Downtown Old Sacramento, circa 1860.

There is a forgotten city beneath modern Sacramento, California. Most residents are unaware of its existence, while others have fought redevelopment plans in an effort to preserve it. The "underground" is shrouded in mystery, urban legends and ghost stories, though it is a real place which is part of California history. Descend now into the shadowy depths....

California's Capital was built upon a flood plain where the Sacramento and American Rivers merge into one. Major floods in 1850 and 1852 left the city deep in water which took months to recede. Business ground to a halt for weeks at a time. A major cholera epidemic - killing hundreds - may have been caused by polluted water which almost never drained. By the time another flood submerged downtown Sacramento in 1861, many residents were ready to abandon the city for good.

City leaders refused to throw in the towel without a fight. An unorthodox plan was devised to raise Sacramento's streets above the flood zone. The first task was to construct a levy to hold back the river, then came the enormous undertaking of raising the city. To do this, street level was moved upwards by building 10-foot tall brick walls on either side of existing avenues and then filling the space in between bulkheads with dirt. This created another void between the existing buildings and the new, higher avenue. Store fronts now looked onto brick walls. In time, wood plank sidewalks were constructed at the new street level, which created tunnels at the older level. Business continued in the depths for many stores, although others treated the original first floor as a basement, moving store entrances up the what used to be the second story.

The entire project took 13 years to complete, affecting an area roughly bordered by H and L Streets to the north and south, and extended from the river on Front Street to about 12th Street. Below is an illustration to show how the raised streets and tunnels were constructed.

Nobody bothered to fill in these tunnels with dirt. A few merchants continued to operate below until the 1960s. Glass blocks were fitted into concrete slab sidewalks to provide light for pedestrians scuurying about in the depths. By the late 1800s a shadowy sin city was allegedly born beneath Sacramento. Prostitution, drugs, white & Chinese slavery, smuggling and various criminal activities thrived in the tunnels. Smuggling of illegal Chinese larbors from the river port into downtown eventually earned the moniker "Chinese Tunnels." The mythology of illegal cargo took a macabre turn in the late 1960s when human skeletons were claimed to had been discovered within "hollow sidewalk" spaces, the name given to these tunnels by the city public works department.



That's where the tales of Sacramento's hollow sidewalks began to blur between history and fantasy.  Police have long known that teenage runaways frequently use these tunnels as temporary refuge, as well as the homeless. But someone started lurid urban legends of renegade transients dwelling there, emerging only at night when they could forage for food or rob and murder poor souls who unwisely ventured outdoors. Truth or bizarre fantasy, police strongly warn citizens against entering this forbidden zone. An owner of a print shop on J Street (who wished to be anonymous) sincerely told Hilber Graf, "I don't go in there. There's vampires down there."  A large colony of bats have taken roost in that section of the hollow sidewalks, so they may be the origin of such rumors. A vintage record store on K Street uses its basement level for retail space, and it is there many reports of the apparition of an elderly woman wearing a black Victorian dress have surfaced. She's a cranky sort. In 1993 she approached a customer and sternly scolded him for being too noisy. Others have reported eerie feelings of being watched or touched by unseen hands. Since the 1990s a spectral young man wearing a letterman's jacket has joined the old woman.

In January 2003 a Carmichael-based paranormal investigation group studied this basement and other areas connected to the hollow sidewalk of K Street. They claimed to have gathered various electronic data associated with hauntings. Additionally, a sensitive with the group allegedly detected the spirit of a "frightened little lost girl" who was trapped in the space between what was once the building's first floor store front and the brick wall tunnel.

A few blocks north is Old Sacramento, a restored historical district now frequented by tourists. Tours - including ghost tours - are a popular feature there. On November 18, 1876 the new Moore Opera House (in reality a burlesque theater) opened its doors to an overcrowded theater. The floor suddenly collapsed into a tunnel below, killing seven patrons. Since that time people have asserted ghosts haunt this area. Tour participants and guides have experienced ghostly encounters with phantoms in vintage apparel. Demonic activity (or so swear the owners of several businesses there) became so troublesome, nine landlords hired an exorcist to cleanse their buildings.

Are there spooks in those tunnels? Three years ago Hilber blatently ignored warnings and ventured below Sacramento's streets. Photos at the left document his exploration. No phantoms or even bats were sighted, but Sacramento's underground is indeed a spooky place - without help from ghosts!