Illinois man finds mysterious tunnel beneath his home

Illinois man finds mysterious tunnel beneath his home

We’re going underground in Alton, Illinois, into a tunnel that was just found.

“A lot of brick,” said Gary Machens, who discovered the tunnel. “Whatever they built this for, it took a lot of men and a lot of hours. You know, one guy didn’t do this.”

Machens first uncovered this tunnel when he discovered his sidewalk starting to slope.

“Had a problem here at the sidewalk and as we were doing some excavating and repacking of the rock here, we discovered this tunnel here,” he said. “According to historians here in the Alton area. This tunnel was put in here around 1840.”

When the West Alton farmer and his wife first moved into this home, he already knew of its history – dating back to the 1890s.

Machens believes the change in elevation from 1895 when this brick-lined street was put down covered the opening to this underground mystery.

“Why is it stair stepped like this?” Machens said. “Why is that in there? Do you see the offset in the brick? And if you look along this wall it turns that way a little bit. Look down along this wall.”

Whether for ice storage, a carriage, or part of the Underground Railroad, is anyone’s best guess.

“It’s unique, there are a few tunnels around the Alton area since we checked with the Landmark Historic Society,” Machen said. “It’s been used as an icehouse or root cellar or a lot of other options.

“It could have been used for the Underground Railroad. There’s no proof of that but there was a ferry here in the Alton area to the Missouri side and it’s possible it could have been used for that.”

Machens is open to the idea of opening the tunnel for tours if he can get the city or someone to help with logistics and cost.

For now, he has to fix his sidewalk and seal up the tunnel.

“Yes, three former mayors of Alton have lived in this house through the years,” Machens said. “I don’t know if any of them knew about this. The house was built in 1890, the tunnel is believed from 1840, so it was here for 50 years. What it was used for, I don’t know. We’ve got maps that go back to 1863 and this house was not there and there was not another house on this property here.”

Machens, a history lover, says he wants to preserve this past and current-day mystery in his life.

“So, it was at least 9 feet tall,” he said. “We’re standing on about a foot of dirt and it’s 9 feet wide and how far back it goes, we don’t know. We know it goes back 60 feet.”

More: https://fox2now.com/news/illinois/alton-man-discovers-mysterious-19th-century-era-tunnel-beneath-his-property/

50 Comments

  1. @JayeLisse on May 21, 2024 at 1:19 pm

    They were not trying to turn that camera around…

  2. @TronixGuy93 on May 21, 2024 at 1:19 pm

    Just go down there with a shovel one day and start parting that fill.

  3. @datmeme8967 on May 21, 2024 at 1:20 pm

    Somebody needs to tell these people that the "Underground Railroad" was not literally under the ground.

  4. @mlb6d9 on May 21, 2024 at 1:20 pm

    Shoulda kept quiet about it and made it a man-cave

  5. @mewanttools7275 on May 21, 2024 at 1:21 pm

    Looks like it was constructed using forms then covered with soil. Look at the pressed mortar. Brickies or masons would have jointed if it was built while tunneling.

  6. @badradness3570 on May 21, 2024 at 1:21 pm

    Prohibition

  7. @Halo3gun on May 21, 2024 at 1:24 pm

    tunnel

  8. @REL602 on May 21, 2024 at 1:24 pm

    0:52 Around 18 Farty

  9. @user-tk8yh5nd9x on May 21, 2024 at 1:25 pm

    Oh u believe that but people don’t believe the tunnels under grace land.ok then

  10. @StevenFallonOfficial on May 21, 2024 at 1:27 pm

    Guy should have kept silent, fixed it up into a cool apartment, and hid a side chick down there 😜

  11. @tinathomas8593 on May 21, 2024 at 1:27 pm

    Stop playing. Gtfoh!!

  12. @johnfree2833 on May 21, 2024 at 1:27 pm

    Dope grow opportunity up in smoke

  13. @TheGr33nHulk on May 21, 2024 at 1:28 pm

    Now I can get why Alton is the most haunted place in America

  14. @Douglas-jv1xv on May 21, 2024 at 1:28 pm

    Use your heads, these are Freemason’s tunnels

  15. @joedirt6073 on May 21, 2024 at 1:28 pm

    1800s, bs…it’s much older…fake history

  16. @markbeans3759 on May 21, 2024 at 1:29 pm

    Best way to preserve it is to forget about it and leave it alone.

  17. @phatboom on May 21, 2024 at 1:31 pm

    why advertise? now the government will force you to sell your house to them.

  18. @Slidethroughtarot on May 21, 2024 at 1:32 pm

    Hhhhmmm

  19. @DSLACA on May 21, 2024 at 1:32 pm

    We got a bunch of those in Savannah, Ga

  20. @DosDonts101 on May 21, 2024 at 1:33 pm

    Dude just a new basement

  21. @YahuahIsKing1229 on May 21, 2024 at 1:33 pm

    #mudflood

  22. @hawaiiguykailua6928 on May 21, 2024 at 1:35 pm

    Not tunnel, it’s an old city that was buried in the last reset. Just ask the historians of Kansas City, Seattle, Cleveland, Miami, Dallas, Phoenix, or any other city on this planet. Every city was dug out to its most usable floor in the 17-1800s.Thats why every city has historic buildings with windows and doors going underground and steps going up to the next/first reusable floor. It’s exactly why the entrance into this "tunnel" shows arched stonework just under the wall, as it’s an old doorway or window lintel. We been lied to about our history across the planet.

  23. @ms.kenzie8275 on May 21, 2024 at 1:38 pm

    MUD FLOOD. If you know, you know.

