With the Brownwood Reunion Celebration just around the corner this weekend, I think now is a good time to remind our members of the KGC tunnel network under downtown Brownwood. Most of the people attending this big event have no idea that this historic link to our town's past lays right under their feet...about 15 feet down. They also have no idea about Brownwood's or Brown County's secret history. In the years since I learned about these tunnels, I've found that there are a small but influential group of people in city and county government here who are determined to keep our history a big secret from our citizens and visitors. Our group, in the past four years, has been their biggest threat of exposing this secret history that has existed since the Civil War ended and our job is far from done. The tunnel network is just one part of this secret but it is a very important part.
~Jay~
http://knightsofthegoldencircle.webs.com
http://www.brownwoodtx.com/event/
From: "Jesse James and the Lost Cause" by Jesse Lee James, Published
by Pageant Press, New York, 1961, pages 34 & 35.
"Yet another branch of our secret army was a corp of engineers that
could build bridges, build rock buildings, and do most anything.
They could and did construct secret underground passages right under
bustling cities. They built secret tunnels down under Nashville and
Memphis, Tennessee, St. Louis, Kansas City and St. Joseph, Missouri,
Lawrence, Kansas and under Pueblo and Colorado City, Colorado, and
other towns; too many to name right now. These secretly constructed
tunnels, rooms, escape routes and storage rooms underneath the
surface of the ground were built without Yankee troopers and Federal
detectives ever finding out they were being made by well trained and
experienced workmen.
"Even in that day, when men were working for a dollar or a dollar and
a half per day for ten and twelve hours labor, we were paying our
men, for mining and tunneling, a wage rate of ten dollars per day.
"How did we do it?
"Well, I'll tell you how. Most generally, we would start tunnels
which would connect some of our business houses, such as our own
saloons, gambling houses, livery stables and even the jailhouses
would connect. Because our men were in the offices of public
officials, such as mayors, sheriffs, marshals, congressmen, senators,
school teachers, and principals, tunnels were down and under our
breweries, distilleries, and schools, and with the excuse that beer
needed to be aged, we had to age our whiskey in charred kegs.
"Some of our relay stations and even ranch and farm houses were
almost built like forts, and had tunnels down and under them
connecting the houses underground to the barns and escape routes, or
hatches in and out. We had to have at least two entrances, or means
of entry, or escape.
"So many places advertised across the country, `Jesse James' Cave'!
That is bunk! Yes, we may have had to use a few caves here and there
to hold our horses, or even to sleep in occasionally, that would be
true enough, but if there was only one entrance, and we were stupid
enough to get ourselves cut off, that would have been bad. If we
used a cave with only one entry, you could be sure that we kept a
constant guard posted around outside all the time. If the cave
should have two or more entrances, then we would feel safe, and use
it over and over again," said Jesse.
***
~Texas Jay
?? 
Everyone I've spoken to in this town, who should know, have said that this year's Reunion Celebration will be the most successful of all of the previous Reunions. Visitors are already filling local hotels and our country radio station's dj said just today that they've sold a huge number of tickets for Kevin Fowler's concert and, these are his words to Kevin Fowler not mine: "You are going to have a huge crowd". This dj should know because his station has been selling tickets to the concert like crazy. 
