[ music ] >> tonight we go sightseeing underground. we take you inside the historic and hidden butchers within a cannon shot of the golden gate. we will introduce you to the man who thought it would be cool literally to dig under his house to escape the summer heat. george watson goes on a tour of the sewers under san francisco's chinatown. and bob mckeny goes deep down inside this working mine to find the gold. all of those stories straight ahead tonight on "second look." good evening i'm julie haener. and this is "second look."

tonight we take you to what might be called underground california. we are going to visit a number of locations, all of them beneath the surface of the earth. and we start in marin county wherefore years locals have told tales of old bunkers and gun placements buried in the hills above the golden gate. some are open to the public, but many others are hidden from view, covered by dirt and plants and deliberately shut off by the national parks service which oversees the area where they are buried. last month ktvu's claude even wong went in search of the buried bunkers and here is what she found. >> reporter: i am going to slide passed this rock to get around the corner. >> and it is tight. >> it is a little bit like going down the rabbit hole but it is a part of cently. >> it does get tricky to get on

the ladder. >> reporter: we can't tell you where we are but we are somewhere in the 80,000-acres that makes up the golden gate recreational area. out here are dozens of underground bunkers built during the military's 200 year defense of the golden gate. tourists roam the many bunkers open to the public. but the burgers deemed off limits that have become the stuff of urban legend. official entrances to those are sealed and secure. but there are other ways in. entrances hidden by time and vegetation. hidden to all except to those who, like us, searched and found a way inside. >> the ladders is actually pretty stirredy down here. so once you get on you get a good hold it is not bad. but that was probably a very hard like the first one. >> reporter: this trip down to history takes us through muddy tight spaces and down ladders into the dark. >> all of a sudden that secret

bunker we are talking about, well, we know we found it. >> inside the tunnels dead independence and secure items and rails. >> at this point i don't know how long it goes but i can't see the end even if we shine our light down to the very end. you almost wish you could take a historian down here with us so they can explain just exactly what we are looking at in terms of some of the things we are seeing on the walls. >> reporter: the park service historian says if you want to know what you are looking at, tour a bunker that's actually open. >> yes, the forbidden aspect is kind of tempting for people. we try to satisfy people's curiosity by taking the most heavily used and the most historically significant of these gun batteries and making them safe and clean and providing a little education for people. >> reporter: it is important to note that we did not interview the park service until after we had already gone into the bunker. they don't know where this hidden entrance is located. and told us if they find it, they will seal it.

and if they catch anyone going down, they could be in trouble with park officials. >> you've got to be careful. >> reporter: that's because down here you could get hurt. there is led paint, asbestos and un seen hazards. >> we don't know exactly how long this is going. but as you can imagine what this was like when the lights go off. >> reporter: we know people have been down this rabbit hole as evidented by the graffiti, most not suitable for t.v. we found these two teens who had taken the trip. >> i kind of like pictured it during the war. so it was interesting to see. >> it makes it more exciting when it is secret because it gives, like, the whole adventure. >> reporter: down here this is history. but you can find that in a public tour. down here it's about the destination and also the journey. and at the end of this rabbit hole, those who have made the trip signed their name into its history. i don't know if it's the climb or the adventure, but i know

when you sign your name to this, you consequent way want to keep it a secret. claudine wong, ktvu, channel 2 news. >> many years ago ktvu's bob mckenzie took a drive around california looking for odd ball people, places and things. in fresno he found a man who wanted to escape the seeing summer heat of the valley. he found it right under his own home. here is bob's report from 1997. >> reporter: a citrus farmer from sicily brought 60-acres from fresno and built a house and then dug a cellar to store his wine. he found that it was much cooler in the basement than in the 120-degree heat upstairs. dug the basement beyond the house and added more rooms to it. the more rooms he added the better he liked it. one day he simply moved out of the house and into the basement. >> well, back here was a little table that he made specifically for himself when he ate by

