Hobby tunneling

A few people have dug tunnels as a hobby or for fun, although some have given additional reasons for their activities. Seymour Cray, for instance, has said that the work of digging helped him to think about other problems, and Harrison Dyar saw digging as a form of exercise.

Some hobbyists started out constructing something understandably useful, but continued digging after completion. This was the case with William Lyttle, who started by digging a wine cellar,[6] and Michael Altmann, who excavated a cooling cellar for a cafe. A Swiss contemporary of Altmann named Peter Junker dug in his garden, searching for water,[7] but continued digging after finding some, excavating a tunnel length of 220 metres (720 ft).[8]

Others have always said that they excavated for a particular purpose, although the tunnelling effort seems out of proportion to the stated purpose.[2] Dyar biographer Marc Epstein thinks it is mainly outsiders that desire a sense of purpose. On Dyar's tunneling for exercise reasons he says that "it’s almost unfathomable, the amount of energy it would take" and that "it still doesn’t add up".[2] Author Will Hunt thinks extensive tunnelling is at least part obsession.[6] Psychiatrist Anton Tölk believes that tunnel digging can be interpreted as a desire to return to the security of the mother's womb,[7] and that as an activity it allows contemplative satisfaction.[7]

The American entomologist Harrison Gray Dyar Jr. constructed a network of tunnels on two occasions, with a length of 400 metres (1,300 ft) combined.[6] His first, under his Washington, D.C. home was accidentally discovered during construction work in 1917, without drawing much attention.[9] It was rediscovered in 1924, when a truck sank though the pavement nearby.[6] The tunnel system led to speculation in the press, not in the least because a lot of German newspapers from the war years of 1917 and 1918 were found in the tunnels.[9] After a few days Dyar came forward as the tunnels' constructor, claiming he had dug them between 1906 and 1916, when he relocated to California.[9]

Back in Washington a few years later, Dyar dug out a second set of tunnels under his new home.[9] The network had concrete lined walls, steel staircases and electric lighting.[9][10] Dyar described hobby tunneling as a kind of exercise for him, saying "some men play golf, I dig tunnels".[1]

William Lyttle's house in 2005

In the mid sixties, British civil engineer William Lyttle dug a wine cellar under his Hackney property.[1] Having done so, he said that he had "found a taste for the thing" and kept on digging, for some forty years.[11] Eventually, several tunnels on multiple levels led in all directions, under the property and surrounding grounds, some of them 18.2 metres (60 ft) long.[11] After complaints by neighbours, a power supply interruption and a sinkhole in the pavement, the borough had a survey carried out that revealed the extent of the tunneling.[11] Lyttle was evicted and the tunnels were filled with concrete.[11]

Armenian man Lyova (or Levon) Arakelyan dug a storage cellar under his rural house in 1985.[6] When completed, he continued to dig and kept at it for some 23 years, constructing an extensive complex of tunnels, rooms and stairs which extended 21 metres (69 ft) deep into solid rock.[1] Arakelyan stated that he received directions for his work in dreams and visions.[12] The underground spaces were transformed into a museum, called 'Divine Underground', after his death in 2008.[12] Arakelyan never made any money from his tunneling in life, and the museum provides some income for his family.[12]

Entrance to the Burro Schmidt Tunnel

William "Burro" Schmidt was a Californian miner who spent 32 years drilling a 636 metres (2,087 ft) tunnel through solid granite.[lower-alpha 1][6] He claimed to be building a shortcut from his mining operation to the smelter.[13] When a new road was constructed, rendering his shortcut obsolete, Schmidt carried on his work regardless.[14] He used simple handtools and occasionally explosives for tunneling, carrying out the debris in a wheelbarrow or on the backs of his two burros.[13] Schmidt supported himself by working as a farm hand in summer.[13] If precious metals were ever found, Schmidt never took any of it to market. Schmidt the tunneler took the better part of Schmidt the miner, according to a later caretaker of the Burro Schmidt Tunnel.[13] When his tunnel was completed, he sold his concession to another miner, packed his belongings and left.[14]

The American engineer and supercomputer architect Seymour Cray is known to have been a hobby tunneller.[15] Cray built an 8 by 4 feet (2.4 by 1.2 m) cedar-floored tunnel under his house,[16] explaining that the digging helped him to think about computer designs. "While I'm digging in the tunnel, the elves will often come to me with solutions to my problem," he said.[17]

Between 1958 and 2008 Austrian Michael Altmann dug two tunnels of 180 metres (590 ft) combined.[7] At first, he wanted a cooling cellar for a cafe he was to open, but upon completion he could not get a permit.[7] In 1965 he took over another bar, but kept his digging as a hobby. Altmann would mainly use a pickaxe for digging and occasionally explosives, after passing an explosives handling examination at the fire department.[7] He dug a second tunnel branching off from the first one, using a tunnel boring machine he designed and built himself.[7] In 1962, he installed steel doors on the tunnel system and added a store of emergency rations, with the intention of making it usable as a nuclear bunker.[7]

In 2008 Altmann reached a block of granite and, considering his age, gave up tunnel digging.[7]

A tunnel leading into a patio in Forestiere's complex

The kitchen of the Forestiere Underground Gardens

In 1904 Sicilian immigrant Baldassare Forestiere bought a 32 acres (13 ha) plot of land in Fresno for horticulture.[18] The hardpan soil however, was unsuited for the fruit trees he intended to plant. While working elsewhere Forestiere dug a maze of underground and below ground spaces to escape the summer heat of the San Joaquin Valley.[18] He opened up ceilings to let in light and below he planted the fruit trees he wanted in the first place. The complex consists of bedrooms, living spaces, patios, a fish pond and hallways.[18] After his death in 1946 some of the land was sold off and some tunnels filled in, but currently about 8 acres (3.2 ha) have been saved. It is known as the Forestiere Underground Gardens and has a listing in the National Register of Historic Places.[19]

San Diego inhabitant Glen Havens constructed a maze of tunnels and caverns under his house.[20] Havens started out in 1949, enlarging his barbecue pit, but ended up digging roughly 200 metres (660 ft) of tunnels and underground rooms.[20] Havens enlisted the help of his son and other children in the neighbourhood, who earned pocket money in the process.[21] The underground complex was large enough to hold his daughter's wedding reception in 1960, with some 200 guests attending.[21] Havens ignored building regulations and never got any permit. Local authorities recommended people not to go inside, but took no further action.

Costa Rican miner Manuel Barrantes has built an underground family house, consisting of hallways, bedrooms, conference rooms and a bathroom.[1] The complex, totalling 186 square metres (2,000 sq ft), is used as a home and a museum.[1] In Butler, Pennsylvania Ron Heist created a 50 room dwelling made of salvaged materials from abandoned places in the vicinity. It includes several tunnels Heist dug out and reinforced himself.[22] A documentary film was made about him, entitled Mole Man.[23]

In 2015 a 10 metres (33 ft) tunnel was discovered in a Toronto park. After a few days of speculations in media, the use as a terrorist hideout being among them, young construction worker Elton McDonald came forward as its builder.[1] Asked for the purpose of his digging, he answered "Honestly, I loved it so much. I don't know why I loved it".[1] In 1984 Russian Leonid Murlyanchik had the plan of digging a 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) tunnel towards the house of his beloved Ekaterina.[1] However, after Ekaterina's son objected to the liaison, he changed his intention into building his city of Lebedyan a subway system.[1] For 27 years Murlyanchik spent most of his hours, and his pension money, on the project.[1] At his death in 2011 he had completed 300 metres (980 ft) of tunnel, which was subsequently closed off.[1]