HALIFAX — Construction workers in Halifax created a stir on social media when they uncovered a piece of infrastructure dating back to the 1800s, stoking speculation they had finally found a fabled underground tunnel network.
Archeologist Laura de Boer and her crew were working on a downtown streetscape project when someone unearthed the structure, took a photo of it and said it was part of a tunnel.
The discovery on Argyle Street fuelled excited conversation online that it was the entrance to a fabled underground tunnel network, an idea that has tantalized Nova Scotians for decades.
In the end, the structure turned out to be a manhole estimated to be built in the late 19th century and used to access stormwater and a sewer line.
An excavator dredged up the line and tiny pieces of artifacts were discovered, including a Wedgewood saucer thought to be made sometime between 1854 and 1860.
All of those items are being donated to the Nova Scotia Museum.
"It’s a very cool story. We would love to find a tunnel, as a student I was very hopeful," de Boer said.
"It looks very much like a tunnel entrance from away but as soon as you walk closer to it and you look in, you can clearly see that it’s just providing access to a tunnel."
De Boer said smaller hatchways have been discovered in the city that were used by businesses for the delivery of goods.
"We do have some short length tunnels that certain businesses would have used historically to get goods in. There would be like a hatch in the sidewalk to bring it in underground,” de Boer said.
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