Pendleton Underground Tour

Tuesday - 1 July 2003: Pendleton, Oregon - Looks like we are getting closer to home. Isn't it interesting that there is so much cool stuff just hours from your own door? Wowzer, did I ever have a great day! It started with another gorgeous day at Wallowa Lake. We would have stayed, except it is getting close to the 4th of July weekend and the campground has a full-house and we just had to leave. We left Joseph, back through Enterprise on Highway 82, then took the long route to the Interstate through Elgin at Highway 204, continuing to Highway 11 to Pendleton. We are at the RV Park at the new Wild Horse Casino, RV Park and Golf Club. Being that we like gambling, have a motorhome and have our golf clubs with us, we will be making use of all aspects of this facility operated by the Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla tribes. We also plan to visit the Tamastslikt Cultural Institute on the property.

We arrived at noon and had lunch. DT wanted to golf and I wanted to go into town and see a few things. I had the most interesting afternoon. (I think he did too, as he shot 77.) First, I went to the Pendleton Woolen Mills for a tour of the factory, opened on this site in 1903. This proved to be quite interesting. The Pendleton Woolen Mill is so noisy, guests are issued head-sets to wear and you listen to your guide through your ear piece. The wool, from Oregon, Washington, Australia, Argentina and Peru is spun and dyed in Washougal, Washington (just up and across the Columbia River from Portland), then brought to the Pendleton mill to be "carded", or spun and placed on spools. The rooms where this chore takes place are constantly misted and it is very humid. After being placed on one-pound spools, the wool is placed in a steam chamber for nearly 3 hours and then re-wound onto 5-pound spools. At this point it is ready for weaving. Next, we were taken to the loom room where a Pendleton blanket can be woven in 20 minutes on huge, computerized looms! Fascinating. After inspection, the blankets are taken back to Washougal for finishing and packaging. It was a very interesting tour and I was surprised to learn that Pendleton Woolen Mills employ only 60 people in town. They have a shop here and also sell seconds, but I somehow walked away empty-handed. (Oh, don't worry - we have several nice Pendleton blankets at home already.)

My next adventure was quite touristy, yet I enjoyed it immensely and learned SO MUCH. I took the Pendleton Underground Tour. This tour gives a small group of ten people a guided tour through the maze of underground tunnels in the oldest part of Pendleton and as an extra-added bonus, we were also taken on a tour of one of the most famous brothels in town.

First, we were given a short talk about the history of Pendleton and then went out on the street where we were shown the old horse-tie-up rings still on the sidewalks and how to spot a bordello window - as opposed to a regular window.

Next, we were taken deep into the bowels of the city! There are six miles of tunnels and rooms under Pendleton. Most were built by the Chinese laborers who came to work on the railroad and it all started quite innocently when the railroad wanted a tunnel dug from the train station to the bank. Soon all the stores were digging "basements" and soon everything was connected by tunnels. The walls are made of locally-quarried stone and are two-feet thick. Light and air was provided by metal grates in the sidewalks, or often by glass blocks set into the sidewalk or buildings above. All sorts of activity - legal and illegal - occurred under the city. We first visited the Shamrock Card Room and the Hop Sing Laundry. Hop Sing ran his laundry here for thirty years. He had a fresh-water spring in the floor (there are still several springs tapped underground) and also ran a bath house. Hop Sing sold the first bath of the day, with hot, clean water for 10 cents, the second bath - using the same water - for 9 cents and so on and so on. Archeologists have found all sorts of artifacts under the city - and most are on display, along with hundreds of items donated from local families.

Example of a tunnel


How about a bath?

We were also able to see the original Empire Meat Co. store. This business was founded by two German immigrants, who figured out to make ice using an ammonia compressor and were able to keep their meat cold and fresh, and also made a fortune selling ice. The original scales, implements and advertisements were donated to the museum by the still-kicking 98-year-old daughter of one of the founders. There was also an ice cream parlour underground - they also kept their ice cream cold using the compressor, but only made the amount of ice cream they could sell in a day.

