SOMETIME IN 1922, a letter came in to the city of Pendleton. Enclosed with it was a bill for $45 — for a set of new Goodyear tires.

It seemed the letter writer had come to Pendleton for the annual Pendleton Round-Up and had lost both front tires to the city’s downtown potholes.

Pendleton’s potholes were famous, both for their size and for their intractability. They seemed hungry; one filled them up and a few weeks later they were empty again, as if some night-stalking gravel thief had scooped it all out.

It wasn’t until the 1970s and 1980s, when some of Pendleton’s most intractable roadbeds got a complete rebuild, that road crews realized what the problem had been:

Tunnels. The town was honeycombed with them, running a few feet below the ground level, connecting the basements and sidewalk vaults downtown with various other places nearby.

And, that’s how the Pendleton Underground was rediscovered. (Pendleton, Umatilla County; 1890s, 1900s 1910s, 1920s) (For text and pictures, see https://offbeatoregon.com/2410d1001e_PendletonUnderground-673.059.html)