‘This is absolutely true’: The hidden story of Saskatoon’s underground tunnels

Stories of hidden tunnels around Saskatoon have sparked curiosity, debate — and even spooky urban myths. City archivist Jeff O’Brien tells us there is a trove of history to unearth beneath our streets.

“There are a couple of tunnels and this is absolutely true,” O’Brien told CTV News.

The question about tunnels under the city is not a simple one to answer, according to this expert.

“If you go down the stairwell on the north side of the lobby at the Bessborough Hotel, there’s a door with a chain on it, and it leads to this tunnel,” he said.

He’s talking about one of the legitimate tunnels beneath our streets, which he estimates was built in the 1960s or 70s. It provided a passageway for guests of the hotel to the parking garage across the street.

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The only other confirmed tunnel, according to O’Brien, linked the old Hudson’s Bay building with its parkade across 2nd Avenue.

“When they tore down the parkade years and years ago and they filled in that tunnel,” he said.

The myths are justified, he says.

There’s a mysterious brick arch found in recent years in the basement of the Senator Hotel. The exact purpose of the arch is still unsolved, but it adds to the tunnel theories.

“People say, ‘Oh, yeah, I’ve been in these tunnels.’ There are things or were things in the downtown that really resemble tunnels.”

The area of 21st street around 3rd Avenue fuels some of that tunnel mystery. There used to be grates, as well as purple and blue glass in the sidewalk there, evidence for some of the cavities below.

“What they are, are sidewalk vaults and they’re an extension of the of the basement of a building underneath the sidewalk. You’ll see there’ll be grates or glass blocks in the pavement,” O’Brien said.

“In the case of some of the buildings, the businesses utilized the extra space under the sidewalk, like in the case of the Cavern night club, but for many, the space was simply used for utility purposes like loading deliveries.”

The tunnel lore doesn’t end there — it can lead you right to the University of Saskatchewan campus.

“So it’s a whole network of tunnels and skywalks that encircles a central green region called the bowl,” said student recruitment ambassador Meghal, who only goes by one name.

That network of tunnels is approximately 1.5 kilometres and hits twenty buildings, excluding Education and Veterinary Medicine.

It takes about 10 to 15 minutes to complete the loop of tunnels. That’s roughly 1,500 steps according to William Eichorst, the Student Recruitment Officer.

While most of the U of S tunnels are main passageways used by students daily, some, like the one leading to the residences, give off a creepy vibe — especially in the summer when campus is empty, Eichorst said.

“There’s a lot of history in these walls and, you know there are some spooky ways. There are some corners that might look a little daunting and eerie,” he said.

In addition to that, there are some stories of ghosts haunting the tunnel of the historic Administration Building.

“There’s an urban myth that there was an engineering student, that failed his engineering classes and from the embarrassment, he didn’t want to leave school, so he camped out in the tunnels, and he would come out to steal money or food from passers by,” he said.

Now years later, some say, they feel a breeze in certain parts of the tunnel under that building.

Whether or not you buy into Saskatoon’s tunnel folklore — it certainly adds to the underground character of our city.