The new Smithsonian channel documentary “Americans Underground: Secret City of World War I” will be shown at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 15, at the Maine State Museum, Library and Archives in Augusta.

The hour long documentary features the story of a vast underground city, where Maine soldiers from New England’s Yankee Division and others took refuge in World War I.

A reception will begin at 4:30 p.m. and attendees can view World War I exhibits at the Maine State Museum and Maine State Archives. A discussion will follow the film at 6:30 p.m. and will be led by representatives of South Portland-based Lone Wolf Media, who produced documentary and Jonathan D. Bratten, the command historian for the Maine Army National Guard, who appears in it.

The film shows the expansive network of abandoned underground quarries, mines and natural caverns located along World War I’s Western Front in France. Depending on the position of the front lines, the quarries sheltered soldiers from both sides of the conflict. The film includes extensive footage of the underground rooms, some wired with electricity and with their own water supply. It also takes a look at the names and images carved into the limestone walls one hundred years ago by Yankee Division soldiers, including several members of Maine’s Passamaquoddy tribe, who billeted there.

For more information, contact Joanna Torow, at 287-6608 or Joanna.Torow@Maine.gov, or Sheila McDonald at 287-6603 or Sheila.McDonald@Maine.gov.