‘Portals to Hell’ Episode 3 ‘The Shanghai Tunnels’ sees Katrina face a boxer’s ghost in Portland Underground
Portland, Oregon is one of America's most renowned liveable cities. But ironically, some 150 years ago it was considered among the most dangerous port cities on the West Coast. The truth to the city's seedy history lies in the Portland Underground. A dark part of the city's history, the Portland Underground is famously known as the Shanghai Tunnels. Located just beneath Old Town Chinatown, which used to be Portland's old downtown, the tunnels form a labyrinth of interconnected basements, make-shift rooms, and low ceiling tunnels that ran to the waterfront. Essentially it was the hub illegal and shady activity.
Now, almost a century later, the passages are deemed to be a hotbed of paranormal activity haunted by other-worldly presences that were victims of underground activity and perished there. In this episode of 'Portals to Hell', Jack Osbourne and Katrina Weidman explore Portland's notorious Shanghai Tunnels
Shanghaied
Back in the day, many unsuspecting young men became victims of 'Shanghaiing'. The term elucidates sailors who were smuggled aboard a ship bound for Asia for labor, against their will. A night of drinking, or simply drugging them would knock them out and they'd fall into the tunnels through trap doors beneath saloons or bars. When they awoke they were far into the Pacific and would be forced to sign on as the ship's crew. If they refused they would be thrown overboard, and drown to their death. The practice of Shanghaiing dates back centuries and is also called 'crimping'.
The Shanghai Tunnels served the purpose of Shanghaiing. During the years of activity, sailors were taken onboard vessels, alcohol was smuggled in during the Prohibition and it also contained a boxing ring hosting matches when the sport was illegal. The tunnels were allegedly also passageways for underground brothels, gambling houses, opium dens, and even catacombs. An average of 3,000 people went through these tunnels annually and women were also largely shanghaied for prostitution and possibly flesh trade. They were grabbed right off the streets and held in underground cells.
The Tunnels
The neighborhoods surrounding the waterfront were lined with saloons, bordellos and boarding houses that often catered to sailors, loggers, and transient workers that need a night of relaxation after being engaged in hard labor. The Shanghai tunnels were initially built to help transport goods from the waterfront and into the city when rains would turn the streets muddy. Eventually, as many say, the tunnels were expanded by Chinese gangs, as they were the perfect hideout for gang-related activity. They were an easy foxhole to escape police raid or rival gangs.
Most of the labyrinthine tunnels have either collapsed or are inaccessible, but local historian Michael. P. Jones has been working on renovating the tunnels and opening it to the general public. Jones has reasons to believe that the tunnels possess supernatural entities based on his personal experiences and those shared by people who have been down there. He also believes that the parts of the tunnel were a prime area for devil worship and satanic rituals having spotted a pentagram and candles in the dirt.
As of present, two of the tunnels have been nearly fully restored - one on Couch Street (through Harvey's Comedy Club) and the other on 6th Avenue.
The remains of a boxing ring, crib room (a designated room for the prostitutes to be with men who came to the matches), furnace room (bodies of men that died underground would be burned in the furnace) and what most Chinese elders say maybe a cemetery, are in the Couch Street tunnels.
The 6th Avenue tunnels housed the saloons that operated underground during the Prohibition, an opium den and even holding cells with metal bars (for imprisoning trafficked men and women).
Sightings
Stepping into the tunnels gives one a foreboding and eerie feeling, and many claim having felt a heaviness settle onto them.
Tour guide Halie Meckley said the Couch Street tunnel is supposedly haunted by the 'Mysterious' Billy Smith, a boxer and peculiar character who was known to bite people's ears off. Her deduction is based on testimonies of people that said they've felt something nibbling at their ear when exploring the boxing ring.
Jones has seen apparitions and people walking, claiming he's been bitten and scratched by an intangible force. Meckley said she once spotted her excavating shovel stood straight without any support and levitate about 3 inches off the ground. They have heard growls, shouting and sounds of people kicking and pounding against the doors of the cell.
Investigation
Sarah Lemos, a psychic medium was called in for a remote viewing, a technique where the person tries to acquire information about a location from a distance. Sarah concluded that energies in the tunnels are more hypervigilant and also confirmed the existence of a demonic energy.
Weidman used the Geoport to communicate with a female spirit in the Crib Room and the interaction was chilling. Osbourne supposedly saw the apparition of a blonde woman that was killed in the tunnel, and also experience some headaches and knee pain. He also used a spirit board to establish contact with spirits.
In what is one of the scariest investigations that the pair has conducted, the discoveries were shocking with some alarming physical ramifications as well.
'Portals to Hell' airs every Friday at 10 pm ET/PT on Travel Channel.