[Slight OT] Who watched History Channel "Secret Passages"?

[mearlus]

Last night, I got to see the History Channel's special on "Secret Passages." The most amazing one to me was the Octagon House, in Wisconsin.

I grew up in Watertown Wisconsin, the home of the Octagon House. It's somewhat neat, but they don't let you wander around. The secret passages they built in there were for the maids and such to travel around without being seen I believe. The house is fairly big, it's a landmark thing for Watertown, along with the first Kindergarten. What's really neat about the town is the underground around Main St. Next the to the Rock River there are buildings and a bridge spans across it for the street. Well, I believe 3 levels of those buildings are below the water line, and they don't allow people to go down there for some reason. But what I remember of the history, is that alot of the businesses down the main street were connected w/ underground tunnels. There use to be 2 breweries in town a long time ago, and on the north/west side of Main street near Church Street (not that many, if any of you know where these streets are hehe) there is a metal door sealing a passage to underground on the sidewalk. If you would go down there, it's a huge tunnel. I've been told it's kind of like the tunnel in Ghostbusters 2 where the pink slime is in size. It stretches for awhile I believe, and there are connecting tunnels to where the breweries were. They use to store the beer and such down there. There also use to be a tunnel into the movie theater to pull the horse and carriages into. Neat stuff. A bunch of friends and I were at one time perusing authorization to open these things up and to film a documentary of sorts, but due to "insurance concerns" the city wouldn't let us. But we didn't push to hard.

Lets see... anything else kind of neat about Watertown? Hmm I dunno My friends and I had some pretty awesome theories and such about some other landmarks. hehe

Mearlus

 

[mearlus]

Another bizarre attraction that is rumored to have "secret passages" in Wisconsin is "The Hose on the Rock" I visited there when I was much younger and was fascinated by this sprawling example of architecture.

I've been to this a couple times too during my childhood (not so long ago heeh) The glass room is amazing, yet freaky. It sways when you're out there. I would think it impossible not to have any secret passages in an architectural marval as this. I should go visit once again since I can now appreciate things like this

Also, near (I think) The House on the Rock are the Blue Mound Caves. This is awesome. So if you're visiting and going to stop by The House on the Rock, take some time to go to the caves

This is very strange, I'm anti-wisconsin because i've lived here for near to 23 years (my entire life)... Yet I'm promoting it. Hmm Maybe it's not so bad here afterall

hehe

Mearlus

 

[Mark]

I've been to this a couple times too during my childhood (not so long ago heeh) The glass room is amazing, yet freaky. It sways when you're out there. I would think it impossible not to have any secret passages in an architectural marval as this. I should go visit once again since I can now appreciate things like this

Also, near (I think) The House on the Rock are the Blue Mound Caves. This is awesome. So if you're visiting and going to stop by The House on the Rock, take some time to go to the caves

This is very strange, I'm anti-wisconsin because i've lived here for near to 23 years (my entire life)... Yet I'm promoting it. Hmm Maybe it's not so bad here afterall

hehe

Mearlus

Not so bad, indeed! It's amazing how much we come to appreciate stuff after some time has gone by.

Thanks for the tip on the caves! I'll be sure to plan some time to go and see them. There's a lot of beautiful scenery in Wisconsin, and some extra cool spots like those caves and houses, too.

Chicago also has some underground passages that are no longer used in the downtown area. They used to have small tracks, like for mining carts, that they shuttled coal around to the various businesses.

Of course, most people alse remember Al Capone's Vault, which was opened by Heraldo Riveira around 1980 (?). Nothing was found in it but there are supposed to be many secret "vaults" in the buldings downtown that were used by the bootleggers (and others) in the early part of the last century.