GFHS+Tunnels

The Great Falls High School Tunnels are a network of hallways underneath the school that were originally used as passages for the electrical wiring, plumbing, and steam for the boiler system (heating). One specific area had the intended purpose of a bomb shelter; it is located at the far end of the Book Room. During the Cold War, one of the tunnels was designated as a bomb shelter in case of a nuclear threat. Emergency rations were kept down here just in case, but were never used. Before the doors to the book room were built a couple of years ago, the only way to access the shelter was through a small door far down in the tunnels that is blocked by numerous pipes, locked doors, and random miscellaneous objects kept in storage. Only five entrances exist today. The aforementioned Book Room holds one entrance that leads to the bomb shelter, which leads to other tunnels. Another way is through a door on the second floor of the main building on the north side. The third entrance is down the stairs next to the old gym, by the custodians' office. The fourth means of access is located behind the kitchen in the cafeteria and connects to the auditorium. The final way into the tunnels is at the bottom of the stairs that take you to the cafeteria, where you are now standing! Doors to the tunnels are always locked and require special permission for any admittance.

The single, newer boiler. It is about 80% efficient in heating the school. || While wandering through the tunnels with first engineer Ray Lyons as a guide, we learned about some of the pretty cool stuff that is kept down here. The original boilers and humidifiers are still in the tunnels, though they don't run anymore. Newer, more efficient equipment is housed in smaller rooms in which the old machinery would not fit. For example, a giant row of boilers that used to provide steam for the school's heat has now been replaced by a smaller, higher yielding model. While the old boilers are still located down here, they no longer function in heating the school. Another cool piece of equipment down here is the original humidifier. More commonly known as a drip system, it is basically an archaic swamp cooler. Water drips down and a giant fan cools and humidifies the air. The fan then transfers it through the ventilation system, entering the classrooms through the small alcoves in the walls. Eventually, this humidifier was shut down as mold was infesting the school. A section of the old boiler. The whole system combined was only about 30% efficient. ||
 * [[image:gfhsbison/new_boiler.JPG width="337" height="452"]]

The trap door leading to the tennis courts parking lot || Another interesting aspect of the Tunnels is the incinerator. Until about twenty years ago, the school used this incinerator to burn the waste paper that the school would accumulate throughout the day. The custodians would bring trash to chutes located in the janitor's closet on each floor, dump it down, and all that trash would be whisked away to the incinerator. The incinerator would then shoot the ash into the ash room. Once a year, the ash would be removed by means of a trap door leading to the tennis court parking lots, and the room would be cleaned. After a while, however, the EPA shut down the incinerator because spewing ash into they air was bad for the environment. The chute from the incinerator going into the ash room ||
 * [[image:gfhsbison/IMG_2080.JPG width="400" height="531"]]

The Tunnels have been a part of the school since the initial construction of the building, and most of them still have the original dirt floors. Over the years, this underground network of tunnels has been used for modern wiring such as computer lines and more advanced electrical setup, as the school was built when electricity use was not as high as it is today. They are also currently used for storage by various departments of the school. While a prevalent myth suggests that the tunnels under the school go all of the way to other buildings, such as Paris Gibson, this myth is false.