SubTropolis

November 13, 2024 11:27 AM

With a depth of up to 160 feet, the temperature inside the network of tunnels and chambers hovers between 68 and 72 degrees all year round, with humidity sitting at a comfortable 40 percent. Thanks to the miners’ use of an extraction technique called the “room and pillar method,” the enormous underground cavities left behind are supported by 16-foot pillars; the space is open, regular, and, expansive enough to accommodate nearly anything that can fit through its above-ground, drive-in entrance ramps. from Since the ’60s, Ford Has Stored Cars Underground in a Kansas City Cave [Hagerty]
posted by chavenet (16 comments total)

That is wild. I love underground stuff. Great article.
posted by slogger at 12:33 PM on November 13 [5 favorites]

Morlock Motors, Inc.
posted by njohnson23 at 12:43 PM on November 13 [4 favorites]

Neat. From the first images, I imagined it as an archive, but it seems like it is more of a processing facility with a steady flow of vehicles moving in and out.
posted by jacquilynne at 12:55 PM on November 13 [2 favorites]

“The Hunt family got involved when Lamar moved up from Texas and brought the Kansas City Chiefs with him [in 1963],” said Ryan Tompkins, Director of Sales and Leasing at SubTropolis. “He wanted to invest in Kansas City and really show its people that he was here for good. He wanted to put his roots out. So he purchased the active limestone mine at that time.”

I miss the old days, when plutocrats would do things like buy limestone mines, found doomed professional-sports leagues, and attempt to corner the silver market.
posted by box at 12:59 PM on November 13 [6 favorites]

I didn't see any fans moving air around. I wonder how they vent engine exhaust.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 1:38 PM on November 13 [1 favorite]

See also Park University in nearby Parkville, MO: a whole chunk of the campus is in limestone caves. It's rather strange to walk around this college campus where there's no sun, no day or night.

(ms scruss is within hailing distance of Worlds o' Fun, and had never heard of SubTropolis.)
posted by scruss at 1:50 PM on November 13 [4 favorites]

This is fascinating, thanks for sharing!
posted by nouvelle-personne at 1:59 PM on November 13 [1 favorite]

Grew up in KC...

Those caves are amazingly cool and huge.

Limestone is a thing.
posted by Windopaene at 2:02 PM on November 13 [3 favorites]

slow that Mustang down
posted by HearHere at 2:39 PM on November 13 [1 favorite]

previously
posted by pwnguin at 4:30 PM on November 13 [1 favorite]

Neat! Thanks for posting.
posted by nestor_makhno at 5:58 PM on November 13 [1 favorite]

In the early 2000s, there was a "pretend economy" in it (I think it was Exchange City) that we went to on a class trip at one point. It was like a little city and we had little elementary kid paper money and walked around doing elementary kid bartering and jobs and stuff. I only vaguely remember that!

The caves themselves were awe-inspiring and it's really fun to see somebody writing about it! It was like being in the back pantry of a little kid dream house where you think "ah yes I will simply have a house in the side of a mountain". There's something profound about being in this giant, cool, calm, static space where the only things that move are the people. While I will probably never personally return, YouTube is there for me in a way that it wasn't then. Is it more or less special to have had that experience when it's on the internet for anybody to see? I think it is -- because I've been there and it's a memory trigger, not just another curiosity to click through.
posted by Brassica oleracea at 9:29 PM on November 13 [2 favorites]

That's really cool. I knew about Ford storing cars there decades ago, but had no idea they were still doing so or that the space was so large.
posted by dg at 10:06 PM on November 13 [1 favorite]

I wonder if the set designers of Severance visited this space prior to creating the show.
posted by Callisto Prime at 12:34 AM on November 14 [1 favorite]

Brassica oleracea: In the early 2000s, there was a "pretend economy" in it (I think it was Exchange City) that we went to on a class trip at one point. It was like a little city and we had little elementary kid paper money and walked around doing elementary kid bartering and jobs and stuff. I only vaguely remember that!

How Kentucky Route Zero this all is, very Bureau of Secret Tourism.
posted by fridgebuzz at 4:34 AM on November 14 [1 favorite]

The Fords delved too greedily, and too deep.
posted by JoeBlubaugh at 4:21 PM on November 14 [1 favorite]