Broughton tunnels: What was the real reason for them

MORGANTON - They rest deep under the earth's surface and wind through the campus of Broughton Hospital.

When the hospital was built in the 1870s to accommodate the mentally ill, it was built with a series of tunnels, said William F. Brown III, the safety director for the hospital.

Rumors as to what the tunnels were actually used for have swarmed for years, Brown said, but the actual reason for their existence isn't an exciting one at all, he added.

"They are just utility tunnels," Brown said. "All of the tunnels end at the steam plant."

Seth Hunt, the director of the hospital, said some of the rumors included using the tunnels to transport patients who were extremely dangerous, their use in the underground railroad or as a place to chain patients up against a wall and leave them for the rats.

Determined to dispel the rumors, Brown and Hunt left the comfort of their offices, grabbed a flashlight and went down under. Brown used a key - only certain employees have one - to get through a metal door. A brightly lighted, descending hallway with arched ceilings was on the other side.

"This really isn't a tunnel," Hunt said, adding that the real tunnels weren't as nice.

Once they got to the bottom of the hallway they came into a room with several dark tunnels leading in different directions. When Brown shone his flashlight into a tunnel, the light disappeared in the darkness.

"Watch where you step," Brown said. "Be careful."

In some parts, the floor was uneven and covered with debris and while Brown and Hunt made their way through the tunnels they had to duck under hot steam lines.

"See that light up ahead," Brown said. "That's a man hole."

Hunt joked that the tunnels were a good place to come and secretly listen to employees talk. After searching through the tunnels the men concluded that there were no signs of patient abuse or locks and chains. And the only sign of death that the two men could find was the skeleton of a dead rat.

"I'd say he's been there for a while," Hunt said of the shattered bones.

Brown also dispelled the rumor that the tunnels were used to transport "crazy" patients by saying that the tunnels only went to one place, the steam room.