Carthage Underground, Missouri

This former limestone mine has a few pits with several access portals and loading docks for trucks. Most of it is owned and operated by AmeriCold, the largest refrigerated warehouse company in the US. AmeriCold, based in Atlanta, has more than a hundred chilled warehouses around the nation, usually next to meat and vegetable production sites, or in logistics centers near major cities. Carthage is the company’s largest facility, and is located roughly in the middle of the country, between food production areas of the South and Midwest, and the consumer markets on the East and West coasts. The company has around three million square feet of underground warehouse space here, and 37 million cubic feet of refrigerated space, roughly ten times the amount in a typical facility. Other companies use the underground space as well, including a veterinary equipment manufacturer, and Schreiber Foods, a national cheese company with production centers nearby.  A tennis club with two courts opened underground in 1979, taking advantage of the constant 60 degree temperatures, and the unusually high ceilings of the mine, as much as 60 feet. Rumors of hundreds of miles of tunnels, alien encounters, and government conspiracy seem to be centered more on Carthage Underground than at other similar places, and urban explorers plumb the undeveloped caves around the facility.