  24. @aurora8749 on May 21, 2024 at 1:38 pm

    I want to know why so many buildings and tunnels were paved over. Its so many its insane

  25. @Orpheusftw on May 21, 2024 at 1:39 pm

    I’m confused as to whether people _actually believe_ the "underground railroad" was a physical, subterranean… "subway-like" train. 🤦‍♂️

  26. @lucasparham5068 on May 21, 2024 at 1:39 pm

    Mudflood, Tartaria

  27. @ScooterDoge on May 21, 2024 at 1:39 pm

    18-farty

  28. @badabing6852 on May 21, 2024 at 1:40 pm

    Need to go a whole lot deeper to find the big tunnels which are interconnected to the entire globe. People need to stop worrying about aliens & pay attention to what is under their feet.
    Some will not be able to handle what is eventually disclosed & it will have to be because part of being Free means telling the Truth. Some refer to it as the inner earth or hollow earth For too long man has been moving further away from the Father & struggling through life never really understanding the Matrix is real. Take a moment & think of those loved ones that have moved on. Did they live the kind of life that the Father wanted for us? Or were they like most, living lives of quite desperation ?

  29. @bye92 on May 21, 2024 at 1:45 pm

    Hiding slaves

  30. @johnappleby2182 on May 21, 2024 at 1:49 pm

    Whats behind the sand mounds…both ends need unblocked….you are standing in a tunnel, of a once and partially still existing, starfort…which ALL have been constructed along waterways, and are present in partial or whole, under every major city in the world. Called Starforts, Bastions and Batteries, said to be made for cannons from 1700’s…all have these ancient arched red brick tunnels, and were buried or covered up by peaple or more likely, a flood.. and when originally created, were ancient pre-flood, Hydraulic Machines….is what I stongly lean toward in my reseach…it gets much deeper than this but, i digress

  31. @clocksurfer on May 21, 2024 at 1:50 pm

    It’s a cellar for storage, I’d guess.

  32. @explorationgmer1336 on May 21, 2024 at 1:50 pm

    Wonder where the whole underground takes you to

  33. @germany456 on May 21, 2024 at 1:51 pm

    My grandma and grandfather said that in Rockford Illinois there’s a LOT OF TUNLLES, which is crazy

  34. @darkylll406 on May 21, 2024 at 1:51 pm

    Imagine finding someone living under your house like that.

  35. @cheecheneg on May 21, 2024 at 1:54 pm

    That brickwork is actually in really good shape!

  36. @XNationalist88 on May 21, 2024 at 1:55 pm

    Its where the tunnel jews lurk

  37. @nicoleymacaroni on May 21, 2024 at 1:59 pm

    There’s tunnels all over, that’s where they live and do bad things. Celebs politicians

  38. @cray-z7404 on May 21, 2024 at 2:00 pm

    The Tartarians built and then the mudflood happened and then they rebuilt ontop of it and hid it …

  39. @Tu_Papa_1.50 on May 21, 2024 at 2:01 pm

    El chapó at it again

  40. @marcusdolby1 on May 21, 2024 at 2:02 pm

    It’s a coal chute, we had one in a house we rented Warrenton Virginia.

  41. @user-zr6hd3gd3e on May 21, 2024 at 2:02 pm

    That tunnel probably was used for slaves or something

  42. @fr3dr02 on May 21, 2024 at 2:06 pm

    Underground railroad didn’t literally mean "underground" cmon now folks😮

  43. @paullavoie5542 on May 21, 2024 at 2:09 pm

    At least he didn’t do it himself.

  44. @raiinzyy on May 21, 2024 at 2:10 pm

    My brother lives in a building that’s a couple hundred years old, and his basement looks like this. Just a tiny bit wider, and painted in white completely. well, not very white anymore. It’s horrible because it’s incredibily moldy and he can’t get rid of it.

    In the small city where he lives some house owner discovered a network of tunnels when he was digging out his basement. 250meters long, 3 meters below the ground, going underneath the city center. At the end of these tunnels there are just rooms. These tunnels were used for canons and small explosives against enemies. Apparently there’s a few more of these in this city.
    Oh yeah this is in Europe tho, not US.

  45. @Mr196710 on May 21, 2024 at 2:11 pm

    Antisemitic!!

  46. @ma1375 on May 21, 2024 at 2:13 pm

    #alexjones #timpool #russellbrand #ufc #joerogan #projectveritas #baltimore #ye

  47. @Goosgoos-222 on May 21, 2024 at 2:16 pm

    Yts are so ignorant lol they literally the the underground railroad is an underground tunnel system smh. This us what happens Florida.

  48. @user-yn8kv5wj6o on May 21, 2024 at 2:16 pm

    Tunnels built in 1840? Uh, not a chance folks! There are tunnels under every city reaching all 4 corners of this earth! No exceptions. There are in fact HUGE old word buildings and even more massive structures that were utterly destroyed and definitely melted down like wax by unimaginable heat then buried and covered over by the melt during the utterly catastrophic worldwide X-Factor Event that occurred at the start of the 1800s that also reached all 4 corners of the earth. Followed by an immediate massive worldwide flood! The proof and evidence of the X-Factor event is in plain site everywhere on earth! Hidden by wicked, vile LIES!

  49. @simon_a.j.7255 on May 21, 2024 at 2:17 pm

    Wonder if they ever removed that pile of dirt so we can know what is at the end of the tunnel

  50. @juancarlosmartinez3621 on May 21, 2024 at 2:17 pm

    Good luck! I hope you’re able to reopen it.

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