Looking Back: Eaton's Tunnel

45f/12C this morning, with light rain. Gradual clearing, sunny late afternoon and 55.

Eaton's Tunnel

I have not written a post on my laptop in a long while. I use my phone these days, but after spending so much time on my laptop this past couple days, I am kind of enjoying the large screen. Five years ago I spilled white wine on here, and now most of the upper number keys don't work, so it's a bit of unhandy bcause the other symbols, like the exclamation point, number sign, etc, also are unuseable. Fortunately the number keypad still works.

Today was a laid back day. I had a nice long conversation with my son Derek, and also with my friend who is on the way home from the beach with her family. Aside from that, I cleaned and put everything back on the wall Larry painted yesterday and got the next wall ready by removing all the stuff that he might get paint on. He taped a large sheet of plastic over the TV and fireplace, as the section he is painting is the pie-shaped piece above the fireplace--the rest of the wall that is not log is taken up by the fireplace and the door. After that, I organized all my receipts for this year, set up the spreadsheet, then entered a bunch of the receipts so I feel much lighter now that I have a good start on catching up on the year. I hate this stuff, but once I get started I don't mind it quite as much as the dreaded anticipation of having to do it. Silly, but there it is.

Since I am on this computer, I thought I would look back through my thousands of files, and see what might be of interest in there. Here's a story I used to tell, one that still haunts me.

Eaton Tunnel; Or, When the Story Finds the Storyteller

The new tunnel as it was in 2022, is part of the North Bend Rail Trail, which has about 20 old tunnels along its length.

 Petroleum, West Virginia was once an oil drilling boom town with several thousand residents, a couple hotels, and all the other businesses you might expect in a thriving town. It was home to the California Hotel, a large structure built to house the oil field workers as well as the travelers who passed by on the Staunton to Parkersburg Turnpike, making their way to the Ohio River and the western oil and gold strikes. Today Petroleum is just a small rural community of scattered homes and few hints of its colorful past. When the drilling died out, the town struggled to survive; eventually the railroad was discontinued and most of the remaining jobs and people left. 

 One day my husband and I decided to re-visit Petroleum. It was late, almost dark, but on the map it didn’t look like it was more than a few miles.  The winding two-lane turned to one lane, then to gravel and finally to a rutted, muddy path with doorhandle high grass in the center, a steep droppoff on one side and a cliff on the other. We made a few wrong turns and by this time it was completely dark, the mudholes were getting bigger and deeper and the drop-off to the creek far below was ever closer as the road continued to narrow. And there was still no sign of a town or even any lights houses, or buildings.

 

As we approached another hairpin turn, we saw headlights. Another vehicle was approaching and we searched for a pull-off place. The little blue Jeep stopped when Larry rolled down his window and waved. "Are we on the road to Petroleum?"

 

"Yeah, but why do you want to go there?" Two sets of curious eyes checked out our van. "That's an awful nice vehicle to have back in here."

 

"I'm a storyteller," I explained. "I like to find places with stories, and Petroleum has such an interesting history. I especially like ghost stories and thought there might be some connected with the town’s past."

 

"Storyteller! Have you ever heard the story of Eaton's Tunnel?"

 

I had never heard of it, but it took only a few minutes for the man to give me the basics of the tale.

 

“The tunnel collapsed when it was being built, killing three men. Their bodies were never recovered. The railroad sealed up the tunnel with their bodies inside and built a new tunnel beside it. You just passed by the place,” my informant told me. “It’s just back where you started up this road. People hear things there, voices, wails, train whistles and such.”

 

It was enough to make me want to learn more. Buried bodies, ghostly wails, voices--what was the whole story behind the tunnel's haunted reputation? The next day I began my research into the story I had heard.

 

Eaton Tunnel, I learned, is Tunnel #21 on the B&O Line from Parkersburg to Grafton, WV. It was built sometime between 1867-1870. The keystone on the tunnel is dated 1867. In 1869, a young construction worker named Thomas Nashville Johnson was working at the tunnel. He was 27 years old, married to Alpha Jane Marshall, and the father of 4 children. Alpha came to Petroleum with her father who was the postmaster for the region. Prior to her marriage Alpha lived at the California House, and that is where she must have met Thomas Johnson.

 

One day there was a rock fall in the tunnel, and Thomas Johnson was killed. Alpha soon remarried, this time to a Civil War vet named Asa Jenkins. Asa was once arrested as a deserter, but whether he was actually deserting or just assigned to a sharpshooting unit is not clear. He did spend some time in prison on the charge. He may not have been the best of men as he spent time in prison for theft. Alpha divorced him in 1875.

