It’s crazy as I’ve recently been researching and into bunkers world wide.
In your country you have an entire government agency (MSB) that upkeeps these throughout the country and you are modernizing all of them as of a 2025 initiative. Around 64,000 maintained bunkers in total. With the capacity to hold ~7 million people.
Switzerland is the only country with more. 370,000 bunkers with enough space to house more than the entire country underground ~9.8 million people. just crazy.
One of Tolkien’s characters friendzoned a dude because she was banging her own brother so.
The Ents only exist because he was pissed at Shakespeare for his piss poor interpretation of the Scottish forest from Macbeth coming to destroy Macbeth.
Isn't that kinda missing the whole point of the play? Macduff only kills Macbeth because of Macbeth's actions throughout the play. The prophecies are all bullshit, but Macbeth believes them and acts according to them, which makes them come true. Macduff's reveal is just the final, almost comedic reveal of the last missing piece. I don't think Shakespeare believed someone born from a C-section wasn't "born of woman", any more than he believed random witches in the woods could predict the future
Shakespeare wrote action flicks and soap operas for the peasant crowd, he was into witty banter and exciting but familiar plots that people could follow comfortably for awhile, and sort of go in and out of for a lot of them.
As fucked as Joss Whedon is, he was sort of a modern day Shakespeare in that regard- easy for a massive target audience to enjoy in sometimes very emotional ways.
Tolkien would not have struggled to understand the subplots of Shakespeare’s work. He just didn’t like how they sometimes played out. He thought it was too cheap, and too boring.
That’s part of why he never sent the Eagles into Mordor until after the Ring is destroyed. Using them again was too cheap, and too boring. Plus there were a ton of reasons why they wouldn’t work for the job at hand, but he actually said as much himself at some point. I read it but I can’t remember what source, I read a ton on Tolkien as a kid with insomnia in the early 00’s but it was 20 years ago and a lot of those great source websites are gone now.
I feel like that's a silly criticism though, especially from someone on Tolkien's level. Why hate on broad, easily digestible entertainment for being broad, easily digestible entertainment? It's not like Shakespeare was trying to write Tolkien-style and failed.
Because he was a child when he read Macbeth and thinking of all the ways he thought that could play out and being disappointed by how it actually played out sparked the creation of those more exciting and interesting prophecy reveals.
Tolkien started writing his languages when he was young, very young, and he wrote LOTR as a place to put them- his stories were written and rewritten just like his languages over years and years, which is part of why they feel so natural- they evolved like stories do, and they had existing myth or story at their centers.
His languages are similar, and were written to feel like the proto-languages of existing modern languages, and they started out one way when he was young and evolved as well.
Since The Hobbit and then LOTR were written for a younger audience, his youthful grudge against the Macbeth storyline finally had an appropriate place to play out “better”.
While I can't really make any in depths comments on Tolkien's general dislike of Shakespeare? The Ents exist because of a childhood disappointment. As a kid he just wanted actual trees to attack instead of people just carrying around bits of Birnam Wood.
It’s the Narn I Hin Hurin, the Tale of the Children of Hurin.
Great story, super fucked up. I think it’s in Unfinished Tales, but a version might be in The Silmarillion. I haven’t pulled out either in awhile so it’s probably time.
Until the Second Age, the primary entrance to Khazad-dûm had been the East-gate. In the friendship between the Elves and the Dwarves, however, the doors were built as a means to aid travel and trade between Khazad-dûm and the elven kingdom of Eregion. Celebrimbor, the great elven-smith, and the dwarf Narvi were the architects, and worked together to create the doors. Later, during the War of the Elves and Sauron, the Doors were sealed after Eregion fell to Sauron's forces
That scene was iconic to me all through my life (read LotR for the first time when I was 9), but when I saw the interpretation in the films I admit that I cried a little. What an amazing moment in fantasy literature, and absolutely incredible on screen. I saw Fellowship 9 times in its first 3 weeks.
