On these visits to Washington, though, I would mention Dyar and his work on
limacodids. And then I always would hear, "Oh! Well, go talk to the historian, Pam Hanson.
She knows all about Dyar and his tunnels." And I go, "What? What tunnels? What?" So that was...
I don't think I had ever heard the story that Dyar had - was a bigamist, had two
families and tunnels connected the two families. And you know the story that we
always got was they were interconnected, and that's how it was discovered that
the kids – well, the kids met at school and found out that they each had a
father that studied butterflies at the Smithsonian was part of the story, but
then the other part was that he would go from one family to the other. And of
course the beauty of it is that that gives them a purpose! Well, they don't
connect, they're not built at the same time, the kids weren't the same age, so
yeah, basically, I've thrown cold water on the purpose everybody thought these
tunnels had. And I really do believe that the first set of tunnels began – not
for exercise – but he was digging a hollyhock bed, and he got to a certain
point in digging where he was enjoying digging and just kept doing it.
Okay, those tunnels: hollyhocks. The other tunnels:
he's got a problem to solve. He's got a furnace in the basement, doesn't like
hauling the ashes up through the house and out to the curb. His first level, that
tunnel does lead to his basement furnace, and there are steps out to the front, and
this was one of the values of having the oral history with the son is that it's
very clearly his stated reason. Of course now why go down and build two other levels
besides that? And I've never bought – he always said, "I did it for exercise," but I
really do think besides being compulsive, that
he really, you know, these aren't just mine shafts. These
are somewhat ornate, they're brick inlaid, they're plastered, they're
architectural marvels. You know, from the stuff that he wrote on the tunnel arches,
you know, it's kind of references to heaven and hell, and I think it's a
catharsis he was going through. But I do think something like digging the
tunnels...I think it was an escape. Escape from his personal situation, also
probably an escape from the heat of Washington. It's a very hot, muggy place.
The Dupont Circle ones were always discovered because they collapsed.
Actually, all three collapses at Dupont Circle, something, like, drove over
the top, a truck or something. So, 1917, which hardly made a blip in the news,
Dyar was – it was figured that Dyar had dug them because neighbors in the areas when
he dug them were still there. And then in '24, a truck in the alley behind the house,
the street collapsed, and then in 1958 – some kind of collapse. I'm not sure if it
was a truck. So, each time – well, except for 1917, but the '24 and the '58, and then if
the streets ever collapsed in anywhere near Dupont Circle, whether it had
anything to do with Dyar's tunnels, it would get in the newspaper. So, that
tunnel was discovered, but then the other one, actually Dyar told the reporters,
"Well, I got these tunnels, too, over my present house." He, you know, he's someone
that grew up in privilege. He thinks he can kind of make up his own world, his
own rules, which of course he does. You know, two families, two wives, tunnels, just
whatever he can afford he does because he can, you know.
And the Washington Post columnist that did the article series on
him kept saying how audacious Dyar was. Well, some of this audacity came from
living in privilege.