Mile Marker 22: The Shanghai Tunnels, Portland Oregon

Join Drifter & Gypsie as we take you back a bit then down on a visit to the Shanghai Tunnels underneath the city streets of Portland, Oregon.

Click Here to listen to Mile Marker 12 where we discussed a bit of the McMenamins Edgefield Property
Click Here to find the Shanghai Tunnels Tour page.
Click Here to find the McMenamins Edgefield site.
Click Here to find the McMenamins Cornelius Pass Roadhouse site.
Web: www.RebelAtLarge.com
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Transcript

Shanghai Tunnels, Portland, Oregon

Key: Drifter, Male voice. Gypsie, Female voice

Uplifting rock/western tune plays for 15 seconds, music begins to taper down then:

(Drifter) Welcome to the Rebel At Large Adventure Podcast. I’m Drifter

(Gypsie) And I’m  Gypsie

(Drifter) Talking about Ghost towns,

(Gypsie) Graveyards,

(Drifter) Outlaws, Heroes

(Gypsie) And Ladies of the night.

Music tapers to an end

(Drifter)Howdy folks, Thanks for joining us for yet another adventure to another place & back to another time. Today we’ll be heading to Portland Oregon, not just for the view of bridges & steam ships along the river, today we are going underground.

(Gypsie)What we are going to tell you about on this trip is a past that Portland does not want you to see or know about, it’s a deep dark secret that the city has tried to cover up for years. Michael P. Jones and the Cascade Geographic Society have spent about 21 years trying to preserve the history and tell its stories. Today we are going to share with you our trip to the Shanghai Tunnels.

(Drifter)Before we get into the history of the Shanghai tunnels we want to give you a brief history of Portland itself. (Gypsie)In 1843 a drifter from Tennessee named William Overton and his buddy Asa Lovejoy, a lawyer from Boston were floating down the Willamette River when they came upon the area now known as Portland. The two of them filed a land claim and got to work clearing trees, building houses, and putting in roads. Overton decided to move on and sold his half of the land to Francis Pettygrove. 

(Drifter)The town did not have an official name so when Pettygrove came into the picture he and Asa Lovejoy came up with a clever idea to flip a coin and the winner would get to pick the name. Lovejoy being from Massachusetts wanted to name the town Boston and Pettygrove being from Maine wanted to name the town Portland. Pettygrove won the coin toss, two out of three and that is how Portland came to be named. 

(Gypsie)With an unconventional start, Portland prides itself on remaining eclectic ever since.

(Gypsie)In 1850 Congress passed the Oregon Land Act which allowed every man and woman 320 acres of land. By then, roughly 800 people were living in the area. they made a living by catching and selling fish, cutting timber for lumber, growing wheat, and raising cattle in the green mountain ranges. Portland also became a major transportation center because of its proximity to Railroads and Rivers. 

(Drifter)Oregon was the 33rd state to join the Union in 1859. Before that it was known as the Oregon Territory. The territory stretched along the Pacific Coast from California to Canada and East to the Rocky Mountains. Basically the territory covered what is now Oregon, Washington state, Idaho and Montana. 

(Gypsie)Portland was one of the largest shipping hubs, farmers would bring their cattle and produce into town and loggers would bring building materials to be shipped to San Francisco and the rest of the world. The captains of the ships would need a crew to help run the ship and it was difficult to find the needed men. The gold rush was happening all over the area and men did not want to leave and miss out on a chance to strike it rich in the gold fields. This brings us to the Shanghai Tunnels. 

(Drifter)We have some uncommon words here. Crimpers, they were the men that would kidnap people, Crimping refers to kidnapping. Crimping actually started being referred to as Shanghaiing on the West coast because traffic from the Pacific Coast to Asia was increasing. (Gypsie)According to the dictionary, Shanghai means to force a person to join a ship's crew by drugging them or using other underhanded means. Shanghaiing is the practice of kidnapping people to serve as sailors by coercive techniques such as trickery, intimidations or violence.  We refer to this now as human trafficking.

(Drifter)Shanghaiing began in Portland in the 1850’s when the ships would come into port to unload or load up on goods, if the ships were not heading South to San Francisco the men would jump ship and try to make it to the gold fields on their own. The captains would need men so he would pay someone to bring him men to run his ship. Another way the  captain would lose his men is the crimpers would shanghai them and hold them ransom, if the captain wanted his men back he would have to pay them 50 dollars a man.

