I have been wrecking a Jewish school in Sacramento, and on the grounds is (was) an old house built by the man who donated the land for the school. He was a Jewish immigrant and vowed to never face capture again so the little windows in the tower were hinged at the bottom to open so they could be shot out of and there was a rumor that he had dug a tunnel out of the home to avoid capture should he be attacked, well guess what, behind a fake wall in the small basement I found this, I went in about 100ft until the tunnel was sort of choked off with tree roots, and my shoulders felt like they were starting to swell. The tunnel is about 4ft x 2.5ft and dug in hard pan. Which is not quite rock but much tougher digging than soil very stable.
Wow! Did it go farther or was that the end of it? Pretty neat!
That is a really neat story and some really neat pictures of the tunnel. What a life he must have had. Wow.
Just think what it takes to make a man afraid enough to go to those lengths to ensure his safety! He had quite an experience I bet. Thanks for sharing that with us.
What a little treasure. Great that you got pictures, pretty brave to be crawling any distance into that, not my cup of tea at all I'll bet a good few people will be pleased to have the rumour confirmed. As stated it makes you wonder exactly what sort of detention pushes a man to construct an escape route like that. Very hard work :notworthy.
Sounds like he spent some time in one of the Jewish Ghetto's or possibly a death camp survivor.
too bad you had to demo it
You'd better check it out til the end, might be a treasure chest full of gold in there
The tunnel seems to go on much farther than I will! A nieghbor to the site told me a utility crew dug into it nearly a block away a few yrs back.
If I was near you,I'd love to go in there to see where it ends.I love that kind of stuff.Is your client going to have you collapse the tunnel?
maybe they could preserve the tunnel as a memorial to him. what do you think, or is it destroyed already?
wow that's amazing!
Is the guy still alive? You'd think he'd mention something like that when he donated.
this is a truly great story and find..sad what so many people had to endure in lifE when all they wanted was freedom and prosperity...god bless u all and the good ol U.S. of A.
I would be afraid that tunnel might be booby trapped. Not likely but not impossible either!
I have to agree. I do hope that somebody involved with the history of the community there will be intrested enough to get copies of those pictures you have taken. That is and will be a great piece of history for folk to look back on and the pictures will make it so more real in future years.
My dad had a cousin that cut hair here. His dad was in the Bataan death march in the Phillipines, Part of the march they were put in train cars standing room only. for 3 months travel. He said when a person died they had to shuffle them to the side of the car. They said whe nhe had to go to Memphis to the doctors he couldnt go into a crowded area with folks shoulder to shoulder without getting a cold chill. Ive hears his house was fairly opened to. One of my mentors in operating was also a WW2 Vet to. He was involved in liberating a death camp and said it was a sobering experience and at that time couldnt place how humans could to that to one another. He also told me that he had met a man later that he had helped, he was the same way had a hiding place and an escape route from his basement.