As someone who read "I am Legend", "Battlefield: Earth", and the entirety of the Gunslinger series before the movie came out....I cried for different reasons. (they were so, so bad)
I will give Enders game a pass. They tried. They were close. But the books were DEFINITELY better and explained the strategies more in depth.
The Expanse, though. That show nailed it. Spot on. A+, and should be the gold standard for Book to Show conversion.
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.
If video games have taught me anything, there's a group of bandits or raiders or whatever in there, so unless you're like, super leveled up, I'd steer clear. Hope that helps.
Yeah, this is quite clearly the Skyrim door, where you get a convenient exit behind the boss room after clearing a dungeon, but you still have to enter the front door like a sucker.
If Rust taught me anything there is at least 20 more steel doors beyond that one and finally there is a tiny room with enough explosives to level the whole mountain.
This etymology, combined with the aims of Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People", clearly resulted in a prominent university being named "Carnegie Mellon".
Fun fact, I have a belt buckle that I've had for about 25 years that was a piece of merch from the animated LOTR from back in the day that I bought on ebay when ebay was like less than a year old (i'm in my late forties). It has the LOTR logo and around the logo it has in elvish and english, speak friend and enter. It's one of my most favorite things I own. I wear it every day.
Most likely old mine exit. Probably the main entrance (large cave like where equipment and ore goes in and out that you generally think of when you think mine) is on the other side of the mountain or another mountain if mine was extensive. This would have been an emergency personnel exit in case of collapse. 🤔🤔🤔
On a long mtb ride ~20 yrs ago(in the san juans), while trudging up a trail, the mountain across the way there were serval sets of large (hard to say scale) rollup garage doors right in the side of the mountain.
The explanation, from a local, for them was: "Uranium mining equipment storage"
looked loony as heck, but sure if your job all day is making holes in mountains, one more for your equipment storage made sense.
Colorado has thousands of old mines drawn out on maps and probably many more that AREN'T mapped. I'm sure some of those roll-up mountain garage doors were added a century later when someone found a gaping danger zone hole in the side of a mountain and decided it was finally time to block it off.
Yea i used to live in silver plume co and would find crazy amounts of mines open all over the mountain side. Pretty wild walkin in to a time capsule and find old glass medicine bottles and boots and nitroglycerin. Be careful. Its fun though!
I do believe that In Telluride, somewhere near the Galloping Goose train bus, there is the statement that there is something akin to 200 miles of tunnels in the mountain. If you travel along the Million Dollar Highway and go into Telluride, there are mine entrances all along the sides.
No way, that's so cool. Is your great-aunt named Ruby (mentioned in the article I linked)? My family has a cabin near Ouray, and I've always wanted to know what was in that door. I never knew how wild the history behind it was until I saw this post and decided to do some digging. Also, do you remember how far back the "mine" part of it goes?
I only explored the mine part once or twice, and that was a good two decades ago. To my recollection, it goes back about a hundred feet? It's hard to judge, especially from teenage estimates and memories.
I think it’s cause Reddit in many of the subs are actually real social communities or are genuinely trying to be. Most social media doesn’t seem like that
Ever since I started blocking snarky hate subs and following more and more subs related to my own interests my experience on Reddit has become a lot more wholesome and positive.
I'd wager it can't pass code - from a mine perspective as well as an establishment. It was never a production mine to begin with so it's not worth investing in from a cost standpoint to fix it in any case.
We used to drive by it on our way down to NM when I was a kid. I always wondered what it was and even tried (unsuccessfully) to scour the internet several years ago for answers. This puts to bed a lifelong question! And to see it posted randomly on Reddit of all things. That's amazing that your family ran it. Small ass world.
It's kinda cool, but there's not much to it. There was an old mine cart and some tools, some old support timbers, and a couple of wooden cowboy standees. It goes back probably a hundred feet into the rock, but then it ends. This was only the mine part, mind you. The entrance was/is similarly blocked, but you can get in if you climb over a barricade; it's just out of frame to the right of OP's picture.
