The dirt’s now being slung around in Benny’s big dig. That seven-metre-deep hole soon to open at the Parliament Oak site will eventually house the Porsches, Mercedes and Range Rovers of the tony new hotel’s patrons.

But will they need snorkels to get upstairs? Neighbours say there’s a mess of water down there. Some say a lot more lurks beneath what used to be a school.

Tom McMillan is one of them. He grew up across the street.

“I find it very troubling when I go by there now and see nothing but a field of dirt,” he says. He’s also thinking about what lies 10 feet under that dirt — history. “For sure they’re going to destroy it when they start digging.”

One day 60 years ago a hole opened up in the schoolyard. “It was maybe three foot square and being a kid, I stuck my head down in to see what was there,” he says.

“What I saw was a brick room, maybe 10 or 12-foot square. Then as my eyes became accustomed to the darkness, I could see two arched doorways — one heading out towards King Street and the other off towards the school. There was maybe four feet of water filling this room and the two heavy arched wooden doors were off and floating in the water.”

Brick tunnels? Arched doors? Snaking off under the town?

“Shortly after, the hole was filled in and covered over, keeping kids in the schoolyard safe,” says Tom. “But why would there be two brick tunnels leading in different directions, so far underground?”

Who better to ask than Jim Smith, NOTL’s folk historian and author? (He knows everything.)

“What Tom says is true, but there’s more to the story,” Jim tells me.

“The man that filled in the hole was Noel Haines, a very good friend of mine. He told me he went into the hole, which was a brick-lined tunnel which I believe had an arched roof. He walked through the tunnel from where it caved in, which is about the middle of the property, all the way to the corner of Regent Street and Gate Street and it kept going from there.”

“There used to be a mansion on the property which was taken down to build Parliament Oak School. I always wanted to go over the grounds with divining rods and see just where the tunnel is. I suppose I could find it at the corner of Regent and Gate. Divining rods work for me.”

Well, yes, a mansion there was.

My colleague Brian Marshall has written of the Regency-style home dating to 1846, acquired in 1865 by Josiah Plumb. That former Yankee became a federal MP, senator, then Parliament’s speaker in 1887.

Plumb expanded the mansion, added a third storey, multiple bedrooms, a billiard parlour and ballroom. His guests included Lord Dufferin, the Marquise of Lorne and his wife; the daughter of Queen Victoria; Princess Louise, the Prince of Wales (King Edward VII) and the Duke of York, who would later take the crown as King George V.

Plumb died in 1888. The mansion changed hands. By the Depression of the 1930s, amid economic ruin, it was lost for unpaid taxes. The town took it. Council voted to gut it. The place sold for land value to the board of education in 1943. Soon the palace was trashed and a school built.

What of Josiah’s secret tunnels? Still there? Can we call in Jim and his rods?

When the idea surfaced for a big, honking hotel on the site, developer Benny Marotta presented council with a heritage impact assessment. It concluded that, nah, there’s nothing of value on that four-acre parcel. The politicians bought it.

“The property does not possess significant contextual value. The 1948 school structure, with its two bas-relief stone panels and modest details, possesses some design value, and the property possesses some historical value overall, however, the property is not considered a significant heritage resource,” it said.

And now, the dump trucks roll. The big dig deepens. Whatever is down there will no longer be.

But there’s one link to history. We’re still electing bozos.