At every university I’ve attended or worked at, there are both myths and true tales regarding the network of steam tunnels under the campus. At Iowa, for example, a certain professor routinely disappeared after class in one building only to reappear in another building well ahead of us. We always assumed he held a coveted “tunnel key” and navigated the subterranean world to avoid the bitter cold on the surface. At Wisconsin, stories were told of “Tunnel Bob,” a six-foot-six homeless guy who lived in the tunnels and was once given a job changing light bulbs.
Now here, I finally managed to come up with a legitimate reason (and permission) to venture into the dungeons below the ground. While reorganizing our storage room, we came across a bunch of old coaxial and fiber-optic cable emerging from a hole in the middle of the floor. As we’re in the basement of the building, the origin of the cables was a bit of a mystery. When we shone a flashlight down the pipe, we discovered an entire room below the floor. The next question was: how do we get down there?
Floor plans were of no use, since the space we were after did not appear on them. We needed to boldly go somewhere no map depicted.
Could this be the place?
Still above ground, but it’s looking like we’re on the right path.
“Restricted Area” — this is more like it!
Access to the depths.
The long-lost steam tunnels.
This image isn’t really clear, but there are at least 2 more levels below us.
Cripes, there’s some dangerous stuff down here!
One more obstacle down. How many more to overcome?
You mean, we have to go into the air duct?
Through the air duct, and into another branch of the tunnel system.
The tunnel narrows; we can just squeeze by.
Success! There are those pesky cables.
A face from the surface world.
A cryptic message scrawled on the wall. Is that blood?
The way out. Or is it….?