(Gypsie)Things really started to get out of hand by the 1870’s because the men doing the crimping had established a perfect routine by going underground. The city would not accept that it was happening because they were making money from this operation. As long as the good folks of Portland didn’t see what was going on and the city was making money, the City didn’t care. 

The tunnels were built all along the Portland waterfront, from the North End which is today’s Old Town, Skidmore Fountain, and Chinatown to the south end which is today’s southwest downtown area. When they built the buildings they built the tunnels at the same time and would connect the tunnels as they went, making a winding confusing maze of underground terror. They connected to the many saloons, brothels, gambling parlors and opium dens. These areas would draw in a large number of men which was perfect for shanghaiing. With cooperation of police, politicians, and big business leaders these riverfront neighborhoods became more notorious than the Barbary Coast in San Francisco.  

(Gypsie)The men would not kidnap anyone that was from the area. Instead they would look for drifters, loggers, miners, cowboys, anyone that came into town to enjoy their hard earned money. It is estimated that roughly 1,500 to 3,000 men a year were kidnapped, but men were not the only ones taken, women were victims as well. 

(Drifter)Women were kidnapped and placed in a small wooden box of total darkness and isolation, the kidnappers would tell them terrible things in an attempt to break their souls, it would take about 3 days to break a woman and once they did they were sold into white slavery never to be seen or heard from again. If they did not sell the women into salvery they would keep them and use the women to lure men into the tunnels for a night of pleasure. Once the men were in the tunnels they would be knocked out and dragged into a holding cell. 

(Gypsie)The saloons were one of the best places to kidnap someone. The bartenders would make sure that everyone in the bar was too drunk to notice anything, they didn’t want anyone to leave while drinking so they had troughs installed under the bar so the men could stand there and pee while they were drinking. Once everyone was good and drunk the bartender hit a buzzer notifying the crimpers a victim was on the way, he would pull a lever and the trap door the victim was standing on would drop him into the underground tunnel. 

(Drifter)One story we were told was that some friends went into a bar to drink and they put one of their friends in charge of staying sober. He had one beer for the entire night and stood at the door to make sure his friends didn’t leave with anyone. As the night went on he noticed that one of his friends was gone but he knew he never saw him leave the bar because he was at  the door the entire night. Well he left but not through the front door, he was dropped through the floor onto a mattress in the tunnels. 

(Gypsie)Once the man was underground they would be dragged out into the maze of the tunnels and placed in a holding cell. The holding cells were made of brick, wood or tin and if you were lucky you would get placed in a cell that had a window which would allow for some air flow. They would stay in the holding cell until a captain would come into port and let the kidnappers know how many men they needed. The men were sold for 50 dollars a head.  In 1850 that is equivalent to about $1700 today.

(Drifter)Once the crimpers knew how many men were needed they would  drug them and haul them off during the night to be placed on a ship that would be gone for 3-6 years depending on where the ship went. They would have to drug the men long enough for the ship to make it down the Columbia River and over the bar out to the ocean. That trip took about 13-16 hours. If the men woke up before they made it out to sea they would try to jump over board and swim to shore but most of the men never made it, they would die trying to swim to shore. 

(Gypsie)The men were not safe on the ship either, because they were the new men on board. if they ran out of food they would be the first ones eaten, if there were more than one new man on board they would draw straws to see who was the first to go. Work on a ship was hard and they did not get paid for the work they did. 

(Drifter)In the tunnels they had opium dens as well. There was a set of stairs that would lead down to the room from an alleyway, the room had bunks in it that were stacked with three beds, the bed on the bottom cost the most because if you fell out of bed you would have the shortest fall. The men in the opium dens were warned to not leave the den or they would be captured. The crimpers in the tunnels would run a string of tin cans across the hallway and if someone bumped into it they would know where they were in the tunnels. They also used this method to know if someone escaped from the holding cells. 

(Gypsie)Another way they would keep the men in the cells is they would take their shoes and then place pieces of broken glass on the ground, that way if someone got out and tried to run they would cut up their feet, and the crimpers could follow the trail of blood and find the men. They didn’t want people getting out because they wanted the money for the men but they also didn’t want them telling anyone what happened to them. 

