Remember the Deep Dark? Unofficial sewer tour gave glimpse of underground SLO creek
We ought to treat our creeks better. They are the cradle of a community.
The Chumash lived in the village of Tixlini next to San Luis Creek and later the Spanish at Mission San Luis Obispo drew water and fished Steelhead trout there.
But by the 1800s, the creek was treated like an open sewer. In May 15, 1875, Tribune editor O.F. Thornton suggested in an editorial that the town build a reservoir to be used to flush out the creek on a daily basis.
Sewage, oil, trash — it has all been spilled into the creek. Even today, temporary camps along the creek are associated with waste being tossed into the stream.
Up until the mid-twentieth century, the opening of Steelhead season was greeted with joy in the community, but it has been since my late grandparents’ childhood that people have been able to catch enough fish to feed a family.
Creek floods during winter storm
Perhaps the biggest insult was when the city fathers decided to pave over more than two blocks of the creek in the interest of maximizing business some time in the late 1800s.
In January 1969, however, the creek decided the walled-in, paved-over channel was not enough.
In less than 48 hours, the region was drenched with over half of an average year’s rainfall. During one incredible 25-minute span, a full inch of rain fell.
Over two days, 10.53 inches of rain soaked the region.
The river flowed down Higuera Street, both above and below the walled-in creek bank.
Secrets of Deep Dark, the sewer tour, under SLO
A few adventuresome souls have taken the “sewer tour.”
In 1966, a student group staged the “Sewer Stomp” summer concert there.
It used to be a literal rite of passage for Week of Welcome groups to hold hands and walk the over two blocks of Deep Dark.
It smelled rank, and the bats and pigeons living there did not appreciate the students walking through.
There were places where the bedrock took uneven plunges.
By 2000, the century-old Higuera Street Bridge was failing and work to shore up the crumbling Bishop Peak granite walls was started.
The repair was estimated to be $1.9 million to replace the a two block section under Higuera Street from Mo’s Smokehouse BBQ to Thai Classic restaurant. (At that time, Mo’s was at the corner of Court and Higuera streets, and McCarthy’s Pub was next door.)
Madonna Construction hoped to complete the project in one summer, but additional work was needed when anchors in bedrock needed to be redesigned and grout seeped through fissures in the bedrock.
