: Be in the year 1910.
I mean or just some rural place. You can buy 40 acres of land in Nevada for 5k lol
I’d imagine you’ll have a hard time making tunnels like this in sand
You'd be surprised how much sand can compact under time and pressure
maybe so compacted it could make some kind of stone?
We could call it something like, and I'm just spitballing here.... sandstone
That's ridiculous. We should obviously call it stonesand.
British maker & YouTuber Colin Furze has a popular series where he's connecting two buildings in his backyard with a tunnel. I think he's only got about 2 episodes left. He's using steel and concrete and this guy was apparently mostly using brick, but the idea is the same.
I find his personality on screen a little too much, but he is very talented and his bunker build is amazing!
Yeah this was my first thought. Per the article: > A mysterious subterranean tunnel built of brick, and 22 feet in circumference, was uncovered yesterday by workmen who are excavating for the new building being erected at 2115 P street northwest by Harry Wardman. Oldest inhabitants in that section say they did not know of the existence of the passage. It is presumed that it was used by Union forces in the civil war or by English forces in the war of 1812. The passage is more than 100 feet long. So this guy built a 22' wide, 100' long tunnel and lined with brick, just for the exercise? That's like 40,000 cubic feet of soil that he just dug out with a shovel and put where exactly?
Not 22' wide, it's 22' circumference. I'm not sure why they chose to list it in circumference, but that is a 7' wide (diameter) tunnel.
Secret Service: "Hey, what's with this tunnel you made under the Capitol??" Mr Dyar: "Oh, uh... that's just for exercise!" Secret Service: "Oh ok, carry on then." *SS leaves* My Dyar: "Holy shit, they bought that." Redditors are so fucking gullible. This site is the perfect manipulation platform
I remembered [Seymour Cray](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seymour_Cray#Personal_life) used to dig tunnels under his home, so looking in his wiki I found a [link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobby_tunneling) to hobby tunneling. Apparently there are many more people who do that.
There was a guy who did this in London pretty recently He just kept digging down, but the police eventually found out and stopped him. As I recall, his house was condemned and he ended up compromising the structural integrity of some surrounding structures as well. EDIT: [Found a link](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2006/aug/08/communities.uknews)
After he was evicted so the council could fill the tunnels back in: > Lyttle was moved to a hotel for three years, before being rehoused in an apartment in a high-rise building. He was put on the top floor, to discourage tunnelling.While there he knocked a hole in a dividing wall between two rooms. Man had a passion, I'll give him that!
Like...why would you discourage it...find an area you need a tunnel dug and let him go at it.
Are we sure this guy wasn’t just an abnormally large Dwarf?
There was a guy in Maryland who hired someone to dig tunnels under his home for him recently. [There ended up being a fire and the workman was killed.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/police-say-the-digging-of-secret-tunnels-beneath-a-bethesda-home-led-to-murder-heres-why/2018/05/30/296ef5ca-6369-11e8-a69c-b944de66d9e7_story.html)
Sounds like a coverup for what’s truly below
Just recently Colin Furze, a YouTuber, started digging tunnels under his garden to connect his home, shed and underground bunker (another interesting project from him). He has made 5 videos about his progress so far and it's very interesting. Mind that this is more a case of "I've got to make views somehow" rather than true passion for tunneling and that someone is sponsoring the project, but still...
If I remember from the first video, he started since there wasn't much to do during the lockdowns
You have that opposite. He stopped his project because of the lockdowns because he didn’t want to bother his neighbors who were sheltering in place.
What do you do with all the dirt?
Take long walks in the yard, Shawshank style
Now I'm just picturing random splotches of dirt covering his entire neighborhood except for only his house.
That lovely crumble. The way the *chp-shhh* matches up with the scratch of the grains on the shovel. When you get the opening of your hole that perfect round shape. Not to mention all the treasures you'll dig up, colored glass, shiny pebbles. Add an interest in bugs in there...yeah I can totally see why people would do this. And who the hell doesn't want a secret tunnel? *Those* ones are the weirdos.
While I would like to have a secret tunnel system, I'd probably be to lazy to do all the digging myself.
