Big... Fucking... Tunnel... in Tulsa

Urban exploration in Oklahoma
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Re: Big... Fucking... Tunnel... in Tulsa

Post by gimpface »

Something I found about the massacre of Tulsa:

Reporter Brent Staples describes the aftermath (New York Times December 19, 1999): "Corpses stacked like cordwood on street corners, photographed for keepsakes. Corpses piled in the backs of wagons, dump trucks, and along railroad sidings. Corpses buried in an underground tunnel downtown, where one caller said 123 blacks had been clubbed to death. Corpses left to rot for days in a park under the blistering Oklahoma sun. Corpses dumped in the Arkansas River and allowed to float away."

The same tunnel, I wonder?
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Re: Big... Fucking... Tunnel... in Tulsa

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But wait, there's more!

Newblock Park is located adjacent to the downtown area and the Greenwood section. It is bounded to the south by the Arkansas River, to the east by a residential area and 7th Street, to the north by Charles Page Boulevard, and on the west by more city property (Figure 1). At the time of the Tulsa Race Riot, Newblock Park was the location of the city landfill, the city incinerator, and a substantial amount of open land. Because of wooded tree lines, much of the area of Newblock may have been blocked from view. Today, Newblock Park is dramatically altered from the way it appeared in 1921; much of the park is greenspace. However, this greenspace hides the remains of old water pumping system buildings, numerous utility lines, as well as the Parkview drainage channel leading to the Arkansas River. There is also a railroad line between the park and the Arkansas River as well as a levee constructed by the Corps of Engineers in the 1940s. Thus, the landscape is markedly different than that witnessed by Tulsans in the summer of 1921. There have been numerous unverified accounts of victims of the riot being buried in Newblock by whites and/or the National Guard. Accounts of their remains being subsequently unearthed during the many public works projects taking place there since the time of the riot have been reported. However, no evidence exists in the City of Tulsa's files documenting a mass grave or human remains being found in Newblock. The numerous reports of bodies being placed on the sand bar north of the 11th Street Bridge also figures in the Newblock Park account. If victims of the riot were to be placed in a mass grave in the Newblock Park area, this sand bar of the Arkansas River adjacent to the park could have served as a staging area for the event.


This sounds like the same park, but I'm not 100% sure. Some pretty freaky history if so...
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Re: Big... Fucking... Tunnel... in Tulsa

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I'm headed to Tulsa this weekend to visit wife's family again. This time I have a digital camera and have planned a whole day to explore this thing, so be expectin' some "purty pitchers" on my return!
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Re: Big... Fucking... Tunnel... in Tulsa

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There is a cool tunnel located E 15th street between S Memorial St. and S Sheridan St. It is at least a 1/2 mile long and if you follow it to the, I believe, southwest end you will find two more tunnels that we never found the end to. PM me if you want more info. Have fun.
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Re: Big... Fucking... Tunnel... in Tulsa

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Well, we checked this thing out today... holy shit. To state the obvious, it's an awesome tunnel! It is extremely long (we found one exit from a side tunnel, but have no idea how far the main runs), tall, and paved with cobblestones/bricks. It is basically just a long corridor with very few side tunnels or rooms, a lot of drips, and weird sounds. I've decided this tunnel should be named "The Beast", due to it's tendency to roar/growl at you when heavy vehicles pass overhead. Unlike most tunnels that run under streets, there's very little of the "heartbeat" sound of passing cars, but for some reason the whole place will roar at you. Also, due to the acoustics and all the dripping, it sounds like there are voices ahead of and behind you. The whole place gets sort of a mindfuck vibe going to it. It's pretty freaky (and thus, AWESOME!). About 1800' (guesstimate based on public works markings on the walls every 100' or so) a side tunnel appears to the left, and the main tunnel narrows a bit.

The areas around the mouth of the tunnel were covered with graffitti, most of which was actually fairly well executed, but somewhere around 3300' in there is no more graffiti. It died away so gradually that it was a shock when I realized the walls were all untouched (I guess taggers are afraid of the dark).

