Remembering “Three Tunnels:” An urban myth about Satanism in the Capital City in the Eighties

AUTHOR’S NOTE: This is a two-part series about growing up in Sun Valley on Cheyenne’s east side in the 1980s and two of our childhood landmarks. The first part is an urban legend that scared kids throughout our neighborhood, The Three Tunnels.

BY RICHARD JOHNSON

In the 1980s, Satanism was all the rage on Geraldo, Oprah and Donahue. The Satanic Panic. All the suburban white kids were being lured by the devil. 

The Satanic Bible was always checked out at the library. If you listened to KISS (Knights in Satan’s Service) or WASP (We Are Satan’s People),

The group KISS was considered Satanic by Cheyenne parents in the ’80s.

your parents had you in front of a faith-based leader or shrink. Hell, Motley Crue dropped “Shout at the Devil” and Ozzy was biting heads off bats.

On the yellow dog, known as Bus 7, we'd head to Johnson Junior High while Bud Bunning’s crew would blast ACDC in the back. We’d take College Drive to Fox Farm Road, and there was this abandoned house that had 666 and a pentagram painted on the back door. It was straight out of an Iron Maiden song.

Being 13-14, we’d all gossip about how the house was a haven for Satan worshippers and that the Three Tunnels were where the rituals took place. They were about 100 feet away from this back door. 

The tunnels were a drainage canal that went under College Drive. The railroad had them fenced off. Now they are open on a Greenway path. In the flood of ’85, they were completely submerged. 

There were pentagrams and pond scum everywhere. Local lore had it that there were always carcasses and burn marks from sacrifices. Most of the time, people said they found goat carcasses, but it was just kids spinning yarns. Remember, D&D was hot at this time. The darker the better. 

One story that was sent to me had an older neighbor having her cats turn up missing. Instead of being abducted by the shelter or hit by a car, the neighborhood kids said they were taken by Satan worshippers. 

So what really happened in this Den of Demise? Lots of teenage smoking and kids having battle royal fight club scenarios with the biggest crawdads. 

Thirty years later, we realize it was people doing dumb shit and spray-painting symbols that would freak out our quiet, safe community. I don’t remember seeing anything in the local newspaper about death or rituals, but in our minds, evil always awaited anyone who ventured into the Three Tunnels.

            Richard Johnson is a former City Council member from Cheyenne’s east side.