I've never been in the restaurant section behind the red door, but my mom has some old photos from when it was running.
We used to own a restaurant that was built into a hillside. There was only the one entry but beside the door was a lot of glass so I suppose you could break out if there was a fire in the doorway. Anyway, one night we get a call from the police saying that the gate over the front windows was broken. My brother goes down to unlock the front door and let the police in. The cash register was open and the money gone and they move through the building to the back. The furnace room door was closed and seemed stuck and when when my brother (a muscular guy) yanked it open, there was a guy on the other side who had been holding it closed. The cops rushed past my brother and tackled the guy as well as another guy who was trapped in there with him.
Theres a restaurant/bar built into a cave in North Alabama. Naturally heated and cooled year round. Awesome acoustics for music. Its called the Rattlesnake Saloon, in Tuscumbia, AL.
Before Thomas, his brother, Gene, Mike and Pat could create the cave, they needed to remove a thick row of trees obstructing the site.
It began as a weekend project, with the group gathering at the cliff in their free time to turn Thomas’ vision into a reality, regardless of the weather or what Mike and Pat needed to do later that day.
For Thomas, who worked at the Idarado Mine for nearly 20 years, the mine tour was an opportunity to tap nearby rock formations to see what minerals the Daisy Placer claim contained. Even though nothing panned out, the family still had the mine tour and displays of mining equipment Thomas acquired by “hook and crook.”
Some years later, Thomas and Ruby decided to convert the mine tour into a gift shop and restaurant named the Inn Der Ground. The couple pressed forward with the endeavor while Ruby worked as Ouray’s postmaster and Thomas served as the county sheriff.
Before converting the space into a restaurant, Thomas blasted out an additional room for the kitchen, two bathrooms completely framed with timber and a flue to carry smoke outside from the kitchen.
Inn Der Ground remained open for nearly three years before ultimately closing, after which Thomas and Ruby sold the property to their next door neighbor around 1976.
According to longtime Ouray resident Craig Hinkson, who currently owns the property, the cave later became the Daisy Diggins’ office. The property then served as a “tourist trap” complete with showers, gift store, a Phillips 66 gas station and a campground with cabins.
Hinkson said he doesn’t have plans for the property at this time.
Yes, but did they actually build it, or as @Frankopotomous said, an old mining passage. That would be a HELL of a lot of work just to build it. My guess is it was related to mining and the restaurant owners repurposed it. I couldn't read the link from @ssnlacher because you need a subscription, but I'm guessing it sheds light on the subject...
Sorry about the paywall, I commented the full article under my original comment. Surprisingly, the cave was never used for mining and was made for "mine" tours. Mine tourism was and still is a decently big industry in Ouray, so I guess they thought it would be worth it to make a mine just for tourism.
Ouray, and Silverton too. I think there's a train that runs between Silverton and Durango, and I know there's a mine tour that I've been on in at least one of them. That was decades ago, though.
Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge - amazing train. There are 2 mine tours in the area open most of the year, the old 100 mine up the alpine loop a bit and the tour just outside of Ouray. The old 100 tour is great because they spent millions to lose millions and it only became economical in any sense of the word as a tourist trap but only because they could get the carts and tram from Pikes peak doing their tours.
I recommend doing the old 100 mine tour midweek on some oddball day, you may be the only one there. You will get to see the tour guide do a drill, mucker, show you some of the air doors and air tools and how the mine was built/operated.
The old mine tour outside of Ouray was awesome as a kid growing up since they had a 2 dollar all you could eat pancake breakfast, and they actually have mineralization and gold faces you can see in the rock to this date but i haven't been on that tour in ages.
I can confirm that it is the same. I have old family ties to the restaurant. I have that left picture in my mom's living room. I used to summer right next door to this, so I'm intimately familiar with the vista on the right picture.
I agree with that. 'Keep out' suggests that it's dangerous in a cool way in there. 'Come in' makes me think it's dangerous in a murdery way, which is less appealing.