At about 3800' in we suddenly smelled rotten eggs and decided not to press our luck and risk being gassed, so we doubled back to where we had noticed a side tunnel and decided to check it out.

It went a short distance before forking into two 8' diameter RCPs. We opted to follow the one on the right (it looked less slippery). We did that obnoxious bowlegged walk for a long time trying to avoid slipping, climbing over the occaisional pipe that would intersect with our path. Eventually it split into two even smaller tunnels, one a crawler and one a croucher. We could see daylight a little ways down the croucher, so we figured we may as well check it out, maybe get lucky and find an exit that wouldn't make us back track.

I hate crouchers. It took forever to get to the end, and it was getting tighter and tighter. Wifey found an awesome butcher knife in that passage that she decided to keep "just in case". When we reached the end, we were standing under a grate with bars bolted into the concrete. We were pretty disappointed and were about to turn around when I tested one and found that the bolt had broken loose and I could easily lift it. I moved it aside and we popped up in a grassy area between HWY 64 and an off ramp. When we got back to the car I grabbed the map and looked up the streets we popped up near. My rough estimate is that we did about two to two-and-a-half miles of tunneling.

I'm really curious where the main tunnel leads to, and I think we should get a little expedition together to find out. This place rocks my world.

I'll post pics when I become less retarded and figure out how to get them from the camera to my computer.
Last edited by gimpface on Sun Jan 07, 2007 11:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Big... Fucking... Tunnel... in Tulsa

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FiReDiVeR wrote:There is a cool tunnel located E 15th street between S Memorial St. and S Sheridan St. It is at least a 1/2 mile long and if you follow it to the, I believe, southwest end you will find two more tunnels that we never found the end to. PM me if you want more info. Have fun.
We spotted one at 15th and... "Skelly", maybe? ...that we were planning to check out, but didn't. Do you think it's the same one?
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RE: Big... Fucking... Tunnel... in Tulsa

Post by cobcob »

Gimpface, let me know when you're planning an expo that way, I'm definately interested! haven't hit a huge drain in a few years now!
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Re: Big... Fucking... Tunnel... in Tulsa

Post by FiReDiVeR »

gimpface wrote:
FiReDiVeR wrote:There is a cool tunnel located E 15th street between S Memorial St. and S Sheridan St. It is at least a 1/2 mile long and if you follow it to the, I believe, southwest end you will find two more tunnels that we never found the end to. PM me if you want more info. Have fun.
We spotted one at 15th and... "Skelly", maybe? ...that we were planning to check out, but didn't. Do you think it's the same one?
No, I don't think its the same one. There has got to be at least a 100 miles of tunnels in tulsa that you would not have to even bend over to walk in, I know because I have seen many of them. Next time I go I will get some locations and better directions to them.
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RE: Big... Fucking... Tunnel... in Tulsa

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Holy crap, that's huge!

/What do mean waiting until its gets warmer...its -40F windchill up here.
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RE: Big... Fucking... Tunnel... in Tulsa

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There's a drainage ditch that runs into a tunnel right by my new apartment. I'll get to checking it out one of these days.
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Re: Big... Fucking... Tunnel... in Tulsa

Post by Chris »

Any pics yet?
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RE: Big... Fucking... Tunnel... in Tulsa

Post by bugo »

No pics yet. I don't have a camera at the moment. It isn't really that cool, just a tunnel that runs underneath I-44 on its way to the river. I did see a pair of mallard ducks in the ditch one day though.
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RE: Big... Fucking... Tunnel... in Tulsa

Post by hounddogz »

Wow thats a big ole tunnel!
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RE: Big... Fucking... Tunnel... in Tulsa

Post by Curor »

I will be going through there in a few months. I think that I found it on google maps but I am not sure. Could someone please pm me directions?
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Re: Big... Fucking... Tunnel... in Tulsa

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It's at riverside park, wherever the hell that is. Google it.

Edit: Also, I now have all the pics on a disk, but I only have internet access at work, so I won't be posting them anytime soon.
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