The Buick Underground.

This description of the photo below is actually part of the photo. I just took separate pictures of it.

I had described this tunnel to many people over the years, "and boy" was I surprised when I found this photo of it in the Buick Research Gallery. The location for this tunnel is shown below.

The red line shows the approximate location of a tunnel we used to explore back in 1973. We entered this tunnel through a steel covered door located down in the rail dock at the north end of building #16 or "new" #40 as it was commonly called. The steel ladder went down about 20 feet. This was one of our hiding places for taking a smoke break "if you know what I mean". The yellow star shows the approximate distance that I myself ever traveled towards the east. The blue star shows where the bomb shelter was, and it was still stocked with old cots and blankets and such. The yellow arrow shows where a front fender for a 56 Buick was laying against the wall. "And I tell you true" that it just barely had surface rust. There were always rumors flying around about everything and it was rumored that the tunnel went all the way to the A.C. plant on Dort highway. "I never did believe that". I think it was used originally for bringing water from the pump house at the river, and also had something to do with the old power plant located next to the river.

Buick July 1911. Weston-Mott #7 would go where the no4 is on this map and #5 enamel plant (shown as proposed brass foundry) would later be extended. Also I see a proposed garage north of the #03 foundry that would not be built. You can also see the angled shape of the north-end of the forge shop where the current brass and aluminum work was done at that time, and subsequently burnt in 1913.

Buick 1911. I had always wondered why the buildings in this postcard showed the two Weston-Mott factories in the foreground (the inverted V) as being much longer than they should have been. The diagram above (probably from 1910) shows the reason. There are many things in the diagram that would not actually be built, or at least in the configuration shown. The artist who made the drawing "had to have seen these plans" and that explains the discrepancy. So if your reading this Don Bent, I think this is the answer to the question we were talking about last year.