The Shanghai Tunnels

Oregon · United States · Haunted site

Passages under old Portland, said to have been used to move kidnapped men to the waterfront and onto ships. Historians are less certain than the tours are.

The tunnels under old Portland, Oregon are real. They connected basements to the waterfront and were used for moving goods.

What is claimed about them is that they were used for shanghaiing: men drugged or beaten in the bars above, carried down through the passages, and waking at sea aboard a ship they had never signed onto. The same accounts hold that women were taken and sold into the sex trade through the same route.

An update from June 2005 sets out the fuller version told locally.

Historians who have looked at it are considerably more cautious. Shanghaiing certainly happened in Portland, and the tunnels certainly exist, but the documentary link between the two is much thinner than the tours suggest, and much of the story took its current shape in the twentieth century.

Parts of the system can be visited on guided tours.

FAQ

Where is The Shanghai Tunnels located?

The Shanghai Tunnels is in Oregon, United States.

Image: Bex.Walton / CC BY 2.0 via flickr