Empire Meat Company

We were then taken into several "Speak Easy" establishments - places where you could drink and gamble during Prohibition. The Card Room was quite ornate, with beautiful stamped-tin ceilings. Our guide showed us the secret cupboards where they could hide the hooch when the law was breaking-in the door. During the war, when booze was legal, these rooms were used as billiards rooms and Duck Pin Bowling alleys to entertain the men from the local Air Base. Some of the floors have been paved-over with cement, but many are still dirt. We were toured through a very large room which housed 80-100 Chinese laborers. They have found many opium-related items in the rooms and have also found many porcelain, stone or wooden pillows and now-rotting woven mats the men slept on.

Laborer quarters


An opium bed with wooden pillows and tatami mats

The last part of the Pendleton Underground Tour was above ground - up 32 steps to the Cozy Rooms - the most famous and long-lived bordello in Pendleton, Oregon. It was closed in 1963. (No, that is not a typo!) The Madame, Stella, is legend in this area - she died in the 1970's and though she had no obituary (not proper), it was the most well-attended funeral in the county. Stella operated houses in Walla Walla, La Grande, Pendleton and often other nearby cities. She rotated her girls every three months between cities - so the customers had variety. Gentlemen callers bought tokens from Stella. Each token had a certain sexual favor stamped on it and, it was assumed, each had a different price scale. Many of the tokens have been found in town - at one point, there were 18 brothels in this 6-square-block area of Pendleton. Upstairs, we were taken through Stella's living room, office and bedroom. Although Stella did not actually "work" herself, she did have a secret-escape passage through her closet! Since the "ladies" were not welcome in local churches, Stella kept one of the rooms as a chapel and had a circuit minister stop in on Sundays.

The girls each had their own large private bedroom, with two girls sharing a bath. They "worked" in very small rooms. Each room had a double bed, a sink and a nightstand. Each room also had a door - and a window, which opened up into the main hall! When a customer would appear at the top of the 32 stairs, the non-busy girls would open up their windows and entice the men! The men would buy a token from Stella, then drop it into the token box on every night stand! You could not believe the beautiful, carved woodwork and intricate wallpaper in this bordello - all original. The ceilings are 18 feet and the massive pocket-doors must have weighed hundreds of pounds. The girls had the help of two servants for their laundry and cooking. If you are ever in Pendleton, I urge you to take the Pendleton Underground Tour. I don't know if it was because the guide was so knowledgeable and was having fun herself, but it was a very nice tour.

The Cozy Rooms "Hotel" on Main Street -
the door remains today

I met DT back at the RV and we went back into town for dinner and I talked and talked all during dinner, telling him about all the things I had learned about Pendleton today. When, Why, and Who. We dined at Cimmiyotti's, 137 S Main Street (541) 276-4314. It was listed in our guide book as a "don't miss", but seriously, if we hadn't read about it, we would have never entered the door. There were no windows and it looked like a very seedy bar! But, it was just as the guide book described - red flocked velvet wallpaper and steaks, seafood, and Italian food. Our waitress, the Sweet Melissa, kept listening to my monologue and when I asked DT if he knew why the town was named Pendleton - she finally had to ask how I KNEW all this stuff? When I told her, she swore she was going to take the tour. (A senator who ran against Lincoln.) Cimmiyotti's itself, was once a famous saddle maker's shop. I now know where all the local bricks were made, why all the streets have two names, and what those wonderful blue and purple glass squares are on city sidewalks around the U.S.

You would think this would be enough for one day - but DT wanted to stop by the casino after dinner and try his luck. I must say the first thing we both noticed at this Native American casino - Native Americans are actually employed here! Every worker we encountered - checking-in to the campground, signing up for golf and in the casino, were Native American. We have never seen this at other Indian casinos. We didn't stay long. I had been having such a wonderful day, I decided to call it a night and come back to the RV and update my website with all this good news.

RV Park: Wild Horse RV Park