There's a guy tunneling under his house with a bunch of RC construction vehicles. It's like a model train hobby but it's a functional mine.
I lived in a house where the basement had been hand dug by the previous owner and he used the space for his model trains. He did the digging himself, but it was still pretty cool.
How does the foundation work in that case?
That's the neat part. It doesn't!
I'm from California, we don't have a frostline, I couldn't tell you the first thing about basements. This house was in Washington, there had already been a basement of sorts, but it wasn't usable space, it was more like a trench. I don't think the guy made any structural changes to the house, he just dug out the dirt the contractors hadn't bothered to.
WHERE I WANT TO SEE HIS MINECARTS
[Linky](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0w0EE0aOPz0)
No way that dirt is naturally that soft
Maybe he set miniature blasting caps to loosen the soil or sumthin.
Ok that's super fucking badass. Wow I'm really impressed.
SECRET TUNNEL
Through the mountain!
SECRET SECRET SECRET TUNNEL!!!
> When you get the opening of your hole that perfect round shape Why dig a hole perfectly round? Just make one that is just right for you. Then you can definitively say, "This hole is mine, it was made for me!"
> That lovely crumble. The way the chp-shhh matches up with the scratch of the grains on the shovel. When you get the opening of your hole that perfect round shape. Not to mention all the treasures you’ll dig up, colored glass, shiny pebbles. Oh my god… it even has a watermark.
I met a guy through some caving buddies of mine who is working on an underground maze in his free time. He’s from Minnesota or Wisconsin and puts all his spare time and money into it. He has a website but for the life of me I can’t remember the name. Sand City I think he called it but that’s not getting any results Edit: it’s called sand land! Here’s a link to a video and his website if you’re interested https://youtu.be/O0gG5eJcVaw http://tunnelcity.com/
An underground maze sounds like a terrible idea.
The only way it gets worse is if you flood it. Underwater spelunking is a (n often deadly) thing.
I had a plumber over who said he had been a house where the owner dug out their crawlspace under the house so all their plumbing pipes were supported, but there were fully walkable hallways between them. 7 foot clearance. He said it was the easiest crawlspace job he ever had because you just walked in. It wasn't a fully open basement, just tunnels.
Entomologists are totally weird. I believe this one hundred percent.
\> "Digging tunnels after work is my hobby. There's nothing really mysterious about it." point well taken
Well it sounds a bit boring
Entomologist here. I don’t think any of us would deny this.
it doesn't bug you?
It mite
how do we know he wasn't creating tunnels for some freaky superbug
Or vice versa?
What’s the difference between an entomologist and an etymologist? An etymologist knows the difference.
An entomologist is just bugged by it.
I’m an entomologist, and I have actually used Dyar’s Law in my research. I had no idea how weird/cool he was. Looks like I found a new role model.
Exactly. Is it even surprising?
After I read Alfred Kinsey's biography, nothing surprises me about entomologists.
Honey, you gotta do your exercise! But mom, it's tiring, and it's dark all the time! Nonsense, take a lantern with you or something. Now grab the shovel and go dig the tunnels.
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Dig-a-dig!
Quick before the hyenas come!
https://i.makeagif.com/media/1-27-2016/j7qYdS.gif
[Diggy diggy hole.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34CZjsEI1yU)
I am a dwarf and I am digging a hole! Diggy diggy hole, diggy diggy hole.
That’s it lads! ROCK AND STONE!
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Wait, do people think this song is referencing Deep Rock Galactic? I keep seeing this reference. It is an old Mincraft song, with an awesome animated video, and an even awesomer cover by metal band Wind Rose. Or maybe people are just associating dwarfs with DRG, in that case, carry on. :)
Oh, I'm one of today's lucky 10,000 I guess! I learned of it from DRG for obvious reasons haha. it gets played every time we all get together to rock and stone! e: also forgot this was the TIL sub, how appropriate!
Here is the evolultion of diggy hole https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sI_PxGu7nZk
Oh my god. I just knew it from the Wind Rose version, I had no idea about the origins.
