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Date Posted: 16:58:43 01/24/03 Fri
Author: PH
Subject: Beneath Lexington

Here's what I've heard.

The Town Branch enters its present cover amidst a grove of trees near the Rupp Arena parking lot, kinda around the Jefferson Street viaduct and near Cox and Manchester Streets. There is indeed a rail yard a block away.

Anyhow, one local barfly/mechanic has made drunken claims in the past that he's gone exploring in his spare time and has made it quite a ways into the tunnel that contains the Town Branch. One obstacle that he reported was a giant snapping turtle. He said at the time (this was all like three years ago or so) the he wanted to make a raft for further exploration but that this reptile precludes him from fashioning a raft from styrofoam - he's afraid the behemoth will tear chunks out of it! Another obstacle of sorts is a reported group/tribe/race of people who live down there. He calls them The Bone People and they surface often to take care of their needs and errands, generally passing as disheveled street walkers in the downtown and Irishtown areas. I know he said that he thought it wise to take some sort of weapon along, "just in case" and he said he thought about a gun but that there was the danger of bullet ricochet in the confines of the underground tunnel. He opted to tote a sword. I know of another man who accompanied him once - the brother of a good friend of mine, and this brother swears that he's seen this stuff.

As far as any concomitant caverns are concerned, I've heard little. Just some rumors that there are doors in sub-basements of downtown Lexington buildings that lead to underground secrets. I know from my UK classes that Central Kentucky is typical of a karst limestone topography. Lots of underground water flow and erosion which creates caves and sinkholes and all manner of underground structures. This is no secret. It's also no secret that the Town Branch was diverted through a concrete and masonry tunnel which now flows beneath downtown. I believe it happened in the 30s and then "resurfaced" as a logistical headache in the 70s and 80s when the railyard of what was previously Water Street downtown became the boulevard that is now Vine Street.

An upstanding local gentleman once spoke at a meeting which I attended and he said, among some other rabblerousing, that the Lextran Parking Garage/Transit Center is built over some unstable geological features and that oft-mentioned plans to build a high-rise mixed-use residential and retail structure atop it are simply fantasies that are pulled out from time to time to make the public think that the city is actually looking in to ways to bring more people and activity into the downtown. Apparently, it is known amongst the city officials and engineering dept. that the garage cannot be expanded upwards because the added weight would not be structurally feasible. I think all of this is due to cavernous features below, in the middle of downtown.

ALSO, right after I graduated UK I worked that summer in moving most of the library's collection from the old MIKing library and various departmental satellite branches into the huge new WTYoung library. Amongst the many stories that I can relate from this situation, one that applies to what I'm getting at is that some of the librarians we were working with told me that the builders had to pour many more and deeper pilings that were originally designed to support the library because it was built in the middle of two sinkholes. This is very well known since the small neighborhood that was replaced by the library was basically two conjoined circular streets around two sinkholes. Anyhow, the construction team broke through a large cavern in their quest to reach the bedrock on which these numerous pilings had to rest. Yet more evidence of underground chambers in Lexington's old developed environs.

Can anyone else elaborate on the geology of urban Lexington, or on having at least heard about The Bone People, or perhaps even having experienced first-hand the underground strangeness that might be had under this fair city?

There's a very nicely done website for an organization in Lexington who are working on a mixed-use trail which parallels the Town Branch from rural Fayette County into the heart of Lexington. They have a well-done website at www.townbranch.org which has some beautiful maps of the proposed scheme. In the interest of fair disclosure, I've done some very small work in support of them. I mention them here, though, as a resource for some good maps of the Town Branch area and its entrance into downtown Lexington for those who want a concise and easy reference.

Thanks for reading and I very much look forward to anyone, especially the webmaster, who mayhaps could help elaborate on this thread.

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