himself. he had the chair here on the side. you pull out the table. and then he would sit here and basically take the food straight from the stove and on to the plate and have a little meal right here. >> very cozy. >> our guide was a fresno lawyer and the grandson of his brother who now takes care of the place for the family. it is no small job. the tunnels and rooms wander over ten acres of property. >> this has got to have taken this guy's entire life. >> yes. well, it did, 40 years. 1906 to 1946. and he literally died working on the place. >> there are skylights bringing light from above with cistern below that that catch rainwater. the house is never weight and -- wet and well ventilated. as you can see he was a considerable designer, architect, artist. it is a single bed. he never married. never had any children. well, i'm auto little stiff but

not bad. he may have been an ex centric but no loneer. he had a constant flow of visitors and had some reputation as a lady's man. the forest gardens are open to the public. you can see them on weekends only. it costs $6 for an adult. around here in the summertime it's worth that much just to cool off for a while. >> still to come on "second look," george watson goes beneath the streets of chinatown for a rare tour of san francisco's sewer system. oh, man. look right where you are headed. your head is in him. your head is in him. >> sideways like that keep your helmet hidden. >> and a bit later bob mckenzie takes us deep into a working gold mine in the sierra foothills.

. ever look at a manhole cover and wonder what it looks like under there? in san francisco that could lead you to explore one of the older sewer systems in the bay

area. that is if you are ktvu's george watson and the year is 2001. >> reporter: four years ago when san francisco's exclusive sea cliff neighborhood, this home came tumbling down when heavy rains caused the sewer beneath it to collapse. the sewer was filled in -- built in 1899. >> the sewers went in when there was nothing out there but sand dunes. and at that time it was considered a really good functioning sewer because it kind of goes behind the rock and discharging into very rapidly moving waters. >> reporter: but it wasn't until after the turn of the century that san francisco got serious about building sewers. and they -- today the city has some roughly 900 miles. they are in a category all by themselves. >> there are 90 miles of bricklined sewers running under the streets of san francisco

that are more than 100-year- old. now, do they still work? well, seeing is believing. [ music ] >> reporter: work crews go underground where few dare to go and they do it every day. their job is to check the old brick walled sewers seemingly medieval in design but still doing what they were built to do, carry raw sewage. [ music ] >> reporter: strangers descend into these dark dank vermin infested depths well schooled for what awaits them but never really prepared for this light beneath the lit of day. >> you are almost there, george. >> i have got cockroaches all around me. >> they won't hurt you. >> reporter: the cameraman don is the first to be regretted by a resident -- to be regretted by a resident. it is the rat's living-room as

well as their only means of getting around. this is part of the walking inspection. >> this is called the rat walk. we are checking to see the condition of the rat walk and the invert. a lot of times the invert has missing bricks. >> reporter: it is dark, hot and wet down here and the food supply is virtually inexhaustible. ideal conditions if you are a cockroach. they seem to be everywhere. >> oh, man. >> reporter: the brick walls covered by these timeless and seemingly evolution-proof creatures. >> oh, man. >> look right where your head is. your head hit him. your head hit him. [ laughter ] >> don't go sideways like that. keep your helmet like that. >> reporter: the decision to put the sewage laden hat back on was an easy one considering the bareheaded alternative in a cramped cockroach infested tunnel. somewhat settled we continued down the line checking to see if this corridor is sewage worth worthy. >> we are checking all of the bricks to make sure all of the

mortar is intact. you see right here there is a little bit of sand infiltrating in to the 3x5 brick sewer. so we mark all of the spots that are bad. >> the rats and cockroaches living in this netherworld rarely, if ever, venture topside. one reason they stay here is the constant replenishment of their habitat. it's called a side sewer. and you don't want to be crouching next to one because they come to life without warning. >> these side sewers are coming and taking people down. >> yes, houses, businesses, parking lots. >> first this was established here it was established as a combined system. and in the 70s, we decided that to separate the sewers, to have a separate sanitary sewer, a separate storm drain was going to cost about $2 billion. >> reporter: that cost would have been prohibitive. but something had to be done. the city's sewage treatment

