There is a great story about an old man who lived in Hackney, East London who dug a series of tunnels under his house and surrounding houses. He was finally found out when other peoples houses started subsiding.
https://www.mylondon.news/news/nostalgia/mole-man-of-hackney...
When I was a kid I moved into my grandparents house and my uncle showed me a tunnel in his basement bedroom that he had started when he was a kid so he could sneak out. He turned 18 and moved out before he finished it, so it was my turn after that. By the time we moved out the tunnel was almost to the alley behind the house/backyard. Probably 60 to 70 feet long.
I always wondered what they thought when they tore the house down 15 years later.
I remember watching this video [1] about that same guy.
> "The Hackney Mole Man", In 2006, a network of tunnels were discovered beneath a house in Hackney, London. This discovery initiated a wave of public concern and media attention revolving around a lone figure, known locally as 'the Mole Man'.
Also, following an artist mentioned in the video, I tracked this page [2] and an interesting excerpt:
> Though flattered by my interest, the Mole Man proved to be extraordinarily difficult to work with. He was extremely racist, misogynistic and paranoid, and was only interested in talking about my sex life. His elusive, subterranean behavior – in many ways like that of an actual mole – and his obsession with tunnels was the ultimate Freudian manifestation. I soon realized, though, that the sexual overtones of our relationship threatened to over-take the project completely.
Underminer : Behold, the Underminer! I'm always beneath you, but nothing is beneath me! I hereby declare war on peace and happiness! Soon, all will tremble before me!
I wouldn't call that a "great" story since it was ultimately not just pointless but actively harmful to everyone.
Dashrath Manjhi's story is one I would qualify of "great", after his wife sadly died from what he perceived was a delay of care due to his village remoteness, he resolved to straight carve a roadway through the ridge abutting his village (over which the nearest town was located). Spent 20 years carving a 110m long and 9m wide road through the ridge, apparently with hammer and chisel.
Probably several chisels, and maybe even multiple hammers. I've done my share of chiseling and I've never worn one out yet but I'm not in the habit to going through 100+ meters of rock, even so my cold chisel is probably only about 80% the size that it was when I first bought it.
Oh yes absolutely, he explained that initially the other villagers had thought him crazy, then after a few years and visible progress some started giving him food or chipping in for tools replacement.
The sheer perseverance is humbling. I have a hard time staying focused on anything for much longer than week, and those tend to be interesting and intellectually rewarding, to be focused on transforming rock to rubble and removing it for decades is somewhere just below 'god mode'.
In the 90s I knew a guy on suburban Long Island who had started tunneling out of his basement. Last I heard he had gotten a couple of hundred feet under some neighbor's properties. Lost touch with him long ago and never found out how it turned out, but there were no reports in the local papers, so I can only assume he is still down there somewhere.
