Case file · Folklore / legend
Shanghai tunnels of Portland
Tour guides say Portland's Old Town basements were linked by tunnels through which drugged men were carried to the waterfront and sold to ship captains short of crew ('shanghaied').
1890 CE · 45.52, -122.67 · status: disputed
The account
Crimping, the forced supply of sailors, was real in Portland in the late 1800s; boarding-house master Joseph 'Bunco' Kelly became a legend for it. The tunnels are now a ghost-tour attraction.
The sceptical view
Historians have found no evidence that the basements were used for shanghaiing; most were for deliveries and storage, and the tunnel stories grew in the 20th century.