Exploring China lake tunnels 1940's Tacoma Chinese underground. Interview with Jack

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  • Опубликовано: 11 сен 2024
  • In the late 1940's there were tunnels underground at China Lake in Tacoma Wa. Jack actually went into the tunnels. he tells the story here.

Комментарии • 30

  • @athenaguan3809
    @athenaguan3809 Год назад +1

    Appreciate you recording that as a vocal history of “ Chinese immigrants “ back then. The world knew “ Tacoma Method” it will be great if the tunnel could be seen. As we knew underground city near Portland. Ppl can touring there now. Made me thought how resilience Chinese could be to tried to settle in this land.
    Once again thanks for your humanity and attention for forgotten history at Tacoma.

  • @nim3186
    @nim3186 3 месяца назад

    What an awesome mom your dad had! She actually showed them the entrance and allowed them to explore!! ❤

  • @nomorenever2782
    @nomorenever2782 6 лет назад +7

    Myself and a friend back in the 80s dug out an entrance to one of the tunnels. Mananged to get quite aways into it. Went back a couple of weeks later to do more exploring, and found the entrance barricaded with a ton(s) of 2-3 man rock...
    Used to fish those ponds all the time. The eighties were a great time to be an adventurous teenager...
    Lol....

    • @JohnPurkey1
      @JohnPurkey1  6 лет назад +1

      WOW!! Yeah I used to go there all the time when I was a kid too. We lived at 322 contra costa

    • @nomorenever2782
      @nomorenever2782 6 лет назад +1

      the Observer thats really close to the lake! I had to ride my bike from basically Wilson HS to get there....complete with backpack, tackle box, fishin poles....haha.
      I have even seen ufos while at that lake. Def a weird place. Even weirder were the tales that the homeless people (who lived on the freeway side of the lake) would tell us about the area.

    • @blueazure9658
      @blueazure9658 Год назад

      This is so wild I live on contra costa and I’ve always known but could never prove it this is like finding out aliens exist to me

    • @nomorenever2782
      @nomorenever2782 Год назад

      @@blueazure9658 I don`t know about aliens....😁
      All of the area has tunnels. As a matter of fact, some entrances to these tunnels could be found in some of the older buildings in downtown Tacoma, including The Pantages. Most, if not all, have been bricked up.

  • @mikeschmidt3382
    @mikeschmidt3382 Год назад +3

    The Chinese were digging out the old world. Never to speak of their findings. Jon Levi just posted a vid on Tacoma. Like most towns, never what we were told.

  • @tansyragwort8099
    @tansyragwort8099 6 лет назад +2

    Great story! It is awesome that he and your Grandma both went in as kids so many years apart!

  • @daveHEART2012
    @daveHEART2012 5 лет назад +8

    there is also a "China Lake" military base where the big earthquake in CA was yesterday.

  • @SCW1060
    @SCW1060 3 года назад +1

    My dad told me back in the '60s that when he was young back in the '30s there were tunnels in the Narrows area that lead into downtown near the port that the Chinese used to be smuggled into Tacoma/ I loved growing up in Tacoma

  • @joedirt7640
    @joedirt7640 5 лет назад +5

    I saw one of those artifacts he is speaking about when I was a young kid.
    I don’t even recall exactly what it was but, I did see that it had Chinese markings .
    My family had these neighbors in Fircrest where I grew up, Ester and Armitt Wilson...Ester explained where this small item had come from to me only after I had asked about it, having seen the item laying on a table amongst some clutter.
    It must have been a bowl or box, like a broken snuff box, or something. It was something small.
    I didn’t really care about whatever it was but, I was sure fascinated by what she told me.
    She told me how her nephew or nephews had found the item in the tunnel up at China Lake.
    Well, we kids called it ‘The Swamp’ and I spent hours playing there and after hearing this story, we were always keeping an eye out for that tunnel.
    Never saw one but, this was in the 1970s.
    It was McClanes gravel pit on 19th street in the 70’s and pretty much abandoned, where you cut through
    to get to “The Swamp” on the north end of the lot.
    (Now China Lake)
    McClane probably had sealed it off at some time....would be my speculation anyway.
    She told me that the tunnel was thought to go all the way to the bay.
    I don’t know if I believe that.
    I’m more inclined to believe it may have been a hiding place, a halfway point between the bay on the west side of Tacoma to the east side where the downtown, railroad and port is.
    The same RR tracks from the west side meet up there anyway so, I don’t really get the reason for a smuggling connection. Maybe it was a camp where they simply dug in to hide.
    The Wilsons are long gone now.
    That is the only info I have.

  • @blueazure9658
    @blueazure9658 Год назад +1

    This is wild. I live across the street

  • @fred5566
    @fred5566 6 лет назад +5

    I love old people

  • @djosephj
    @djosephj 6 лет назад +3

    This is fantastic!

  • @darrenchromey
    @darrenchromey 4 года назад +2

    Is there any information about the tunnel entrance in the salmon beach side? As a curious Tacoma citizen that has been born and raised in the grit city I love the old history of this city. Would the location of salmon beach entrance be above the Beachhouses?

  • @TheMoonRain
    @TheMoonRain 4 года назад +1

    It didn’t seem over. Will there be a part 2 of Dons experience about what he found?

  • @davidelkington8478
    @davidelkington8478 2 года назад

    I have never heard of China Lake Tacoma, Isnt China Lake in Ridge crest CA?

  • @fred5566
    @fred5566 6 лет назад

    Wow China lake is that by the golf course part of Fircrest or up the way thank you for the good history

    • @JohnPurkey1
      @JohnPurkey1  6 лет назад

      it across from Fircrest on 19th just down from Pearl

    • @Graff_w33DandM0D3L0S
      @Graff_w33DandM0D3L0S 4 месяца назад

      @@JohnPurkey1oh i live near there imma go explore 😎