plants couldn't handle all of that waste during the big storms. raw sewage was too often being pumped directly into the ocean and the bay. with funding from the clean water act of 1972, the city was able to make changes while maintaining the come bonied sewer system come bonied sewer system. an underground moat was built around the city. old treatment plants were upgraded and a new one built. finally a four and a half mile long pipe was constructed to carry treated sewer water out into the ocean. combining the new with the old, san francisco now has a unique sewer system. [ music ] >> rube goldburg the cartoonist famous for his drawings of inoperable interventions was it is sometimes pointed out an engineer for san francisco's sewer department back in 1904. today however city engineers steadfastly insist that rube goldburg did not design's san

francisco's sewer system. >> when we come back on "second look." this working gold mine is only a few hour's drive from the bay area. we will take you there next. >> you got it. sit back and enjoy the ride. lean back like this. >> there you go. >> and a bit later we visit california's moaning calf earn. >> ktvu news from overnight. the bay area's major news of the day. live drive-time traffic. and weather in the area where you live. dave clark and pam cook, ktvu, channel 2 news morning news, weekdays starting at 5 a.m. complete bay area news coverage.

. if you take working in a dark dank hole in the ground you might be cut out to be a gold miner. if you want to find out what that's like there is a place in sierra county that offers limited towers of a working gold mine. it is called the 16-1 mine. and ktvu's bob mckenzie traveled there in 1996 to check it out. >> reporter: highway 49 above nevada city gets us into gold country. our destination is the 16-1 mine which has been producing gold for 100 years. we are visiting here because

anyone can visit this historic mine. anyone, that is, who is willing to pay a hefty admission fee which goes to support a mining museum. president mike miller gave us a briefing. >> these are battery powered lights. on the side here is a handle. okay. now, flick it on. >> reporter: it's hot in the sierra in the summer. but you dress warm to go into the mine. the temperature drops 40 degrees as soon as you walk in. what you walk into is a damp, dripping ominous looking tunnel, the first of miles of catecombs that go deep into the earth. the only light is what you are wearing on your head. if you can avoid slipping in the puddles or banging your head on overhead pipes and telling yourself you are not nervous you start noticing your surroundings. for instance you notice that you are walking on a railroad track used for the trains that bring out the other other then you find yourself wondering what happens when a train comes

along. >> you know, there are general accidents associated with any heavy construction job. but everybody here knows it is so dangerous that we take a lot of steps necessary to be careful with explosives or with, oh, just communication with each other so everybody knows what the other person is doing. >> and that train that i worried about, well, just as we got to an intersection, here came one. >> hey, frank. >> i am right behind you. >> just two more. >> the train packing a lot of rocks headed down the passage we had just walked through. mike assured us nobody gets hit by trains here. a luxury elevator arrived which we were told would carry us down to another tunnel 1500 feet under the mountain. >> i will tag us all in. and that way at the end of the day we know who is left in the mine. and if for some reason you don't come out they are going to come and look for us. it's by ringing a bell that

miners tell the tram operator where they want to go. >> 3213. >> all right. >> here we go. (ringing the bell) . >> you got it. >> now sit back and enjoy the ride. lean back. lean back like this. >> lean back. >> here you go. >> by the way, if you have any tendency towards claus row phobia this is not what you want to do on your summer vacation. you can't see much on this ride. but what you do see isn't encouraging. looking up you see the light at the top of the tunnel growing smaller and smaller. somehow that light seems to symbolize civilization, safety, food, water, family and friends. if you look straight ahead you see a wall of rock going passed very rapidly just a few feet in front of your face. climbing out of the 1500-foot level we encountered or next mode of transportation, underground rapid transit. and we each get a whole cart to

ourselves. >> you might want to just sit and face that way. here we go. >> reporter: this trip felt something like the beginning of a haunted house ride at disneyland. but this is no theme park and we were cautioned to keep our hands inside the car and be ready to duct obstacles. it's probably best during this adventure not to think about the fact that there are millions of tons of rock over your head. anyway, by this time we were started to enjoy ourselves. by the way towers of the 16-1 start at $95 a person for a tour that lasts for 16 hours. they think they found some gold in an area mined many times before. >> game to give it a try? >> let's do it.

