The Hollow Earth
Mole People...
The very phrase conjures up a mental image of John Agar fighting off guys in bad makeup in some
god awful B movie. But lurking behind this facade of Hollywood cheese may be just a little slice
of the paranormal truth. Are there creatures living underneath New York City?
It's already been established that people live beneath the streets of Manhattan.
In 1994 Jennifer Toth wrote a book entitled
The Mole People
This factual account documented multiple cases of homeless people living in the subterranean tunnels
beneath the city. These sad cases prove that life can be sustained under the city. But is there
something or someone else hidden beneath the surface? I went to New York determined to find out.
Getting into the tunnels beneath New York is easy. Figuring out where you are is the hard part.
And don't forget those homeless people. The words "noble" and "salt of the earth" ain't in their
vocabulary. They're more familiar with words like, "gimme that camera" and "I'm gonna kick your
ass." Luckily Jason was along for the ride and helped deter the rowdier elements from getting too
nasty. After everyone was acquainted it became obvious to me that these underground dwellers
lifestyle is miles removed from the ones that us "above grounders" have.
The homeless group I met
make a living stealing whatever they can from those that live above them. In their own way they
look down at us. Forced to live underground has changed them. It has reshaped them into a separate
culture. They have their own language, their own societies, and even their own ghost stories.
The biggest of which seems to be that there was something bad going down near tunnel 14. Something
so bad that the locals stay as far away from it as they can.
Sure you could dismiss these claims as wild imaginings of homeless people who have been spending
to much time underground. But this isn't the only time that the area around tunnel 14 has had
some weirdness attached to it. The first case was way back in 1869 when a crazy industrialist
/ inventor named Christian Symmes got the idea that what New York City needed was a subway system.
Since high tech was about 100 years away he decided to make it work with compressed air. Amazingly
this idea of pneumatic driven subway cars was approved by the city and Symmes started work on the
first leg of his system in the spring of 1870. The area below tunnel 14 was chosen as the first
section to be worked on. At first results were encouraging and Symmes' progress reports are full
of optimism for the project that would "make New York a world class city for the 20th century."
But work was stopped in the fall of that year when some kind of accident occurred in the first
pneumatic tube being worked on. Reports from the time are sketchy, and only describe it as an
"industrial accident" which injured several workers. The event shook up Christian Symmes so much
that he ordered work to be stopped and told his investors that he refused to continue building
the tube.
The refusal ruined Symmes and his life deteriorated soon there after. At first he began suffering
from an acute case of claustrophobia and moved to Kansas to live with a sister. His mental health
was further questioned when, in 1873, he founded the "Hollow Earther" society in Topeka. Symmes
claimed that there lived underground a society of subhumans. "A Darwinian offshoot (of man) that
evolved in total darkness," was how he put it. Symmes found few converts among the farmers of the
area and his society consisted of himself and a local farm boy who came by to deliver food. In 1874
he wrote the self published pamphlet "Secrets of the Hollow Earth" in which he claimed that these
"ferocious and cannibalistic creatures of the inner earth" existed under New York City. It was in
this pamphlet that he spoke of the incident beneath the city.
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And in the depths below, in the bowels of the unforgiving city. I was attacked by
something hideous and subhuman. A primal being never before seen by human eyes.
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Symmes claims were ignored by mainstream media and scientists. After his sister's death he was
admitted to the Topeka Mental Asylum where he died a pauper in 1878.
So was Symmes telling the truth of what he encountered in the depths of New York underground or were
these creatures just delusions of his deteriorating mind? Jason and I made our way into the deepest
part of the tunnels to discover the truth. What did we find? Check out the quicktime below.
Now before you quake in fear and cancel your tickets to the World Series, think about this.
The homeless people knew I was looking for something freaky. And they must have heard the stories
about evil creatures in the depths since they were the ones that warned me away from tunnel 14 in
the first place.
Now compound that with the fact that their lifestyle of choice appears to be
grand larceny. They may have thought I was going to expose their schemes to the police. I only
saw a few stolen items but what if there was a larger cache hidden deeper in the tunnels? What if
the appearance of these creatures was just a set up to scare away your friendly local paranormal
spook hunter?
This theory of homeless bums in bad makeup and wax teeth makes perfect sense and neatly ties up
any improbability of mole people living under New York City. But my thoughts keep coming back
to poor old Christian Symmes. Before the accident he was a respectable businessman. Afterwards
his life descended into the madness of zealotry. What happened in that tunnel back in 1870? What
is really going on in there now? One things for sure, after the reception I got this time, I'm not
going back for a second look.
sources
The New York Register newspaper, selected back issues 1869 - 1870
The Topeka Tribune newspaper, Obituary column, May 10th, 1878
"Secrets of the Hollow Earth" Christian Symmes, self-published, from the archives
of the Special Editions office, New York Public Library
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