Another excursion we went on while Brandt's family was in town was on a tour of the Portland Underground. The organization that produces this tour is
very protective of their intellectual property rights so I didn't take any pictures... that and the lack of a phone. There also wasn't much that was picture-worthy. The tour was something you need to experience yourself and take in the atmosphere and claustrophobic nature of the Portland Underground. This post will be more like a history lesson than photo sharing.
First of all, our group was so large that they split us in two. The guy that gave our tour was knowledgeable but focused far too much on ghosts. He told too many ghost stories and pointed out where "haunted/ghostly" things took place. That took away some of the legitimacy of the tour and makes me doubt some of the stories I heard. I'll share what I remember and what seems to be most factual.
The underground is in what used to be Japan Town, which later became what we now know as China Town. I hadn't heard of Japan Town and that is because when anyone of Japanese decent was shuttled into internment camps during WWII, the Chinese moved into the open real estate. I think that bares it's own conversation and a deeper look into the history of the area. I filed that fact away to look into later. Portland was developed in a rush and earned the nickname Stumptown because when creating streets, they just cut down the trees and didn't bother to pull out the stumps. The underground was built on the excuse that the city needed a better, more efficient way to get goods from the docks into town and to merchants. The tunnels were really used to transport contraband, drugs, and during the prohibition, alcohol. One of those items in the contraband category: people.
The term to be Shanghaied originated in Portland (most likely, I haven't verified yet) and that was taking/kidnapping men to work on ships of which the majority sailed to Shanghai. These men were basically slaves while they were on board and had a lower status than rats. I learned a new term while on the tour, long pig. That was what it was called when the sailors ran out of food, usually due to being stranded without wind, and then ate the men they Shanghaied. So not only might you die on the journey, you could be eaten, and if you survived, when the journey was over the captain left you wherever that voyage finished, which wasn't always back in the Pacific Northwest.
So where does the underground play in? That was how they moved the men (and women sold into prostitution) to the docks. First stop on our tour was an opium den. It had a 3-level bunk bed and a chair. When you do opium you don't need a lot of room, just a place to pass out. You paid based on what level of the bed you slept on. People high on opium were perfect for kidnapping. That was bad for the opium business though so they set up cans, bells, anything loud they could find, on strings that the kidnappers would touch, warning everyone they were coming. When raids were done on the dens, the drug dealers and users would run into the underground to avoid the police. That was another great opportunity to nab potential future sailors in the dark. The police wouldn't risk their own safety and often didn't pursue the lawbreakers into the depths of the underground. The tunnels and rooms weave throughout that part of downtown with hidden places and it's pitch black.
The next stop was examples of old cages that the men and women were kept in. The men were fortunate enough to have room to lie down and there could be several men in a cage. The bars in the "windows" were angled, in sort of a triangle shape, to prevent anyone from breaking out. They took the men's shoes, of which we saw a pile, and scattered broken glass across the loose dirt floors. Anyone trying to escape would destroy his feet and the kidnappers could follow the blood to find him. The women were shoved into a box with enough room to stand and a chair. They were mentally broken down over several days until they were submissive enough to ship off into prostitution forever. The women didn't make it back after being kidnapped.
Another way people were Shanghaied was in the bars above the underground. This was the "seedy part of town" where the brothels and (most or all of) bars. Only men were allowed in bars, at least in this part of town with it being the "bad" part of town. One fascinating fact was that the bar owners wanted the men to drink as much as possible so troughs were placed under the bar so that men on stools could relieve themselves without getting up to go to a proper bathroom. This was a benefit to the kidnappers too. The men were often so drunk you could lead them to the underground, knock them out easily, or you could find passed out guys in the streets. Men could also be bribed to join a ships crew without knowing the deplorable conditions or what was actually in store for them on their journey. There were trapdoors that led to the underground as well. One was in working condition and we witnessed a dummy fall through onto a mattress. He would then presumably be grabbed and shoved into one of the cages to be sold to a ship captain.
The underground was also used for storage so there was an old bassinet and rocking horse. These came with ghost stories and an eye roll from the four people in our party. There was old furniture that people could relax on, not the future slaves though. Another ghost story followed here. Some of the stories we were told were too far-fetched to share in detail. One was that a group of guys were super drunk and drank formaldehyde thinking it was liquor. Brandt and I heard this story again on a local PBS show but even the expert didn't believe it. Seriously, no matter how drunk you are I think you'd notice the formaldehyde wasn't alcohol. Well those guys died and were then sold to a ship captain under the premise that they were dead drunk. The captain paid a higher price than usual because he was desperate for the men. Then he found out they were dead a few days later when they didn't wake up but the ship was already out to sea. Another story was a wooden carving of a native american was passed off as a dead drink guy. This captain paid a high price because native americans were stronger and worked with less complaints. When he went to wake the guy up and it was a carving, he threw it overboard where the same Shanghaier found it. I don't believe this
at all. Not to mention they happened to have that exact carving on display!
At the end of the tour, we were able to go into an enclosed space that could have been a cage and put our fingers through the triangle-like bars that Shanghaied men had put theirs through.A lot of the underground has been filled in. Part of the reason is because the city is ashamed of the history (who wouldn't be?) and due to earthquake retrofitting. It's a shame to lose that history but I'm glad that is at least on group giving tours and bringing these atrocities to light (despite the ghost stories).