>> our two miners led us to a cavern that heads almost straight up. it was here they said that they had spotted some gold. as usual, imbedded in solid white quartz. >> i think it's a pretty good little wad in behind there. we will find out when we shoot it. >> the two men had drilled holes into this promising piece of rock. they packed explosives. over the years the 16-1 has produced one million ounces of gold. with luck we were about to find a few more ounces. >> fire in the hole. >> for the four minute fuse there is plenty of time to get out of the way. nevertheless i, for one, didn't dawdle. safely around a bend we both heard the explosions and felt them. back in the diggings, john and jeremiah used the latest wrinkle in gold mining, metal detectors. >> oh, now we're cooking. >> reporter: sure enough they

had blasted loose one large rock that contained probably 10,000 in gold. >> this is what it's all about. >> wow. >> this stuff here. >> you have to be a plumber, an electrician, a carpenter, concrete worker. we do a lot of concrete work here. >> explosives. >> yeah, explosive work. >> explosives. >> kind of a mix of old trades. >> especially through the old workings, perseverance and doing what other people haven't done to really try to find it is what it takes. >> reporter: as guest of honor i got the privilege of carrying the gold rock back out of the mine. i hatched a few escape plans but they didn't pan out, so to speak. >> when we come back on "second look." we explore california's moaning cavern. >> a long way to the bottom. >> 120 feet to go. >> 120 feet to go now.

. carved out of limestone by the forces of nature a spectacular underground world beckons travelers just a few hours's drive from the bay

area. one of california's most unusual attractions. but not at all what it might seem at first. ktvu's joe fonzi first brought us this report in 1999. >> reporter: it's called moaning cavern. and as geologic formations go, it's been around oh, about a million years. that makes it a recorded history of everything from rainfall levels to the unfortunate people through the ages who met their demise at the works as much as 465 feet down. >> where we are standing there has been well over 100 people die here. the early americans fascinated by that entrance, perhaps, kids dropping rocks in it and jumping back and forth across it. and occasionally one of them would slip. so we would have 100 human remains right here going back to about 13500 years ago. >> archeologists have learned a lot about the people who have lived and died here. but this is not a morbid burial

ground. the main topic is exploration at moaning cavern. >> for people and children who want to peek here we have the spiral staircase. for those more adventure outside we have the hats with the lights on them and they explore the 300 feet of cave below us in depth. >> or try a 180-foot repel, roughly the same as taking off from the top of the statue of liberty. steve fairchild appropriately nicknamed the cave man and the staff are here to assist, which means you can do this without any training. >> the only place where you can do, you know, a rope descent into a cave as far as we know in the whole world without previous experience. >> well, that describes me. >> let's see if this is working. [ laughter ] >> we have to get it all settled up here. >> a pretty strong guy. >> reporter: what looks relatively tame at the top soon develops into the equivalent of a spider dangling from a web.

>> i am just thinking about heights right here. and all of a sudden i am thinking about it. it is a long way from the bottom. >> 120 feet to go. >> 120 feet to about is all. >> claustrophobic and i don't know if i am afraid from underground or too high from the ground. >> we get letters, lots of letters, piles of letters of people who have done the adventure and the repel. very often from people who hated it. coming down they hated it. but then a week or two later they are doing something at their job and they said, well, i did that rope. i can do this. >> that's it for this week's "second look." i'm julie haener. thank you for watching.