In 1941, Earl Young, a junior in High School was running a filling station at 16 W. Main Street in Lake Zurich, when he fell through the floor into a dirt chamber which measured about 20 feet in length. The station was located on the site of Seth Paine's Stable of Humanity, and Earl's grandparents said that the room was part of the Underground Railroad.

Today, the spot is filled with gravel, but the outline of the chamber still exists in the welding shop at 16 W. Main. There is still speculation about whether or not it served as a stopping point along the underground railroad. People often built root cellars in their homes during the 1800s and some early settlers built hidden rooms to hide from Indians who were still in the area in the first half of the 19th century. The Maple Leaf Hotel, originally Seth Paine's home constructed next to the Stable of Humanity, also had a hidden room under the house.

The question of whether or not it really was a stop on the Underground Railroad may never be answered. The great risk of punishment because of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law (making it a federal crime to harbor slaves) and the fear of retaliation, all made record keeping rare. But it is certainly possible. While the main routes of the Underground Railroad ran through Michigan and New York, then on up to Canada, there were some smaller lines through Illinois and Iowa. These routes ran up through Wisconsin. The origin of these lines lay in Missouri and Kentucky, Slave States, while Illinois and Iowa remained free states.

Given the character of Seth Paine, the fact that he was an outspoken abolitionist, and the legend surrounding the Maple Leaf Hotel and the Stable of Humanity, plus the evidence of the hidden chambers strongly suggest that Lake Zurich was in all probability a stop along the pathway to freedom for many escaping slaves from the 1850s until the end of the Civil War.