(Drifter)One of the more well known crimpers was Joseph “Bunko” Kelly. Joseph earned his name Bunko while looking for one more man to give a captain. He had spent the entire night searching in the bars and brothels and no one was to be found. As he stood in the street wondering what to do he saw a six foot tall, 300 pound wooden indian statue in front of Wildman’s Tobacco Shop. Kelly decided he was going to wrap him up in a sheet and carry him to the sea captain, he told the captain that he had to use extra drugs to knock out this large Indian and wanted 75 dollars for him not the regular 50. He also warned the captain to not wake him up until he was out to sea because he could get in a fight with him. As the captain was on his way down the Columbia River he decided to take a look at the man he paid extra money for. As he pulled the sheet back he realized he had been tricked, he was so upset by this he threw the statue overboard where it washed up on shore in Astoria. As word made it around what Kelly did he earned the name Bunko for his ability to deceive the ship’s captain. This cigar store indian has been returned to the group and has his residence back inside the tunnels.

(Gypsie)Another story told about Kelly is the Flying Prince Incident. He was asked by a captain to find him a full crew for the Britisher, The Flying Prince that was to set sail for China. Kelly not being one to pass down 720 dollars started on the hunt for men. As he walked past the Snug Harbor Saloon he heard voices in the basement. Kelly walked down the stairs to find a group of men drunk, the number of men he found varies from 8-40. He quickly got his friends to help him load the men in a wagon and take them to the dock. As the ship made its way to Astoria the captain sent someone down to wake up the crew, but the men were all dead. Kelly didn’t find the men drinking in the basement of the Snug Harbor Saloon he found the men drinking in the basement of Johnson and Sons mortuary. The men thought they were drinking a barrel of whiskey but instead they were drinking embalming fluid. The British Government was so upset by this that they threatened to boycott Portland if something wasn’t done about Kelly. 

(Drifter)When prohibition arrived in Portland the bars moved underground to the tunnels, and this made shanghaiing even easier, the men were already down in the tunnels to be taken! The Hobo bar, where the tour starts, had a sign up in the window during Prohibition that read Soda which was code for liquor. 

(Gypsie)The government tried to control the crimping and in 1872 they passed the Shipping Commissioners Act . This Act made it so a sailor had to sign on to the ship in the presence of a federal shipping commissioner. The commissioner was intended to make sure the sailor wasn’t forcibly or unknowing signed on by a crimp. By the late 19th and early 20th centuries ships started to adopt the use of steam power which meant that they did not need as many unskilled laborers to run the ship and this also helped stop the crimpers. In 1915 the Seaman’s Act was passed and this made crimping a federal crime. But men were still being shanghaied up until the 1940’s. 

(Drifter)Today Oregon wants people to believe the tunnels were used to control the flood waters from the Willamette River and not to shanghai men. They are even forcing store owners to cover up the tunnels under their buildings, in an attempt to hide the connections.  Michael Jones and his crew have worked for years at preserving the tunnels and telling its stories. It may be a dark side of Portland but it is still part of its history. 

(Gypsie)Michael passed away on March 29, 2020. when we went on our tour of the tunnels we got the chance to hear Michael tell the story of how he discovered the tunnels, and the stories he was able to uncover during his research. When he was 7 years old his step father, Dewey Kirkpatrick told him about the tunnels, Michael was skeptical of the story so his step father took him to a half torn down building to show him the tunnels. Michael could not get the tunnels out of his mind and kept talking about them with his step father. Dewey told him that if he would only go into the tunnels with him he would get him into the tunnels as often as he could. 

(Drifter)Michael spent the rest of his life researching, interviewing locals and doing everything he could to learn about the tunnels. In 1979 he founded the nonprofit Cascade Geographic Society then he and a crew spent years clearing out the tunnels, as much as they could in order to give tours. The tour that we went on was during Halloween and it was the haunted tour. Like we mentioned before the tour starts at the Hobo Restaurant in Old Town at 120 North West Third Ave. They take you out to the side alley and this is where we got to hear Micheal tell us about his haunted experience inside the tunnels. He told us he’s heard voices, growls, he felt someone breathing down his neck, and was even scratched. He showed us a picture of an apparition that was seen in the tunnels and warned us of the evil spirits lurking down below.

(Gypsie)As you enter the tunnels the ceilings are very short and there are pipes running along the ceiling from the stores above, so if you get the chance to go inside make sure you watch your head. While they were cleaning out the tunnels they ran lights through the tunnels, but keep in mind when the tunnels were first built they didn’t have electricity so it was pitch black dark in there.  

(Drifter)Once inside the tunnels they take you to one of the opium dens that has the bunk bed in there and a set of stairs in the corner. They told us that under the floorboards they found a storage area where they are guessing they would hide the opium in. 