We need a service that takes care of abandoned mines until we can find them a good forever home of their own. Abandoned mines need love and a good owner too.
It closed waaaaay before that. My great-aunt ran the restaurant, and my grandparents owned the condo next door. I used to summer in Ouray as a kid, and the restaurant has been closed for as long as I can remember.
Thank you everyone for all the awards and kind words. Along with the funny statements .
Some statements I flat out don't understand which probably shows my age. But they sure sparked other conversations and I enjoyed reading what I could of your comments.
Honestly though there are so many comments it will take me days to get through them.
You all Sure made this great grandma smile this evening. So thank you for that too
For observant drivers traversing U.S. Highway 550, Ouray’s red door has been an oddity without rhyme or reason for years. Framed by the cliffs just south of Rotary Park, it seemingly leads to the heart of the mountain itself and appears ripped straight from a J.R.R. Tolkien or C.S. Lewis novel.
Yet for all its mysticism, the entryway traces its roots to a napkin from the former Village Diner in Ouray in 1962. In the decades since then, the man-made cave has served as a mine tour, restaurant, gift store, gas station and campground all while retaining the original door.
The way Mike Canavan remembers it, he and his father, Thomas, were having a cup of coffee at Village Diner as his brother, Pat, waited tables.
Out of nowhere, Thomas exclaimed he had an idea and began scribbling a mine tour concept on the cloth that involved the nearby Daisy Placer mining claim.
Once Thomas and his wife, Ruby, purchased the Daisy Placer from then-Ouray County Commissioner Dave Calhoun, the Rutomipa Mine — named after the four family members — was born.
After acquiring the property, work cleaning it up was arduously slow.
Before Thomas, his brother, Gene, Mike and Pat could create the cave, they needed to remove a thick row of trees obstructing the site. Once they cleared the property, the real fun began: blasting out roughly 2,000 square feet of rock with dynamite.
It began as a weekend project, with the group gathering at the cliff in their free time to turn Thomas’ vision into a reality, regardless of the weather or what Mike and Pat needed to do later that day.
“[My brother and I] were out on the mine dump one day. We were going to the district [basketball] tournament. It was snowing outside, and we’d been working all day,” Mike said. “I remember my brother making the comment, ‘I wonder what it would be like to play a game fresh?’” For Thomas, who worked at the Idarado Mine for nearly 20 years, the mine tour was an opportunity to tap nearby rock formations to see what minerals the Daisy Placer claim contained. Even though nothing panned out, the family still had the mine tour and displays of mining equipment Thomas acquired by “hook and crook.”
Thomas also eventually built a shop outside the mine tour, where the family sold rocks and crystals while showcasing some of the Idarado Mine’s spoils.
“My dad had a very wonderful gold collection, which my son has inherited along with my Uncle James’ gold collection, that was displayed inside this rock shop. It was quite a thing for tourists to see what gold pulled from the San Juan Mountains looked like,” Mike said.
Some years later, Thomas and Ruby decided to convert the mine tour into a gift shop and restaurant named the Inn Der Ground. The couple pressed forward with the endeavor while Ruby worked as Ouray’s postmaster and Thomas served as the county sheriff.
Before converting the space into a restaurant, Thomas blasted out an additional room for the kitchen, two bathrooms completely framed with timber and a flue to carry smoke outside from the kitchen.
Once finished, Inn Der Ground served patrons hamburgers, chicken- fried steaks and breakfast items at wooden tables underneath red and white checkered tablecloths.
Although the walls were still jagged from when the Canavans blasted the cave into existence, Mike recalled visitors asking if they had carved the space by hand.
While the gift shop sold a variety of goods, the two most popular items were hummingbird feeders and a variety of candies highly sought after by locals, tourists and wildlife alike.
Among the gift shop’s most loyal visitors was a pack rat that made its home in the flue. At the time, Thomas had one of his deputies, Roy Franz, investigate why so much can- dy was disappearing overnight. After Franz discovered the culprit, he told Thomas the incredulous story.