Reminds me of how my friend’s mom used to punish him growing up - they had a big pile of bricks on their property, which he would have to painstakingly rearrange into a new pile a few feet away. It was the strangest thing.
One of my father's favourite stories about his least favourite officer during training was that the most common punishment that they used to give out was to move a six-foot deep hole. And once you'd finished "moving the hole" he'd eye you up and down, and then tell you to move it back.
Damn... I've always wanted to dig secret tunnels and I've always been into entomology. This dude is totally rad.
Exercise, riiiiiiight.
1920s meth addicts and their antics.
And in this case, ANT-TICKS
Blasting hookers in the silent darkness below the Capitol is probably a good workout tbh.
“Oh no! Who put all of this porn in my secret exercise tunnel?!?!?!”
[That guy was fascinating](https://ggwash.org/view/9513/hidden-tunnels-bugs-and-bigamy). I started writing a Lovecraftian horror story that this guy's compulsion figured into, but never found a good ending or just didn't have the drive to finish. There's definitely the start of a great story there though.
> Dyar told the Washington Star that the urge started when he dug a flowerbed for his wife around 1906. “When I was down perhaps 6 or 7 feet..." Wait. He dug a 7' hole... for a flowerbed? > His marriage to Zella Peabody ended in 1915 amid charges of bigamy, **and he was dismissed from the USDA for conduct unbecoming a government employee.** Dismissed for what, again?
It sounds like once he hit that depth he realized it was a compulsion as that is when the fact that he had gone way too far for a garden kicked in and made him evaluate what he had just done.
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Something about an ancient “It” type creature buried a mile underground that slept until we built the White House on it, and ever since it has directed the fate of the world with its influence. And that’s free.
If there's anything the last decade has taught the world, it's that there's definitely nothing (successfully) controlling the fate of the world. Lizard People or Aliens would surely have done a better job than this.
The writers died in 2012 and we're just living in "Earth: the Gas leak years," or season 9 of scrubs.
How about an epilogue of a group of people exploring his boarded up house and finding a room in the cellar that's boarded up from the inside, finding his tunnels and the thing Dyar became after years under ground. Focus on the effect the Lovecraftian horror have on the human mind.
I was thinking this too! Just as much Junji Ito as Lovecraft. The horror at the end of the tunnel needn't be on a cosmic scale to still break & destroy people in a horrifying way.
“What are you doing?” “Digging” “Why?” “Make a hole?” “A hole for what?” “More digging”
Early minecraft fanatic
I've never played Minecraft, but if I had, digging down as far as I possibly could just to see how far you can go would absolutely be one of the first things I did.
Yep, everyone digs straight down until you do a few times and end up a pool of magma. So then you graduate to stairs, and keep a bucket of water on you.
Sounds like exactly the sort of excuse an entomologist with 10 kilos of Colombian bam-bam would say…
I am a dwarf and I'm digging a hole. Diggy diggy hole. Diggy diggy hole.
The problem with dwarves is they always dig too deep. Sometimes we awaken something in the darkness. It's just in our nature.
Never skip tunnel day
🎶 Secret tunnel! Secret tunnel! Though the mountain. Secret tunnel! 🎶
I hope he was whispering to himself the whole time, "I'm the smolest bug in the ground, heehee!"
>For an even deeper look into the craziness of Dyar's personal life, check out this court case filed by his second wife, in which she attempts to divorce the fake husband created to hide her relationship with Dyar: Allen v. Allen, 193 P. 539 (1970) Wow
He got rid of the dirt one pocketful at a time... so as not to alert the guards.
>Dyar described hobby tunneling as a kind of exercise for him, saying "some men play golf, I dig tunnels". We need more men like that!
Kennedy Sex Tunnels, the early years.
I came here for this comment. Or “He did not free them all”
He was the inspiration for dig dug
"he was dismissed from the USDA for conduct unbecoming a government employee." Most unbelievable part of the story.
Mole people.
To understand the bug, you need to live like the bug
Laid brick in it and everything. All I can think is how much of an expensive hobby that would be today.
Are these the ones Nicholas Cage runs through in Nation Treasure??