You'd be surprised what sorts of things are hiding right here in North Carolina. Take the massive underground bunker just 11 miles to the south of Chapel Hill, for instance. Most people in the Tar Heel State don't even know it's there. Big Hole in North Carolina may not have been a place you have heard of before but it is a name that is familiar to the locals. This strange and mysterious bunker may only have a few clues as to what or why this underground facility is here. Let us take a peek at what little bit of information is known about this secret government installation:

It's located a short distance out from Mt. Gilead Church Road and is comprised of nearly 200 hundred acres of... mostly barren land, except for a couple of small buildings and a parking lot large enough to hold 50-60 vehicles.

You can't see them here, but there are weird pipes and posts protruding from the ground all around the squarish-shaped clearing.

It's located on a tiny road that shoots off Mt. Gilead Church Road. Perhaps surprising is the road's name: Big Hole Road. Not the best name if you're hiding a big hole underground — and it's a bit of a secret!

It makes one wonder which came first: the name of the road or the big, secretive, hole hiding underground, underneath that neatly composed clearing at the end of Big Hole Road, shown in the photo above.

Most people refer to the underground bunker at this spot as The Big Hole. Photos from inside The Big Hole simply don't exist in the Internet realm...

... but it's been described as several stories (some embellished rumors say it's as many as 13 stories deep) and is completely blast proof, with walls suspended from a specially-designed ceiling and a floor floating on gravel designed to absorb any size shock.

But what is it used for? And how come no one (save the locals) really knows it's here? (The interior image here is from another (now closed) secret underground government bunker a little over 100 miles away and just outside of Charlotte. Learn more about this other mysterious underground bunker.)

The Big Hole was built during the cold war by the government. It served for many decades as a military compound of sorts, manned by AT&T. While the similar underground bunker near Charlotte has been stripped and emptied of its communications equipment and other amenities, no one really knows what The Big Hole is used for now that the Cold War is over... and it seems no one will even confirm if it's still in use. But the government (or AT&T) maintains the strictest security measures around the facility, with fencing, gates, and security personnel.

Reportedly, the walls inside The Big Hole are several feet thick and coated in copper. We have learned that the Big Hole may have shuttered in 2008. Several locals saw several convoys leaving the site with huge equipment. However, the same source reports the site underwent $61 million in updates the year before it supposedly shuttered.

The real questions now surround the events at Big Hole in North Carolina and they still are not answered. Conspiracy theories and clues may give us a glimpse into the real story but until we see facts we may never know. This secret underground bunker holds within its walls the mystery we are dying to see. Did you know this major government underground bunker was located nearby to Jordan Lake? What do you think? It is still a covert government bunker and still in use? We'd love to know!