A rare discovery has been made in Stony Plain: construction crews unearthed a mysterious tunnel.
Mike Moeller uncovered the burrow while doing construction work on the town’s main street last week.
“It went almost two and a half metres and was about three feet wide at the widest part,” he said.
“When I stuck my head in the hole, I saw that the foundation had been chipped away as well.”
He presumed water had run underneath the concrete and created a cave. But when he took a closer look, he realized the tunnel was man-made.
“You could see marks on the side of the banks where someone had been digging with hand tools of some sort.
“It went all the way past the foundation of the building,” Moeller said.
The building the tunnel leads to was built in 1918 and was previously home to a bank.
The current owner of the building took the drywall off and discovered that there had been a concrete patch that matched up with where the tunnel had been dug.
“So, the speculation is that there was potentially a robbery,” Moeller said.
Mayor William Choy said the town is now working to solve the century-old mystery.
“The best guess is somebody tried to rob the bank and they got in,” Choy said. “There has been a replacement of concrete on the outside wall so there was a breach.”
Historians and archival papers will now help piece together what happened.
“It was a gravel road back then, with wooden sidewalks, so I’m guessing it probably started on the other side of the street inside one of the buildings or maybe accessed through the water sewer pipes we had back in the early days.”
Choy said the whole town is excited about the discovery.
“They are all waiting to see what the actual story is.
“It’s very fascinating that the tunnel has managed to stay intact all this time,” Choy said. “It’s so cool. I just want to learn more about it.”