(Gypsie)They take you to a wooden box with a small door on it that is placed in the middle of the room. Inside the box is just enough room for a small wooden chair and this is where they would place the women that they crimped, they would lock them in there for as long as they needed to break the woman's soul and then sell them to a pimp. One story of a woman in the tunnels is of Nina (pronounced “Nigh-na”), the story goes that she was a working girl who was sold and forced into the lifestyle. Well some missionaries were in the area trying to clean it up and they told Nina if she would give them information about the underground they would help free her from the lifestyle that she did not choose. Nina agreed but shortly after she was found dead in the Merchant Hotel. Old Town Pizza is now located in the exact area of the building Nina was found in and they love to tell her story, and how she haunts the building. 

(Drifter)On the tour they also walk you past the few holding areas left that they would place the men inside. You get to look through the steel bars in the wall and it gives you an idea of what it would have felt like to be locked up inside, there is no light in the cell and it has this terrible feeling about. 

(Gypsie)They also walked us into an area that had the string cans they would use as traps strung up around an area on the floor. They have on display in the same area a box with several pairs of logger boots, you can tell they are logger boots because they have the spikes on the souls. (Drifter)These are the boots of the men that were taken and sold to sea captains, remember we told you they would take them off the men so that they couldn’t escape but if they were able to get out the crimpers placed glass on the ground to cut up the men’s feet. 

(Gypsie)I think the most disturbing part of the tour is when they take you to the mattress on the ground, the mattress was there to provide the men being dropped through the floor a soft place to land. As you stand there and they tell you about the deadfall trap door they pulled a lever and this would open the door allowing for a stuffed human to fall down on the mattress. What a terrible and horrible feeling that would be to be inside a bar drinking and enjoying yourself and the next thing you know you're underground in a dark tunnel, and no one knows where you are. 

(Drifter)Our tour only took us to the parts that had been cleared and safe to walk through. They told us they were working on expanding the tunnels to more areas and when we checked the website it looks like they are getting closer to achieving this goal. Hopefully with Michael gone the organization will continue on with his legacy. 

(Gypsie)When we went to see the Shanghai Tunnels it was the first trip that the two of us had flown to a location together, the start of our relationship as well as celebrating Drifters birthday. We stayed at the Mcmenamins Edgefield  hotel, we told you guys a bit about it in Mile Marker 12. Drifter took me to the McMenamins Imbrie hall & Cornelius Pass Roadhouse To show me where he used to work. We got to see the Octagonal Barn, (Drifter)one of the last six of its kind remaining, (Gypsie)the white shed (Drifter)which at a time was the smallest bar either in the state or statewide, I don't recall which title it held. (Gypsie)We got to see the location of where Drifters Body Piercing studio once was in Portland. Not only did we get to see the Shanghai Tunnels but we also went on the tour we told you about at the Oregon State Hospital, which was Mile Marker 12.

(Drifter)Well folks, there you have it. That’s our trip to tour the seedy underbelly of the town once referred to as the Forbidden City Of The West. Again the city would rather not confirm any of the stories & as many articles are written stating that the shanghai part never happened, noting that though the tunnels are near the river, within a few blocks, none currently lead to the river itself. Either way, it’s a great story & well worth the tour. We wouldn't hesitate to take the tour again given the opportunity. As for the tales, you make up your own mind.

(Gypsie)PDXhistory.com

Portlandtunnels.com (website to sign up for a tour but as of right now they are not doing tours because the Hobo bar is shut down for COVID, i did see they were talking about doing a virtual tunnel tour, if we see anything more about it we will share it on the website.) 

 (Gypsie)What do you call tunnels in the Philippines? Fallopian Tubes 

(Drifter)Alright folks, thanks again for joining us on another of our adventures. (Gypsie)If you’re into it, the rate & review thing is appreciated. Moreso, if you’re enjoying us share us with a friend. (Drifter)If you want to follow along with us you can find us on Instagram (Gypsie)@rebelatlarge. (Drifter)Visit our website (Gypsie)RebelAtlarge.com to find photos of our journeys & also links to the other social deals & email. (Drifter)If you’d like to help us put some fuel in the tanks, you can find us on Patreon as well.

We’ll be back in a couple weeks with another adventure, (Gypsie)Safe travels, (Drifter)we’ll see ya down the road.

Begin 30 seconds of the same uplifting Rock/Western tune as the introduction.