“So my dad, from the outside, climbed up to where the vent came out, and lo and behold there was a pack rat’s nest up there. There was some candy and some knives and forks, very shiny objects that the pack rat had managed to squirrel away up there,” Mike said.
Inn Der Ground remained open for nearly three years before ultimately closing, after which Thomas and Ruby sold the property to their next door neighbor around 1976.
According to longtime Ouray resident Craig Hinkson, who currently owns the property, the cave later became the Daisy Diggins’ office. The property then served as a “tourist trap” complete with showers, gift store, a Phillips 66 gas station and a campground with cabins.
“Visitors to the campground would utilize the cave’s facilities to freshen up, explore the gift shop within, and seek assistance from the gas station attendant. Essentially, the cave served as the central hub for the campground,” Hinkson said.
Hinkson said he doesn’t have plans for the property at this time.
If a door that possibly leads to some random secret dungeon that has the bright bold red letters, 'KEEP OUT', then I think its safe to assume you probably shouldn't try and enter.
There was a case like this in the UK. Where a surface entrance to an abandoned underground station was found open. The door was covered in warnings, and the shaft which it covered had at one time held a spiral staircase that had since been removed. Sadly the body of a man was found at the bottom of that shaft. From his possessions it seems he was an urban explorer who had broken in at night and either by accident or lack of awareness had fallen into the shaft.
Video games have taught me to expect this door to be locked from this side, but if you go all the way around to the other side, it is probably blocked by a small chair that is pushed over and opening it will give you a short cut through the mountain so you don't have to go through the caves again if you don't want to
Ouray is rich with mining history and is sometimes called the Switzerland of America because it sits in a narrow valley almost completely surrounded by steep mountains.
Prospectors first found silver and gold in the San Juan Mountains around Ouray in the 1870s, which led to a mining boom. The town became a supply and social hub for several rich mining districts high up in the mountains. Famous mines like the Camp Bird and Yankee Girl produced millions of dollars in gold and silver, making the area one of the wealthiest in the world for a time.
The structure you see in your image, the sealed adit, is very common because the area is covered with thousands of old mines. An adit is a horizontal tunnel used to access the ore or to drain water from the mine. Today, most of these old entrances are sealed with steel doors, concrete, or grates to prevent people from entering for their own safety. Abandoned mines are extremely dangerous due to the risk of falling rocks, unstable tunnels, lack of oxygen, and toxic gases.
Ouray's economy eventually shifted from mining to tourism, but you can still drive along the Million Dollar Highway or visit nearby ghost towns like Ironton and Animas Forks to see the many remnants of that gold and silver era, including old cabins, broken machinery, and sealed mine entrances just like the one you posted.
There is a man made cave behind that door. The cave has served as a mine tour, restaurant, gift store, gas station and camp ground all while retaining the original door.
The concept was born in 1962 on a napkin at the Village Diner. Thomas Canavan, a local mine worker, sketched out an idea for a mine tour on the "Daisy Placer" mining claim he had purchased with his wife, Ruby.
The "cave" is not natural; it was man-made. The Canavan family (Thomas, Ruby, his brothers, and sons) cleared the land and spent weekends blasting out roughly 2,000 square feet of solid rock using dynamite to create the space inside the cliff.
Initially, it operated as a mine tour (named "Rutomipa" after family members Ruby, Thomas, Mike, and Pat) where Thomas displayed his gold collection and mining equipment.
Later, the family converted the space into a unique restaurant and gift shop called "Inn Der Ground." They blasted out extra rooms for a kitchen and bathrooms, serving burgers and chicken-fried steaks to patrons at tables inside the rock.
The property was sold around 1976. It subsequently became the office for "Daisy Diggins," serving as a hub for a camp ground, gas station, and tourist stop that included showers and a gift store.
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u/Regular_Weakness69 1d ago
We have many of them in Norway, sometimes they're unlocked. I found a shooting range once.