The well-known and brutal history of America's most infamous prison, detailed countless times in books, movies, and other grim tales, is already disturbing enough. But scientists have discovered something much older lurking beneath the hell-hole known as “The Rock.”
Photo: D. Ramey Logan
The island lock-up, now a popular destination for visitors to San Francisco Bay, was recently explored by a team of researchers from across the US, who used ground-penetrating radar to explore the depths of the island itself.
Photo: Texas A&M University
According to BBC News, the radar images revealed an entire man-made structure under the penitentiary: the remains of a Civil War-era military installation which historians had once thought completely destroyed when the island was first converted to a military prison in 1903. The hidden structure included a series of underground tunnels located directly beneath the recreation yard, which may have provided a means of transporting ammunition to the giant cannons that once surrounded the island. The team also found the remains of a defensive structure called a caponier, which may be buried beneath the prison's parade ground.
Photo: National Park Service
"We have a cultural landscape report that proposes to do an excavation on the parade ground," said Jason Hagin, historical architect for the National Park Service, in an interview with the BBC. "It's our hope that in the future we can open up the trail and have an archaeological site that people can visit."
There are even more spooky islands with dark and hidden histories... like this allegedly haunted California campus where some of the scariest scenes from The Ring were filmed.