Portland’s Underground Tour

Below the busy streets of Portland lies a maze of passageways and rooms—remnants of the city's seamy past—that you can explore on a 90-minute tour. The City of Roses was one of several West Coast seaports where shanghaiing, a nefarious recruitment method, was practiced in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Unsuspecting young men were drugged and hauled into the tunnels, only to wake up later as new crew members aboard ships bound for Asia.

"If you were standing in the right place at the wrong time, you would be gone," says Michael P. Jones, curator for the Cascade Geographic Society. The group conducts tours of the tunnels by appointment. Highlights include holding cells, an opium den, and maybe even a few lingering ghosts. "Things happen there," Jones says, "that I can't explain." Information (503) 622-4798, www.shanghaitunnels.info [3].

Photography by Bruce Forster

This article was first published in September 2005. Some facts may have aged gracelessly. Please call ahead to verify information.