Mole man evicted from underground burrow
"A homeless contractor known as the "mole man" dug a multi-room 200-square foot home underground in Fresno that surprised police when they recently stumbled upon a hidden entrance." Link
Previously on Boing Boing:
• John Hodgman's Mole Men / Cavalcade of Hobos
• Mole Men imagined by Ape Lad
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Being a Fresno native I feel obligated to comment and make note of the fact.
"The state said it is a danger to people living nearby and plan to demolish it."
thank you state, for stealing my F-U-N!
someone call john hodgman!
Fresno is a great place for underground dwelling. See, for example,the fabulous Underground Gardens found there!
http://historicfresno.org/nrhp/forest.htm
Clearly, the local authorities object to something other than a livable hole in the ground!
What gave it away was the strange markings on what appeared to be a round door painted green with a large brass knob in the center.
Locals had also reported an increase in Dwarf traffic and several Wizard sightings, but still contend that the darkness over the nearby mountains is just a passing weather phenomena.
Isn't calling a 200 square-foot hole a "home" a little generous? I mean, I built a treehouse bigger than that when I was 14.
Come on now... Seattle condo developers seem to be selling 300 sqft. closets for about $300k now. I hardly think a 200 sqft hobbit hole is really going too far.
Perhaps the real problem here is that if the mole- man's design catches on, it would destroy the Fresno condominium market!
#6 - my bedroom's 125 square feet. I guess that burrow was about the size of that plus my home's midget 1940s kitchen.
Man, if I knew my money was going to fund the building of wicked underground homes when I give it to the homeless, I'd actually give it up. Very crafty, sir, very crafty.
...Now, when they kicked him out, was he saying "Boo" or "Boo-urns?"
my cousin and i created a fictitious religion much like the Ralien one. except for the fact that we pretended that it was Mole Men..and well this concerns me with the fact that we are prophets?......
/humor
Fresno is a good place to build underground dwellings for several reasons:
1. not much rain, little chance of flooding
2. lots of ag/city interfaces for actually being able to see the ground surface
3. and most importantly, most of Fresno is built on an old (~ 150,000 years) and stable alluvial deposit which has a subsurface feature known as a duripan a silica cemented horizon ranging from several inches to several feet thick. The subsoil is dry and loose, which helps digging out a home once you penetrate the duripan. It is likely that he built his home under the San Joaquin soil series, know for its well developed duripan (and the CA state soil!).
-- A Fresno Native and soil scientist --
I bet the password to get in is "molepeople". But look out for the NSF. (yeah, I know I'm a nerd but that game was awsome and underrated)
After reading yesterday's news, I am convinced that Fresno is populated by a race of mole people.
Exhibit A
Exhibit B
David277,
DUH, the soil in Fresno serves the needs of mole living PERFECTLY because of the duripan, you see..
Dangit, Dylan (#11) stole my thunder. Just too slow I guess.
(BTW the screenshot, and post title were so beautifully perfect together in my RSS reader I wept.)
Was it the hisser?
This might be more commonplace than you think-- several years ago a man was evicted from a hidden underground house on Nantucket. His story is actually quite interesting, and similarly he claimed to have several other underground houses already built around the country. Like this guy, he also worked in either contracting or carpentry; at first I thought it might be the same guy in Fresno (many similarities), but the name appears different (unless he is using a new name). The Nantucket moleman did a far superior job to the Freso guy's "dirt hole": although smaller, it did have wooden walls and a stone floor, and some amenities like a gravity-fed shower/sink, and an icebox built into the earth. Also odd that he could do it on Nantucket, which (unlike the Vineyard) is a very close-knit community.
http://hpn.asu.edu/archives/Dec98/0114.html
The molemen will inherit the earth (i.e. dirt).
Here's some more info on the Nantucket moleman, plus some others of note.
http://www.subsurfacebuildings.com/TwentiethCenturyCavemen.html
http://www.pamelaferdinand.com/wp_0028.html