Subterropolis

Kansas City's underground

The giant caverns look as if they might be the site for a villainous Ian Fleming scheme wherein a Dr. No or a Goldfinger concocts a plan to conquer the world, only to be thwarted in the end by a quick-thinking James Bond. The caves in the Kansas City area actually serve a far more tranquil purpose: commerce. More than 3,000 people are at work for 170 companies 110 ft. to 200 ft. below the gently rolling scene on the surface.

Mining companies began hollowing out the caverns in the 1940s as they dug for limestone for highway construction. Rather than use the opencut quarry method, which scars the landscape, miners tunneled deep into bluffs along a limestone seam 22 1/2 ft. thick, creating rooms with pillars. In all, 200 million sq. ft. of space has been scooped out over the years, and an additional 6 million sq. ft. is being opened up annually.

Shafts and fans were installed to draw in fresh air. In 1948 the U.S. Agriculture Department first began using the caverns for storing commodities. Currently it stashes almost 350 million lbs. of surplus food, largely dairy products, there.

Today the Kansas City complex consists of about a dozen underground areas. One of the largest is owned by Great Midwest Corp., a land-development company that is a subsidiary of Hunt Midwest Enterprises, which in turn is 90% owned by Texas Oilman Lamar Hunt. From a distance, the rocky bluff along the Missouri River does not look any different from the surrounding area. Closer up, just below a mixed herd of grazing Angus and Hereford cattle, a hole in the bluff can be seen with big semitrailers going in and out. The address: 8300 N.E. Underground Drive. From another nearby hole rumbles a Burlington Northern freight train.

The first companies to begin using the caves for business were attracted by inexpensive construction costs and low rents. Since ceilings and floors were already provided, construction costs were only one-third what they were on the surface. Leases originally were 50% less expensive, but they are now only 30% cheaper, proving that even going underground is no way to escape inflation.

Companies soon found other advantages to an underground business. In 1960, Amber Brunson, 77, president of Brunson Instrument, a maker of precision optical devices, set up a plant in the caves because vibrations in a surface building posed problems. Once the operation got going, Brunson found that he was also able to cut energy costs to almost nothing; the caves stay at a stable 57DEG to 62DEG all year long. Says he: "I've turned the furnace off for six weeks in the dead of winter without our employees complaining."

Other companies have found a wide variety of operations that can be done better underground. For H&R Block, the caves are a safe place to keep tons of tax forms. The U.S. Postal Service's Philatelic Order Fulfillment Branch, with 48 employees, processes 1,200 requests daily from its hole in the ground. It likes the security advantages and the fact that in the low-humidity atmosphere the $100 million worth of stamps it keeps there do not stick together.

The biggest client is Inland Storage Distribution Center, a subsidiary of Beatrice Foods. The company's underground storage space amounts to a staggering 23 million cu. ft., enough to keep the food to supply a meal to every man, woman and child in America, all within 26 miles of the geographic center of the 48 contiguous states. Inland President Warren Lewis whimsically calls the facility the "best little warehouse in Kansas."

Employees report the caves are fine for working. "Nobody feels claustrophobic," says Lewis. Worker productivity is higher down under, says Leroy Rodgers, secretary-treasurer of the Kansas City Envelope Co., "because there are no windows to stare out of." Nonetheless, no one is in a mood to live there, at least not yet. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.