 

As I dug deeper into Alpha’s story, it suddenly struck me that I was getting away from the story of the tunnel. Research can sometimes do that to a storyteller as one interesting trail leads to another. I wondered, were the ghostly sounds in Tunnel #21 the cries of Thomas Johnson? I continued to search for information, and soon found another tragic event at the tunnel almost 100 years after Thomas Johnson’s death.

 

By the late 1950's, railroad freight cars were getting bigger and bigger. The narrow, low tunnels on the B&O line was creating an area referred to as "The Bottleneck" by railroaders because of the difficulty of getting the larger trains through the tunnels. The B&O decided to renovate the tunnels, widening them and raising their roofs to accommodate the larger trains; this was called a "clearance" project. On June 6, 1963, Tunnel #21 collapsed during these renovations, trapping 3 men.

 

One of the men was quickly rescued and sustained only a broken ankle. Another, Arthur Boggs,  was rescued after hours under the rubble and taken to a hospital in Columbus, Ohio, where he later died of his injuries. The third worker, Harry “Buck” Nichols, could not be recovered; each time the rescue teams tried, more of the tunnel gave way. Finally, with the consent of the worker's family, the tunnel was sealed with his remains still inside. A new tunnel was constructed close by. No marker was placed at the site in remembrance of the lost worker, and today only a muddy footpath leads to the old tunnel, which has collapsed still further and is too dangerous to enter at all.

 

The collapsed tunnel entrance, as it was in 2022, the last time I was there. There is, as far as I can tell, no way to get inside even a small part of the old tunnel--and who woud want to?

Buck Nichols still rests beneath the collapsed tunnel. Most hikers trekking the North Bend Rail Trail will go through the new tunnel, unaware of the tragedies that occurred so close by. But perhaps now that his story is told, Harry “Buck” Nichols will rest in peace.

 

Sometimes we find stories. Sometimes the stories find the storyteller, in the most unexpected places.

 

http://www.newsandsentinel.com/opinion/local-columns/2015/06/train-tunnel-accident-yields-audio-evidence/

https://www.american-rails.com/eaton.html

I wrote about this story in 2012 when I first stumbled onto it, and again in 2018 when Larry and I explored it further. You can read these posts here and here.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

The Abandoned Tunnel: #17

Tunnel #17 was a bonus--we were looking for #13 and were, once again, going the wrong way. A passing hiker told us, "There's an abandoned tunnel about a half mile from here." Abandoned? Why yes, I wanted to see that!

This tunnel was bypassed during the "clearances" project in the early 1960's, when the B&O Railroad decided it would be worth the trouble to widen and heighten the many tunnels on the line from Grafton to Parkersburg--or in some cases, to "daylight" the tunnels by blasting out the tops, and in at least two cases, to abandon a tunnel entirely and build a new tunnel or blast out a new cut close by. In retrospect, this expensive and dangerous project was too late. Rail service was already giving way to other means of transportation, and in 20 years or so the line between Clarksburg and Parkersburg would be closed down.

One of 36 bridges on the rail trail

In the case of Tunnel #17, a new cut was created, leaving the old tunnel no longer needed. I suppose blastig techniques had improved a great deal in the 100 years between the construction of the rail line in the 1860's and the improvements being made in the 1960's. Another reason, according to the website WVNC Rails, is that the rock in some areas was not stable enough to allow for tunnel enlargement.

Off to one side of the traill, the tunnel portal. 

We found the tunnel to be in surprisingly good conditions considering it was put out of service some 50 years ago. There are two dates on this tunnel. On one end the marker says 1867, and on the other, 1868. Perhaps it took a full year to complete? This tunnel is 452 feet long, so not one of the longer ones.

The date is barely visible in this photo, 1867.

A bit ghostly? Inside the tunnelsthe temperature stay lower than the outside temperatures, which is probably what created this misty illusion....right?...

Larry opted not to walk through but I was curious (and we know what curiosity did to the cat!). I wondered if the tunnel was passable, and it had a curve that looked intriguing. So in I went. "See you on the other side!" Larry said, and I wondered if he was talking earthly or heavenly sides.

The light at the end! 

I was intrigued by this odd mark on the wall. 

There was some deterioration of the stonework in the tunnel, and the fact that it was stone and not brick made me wonder if brick was added to the other tunnels on the line during the clearance project. It seems likely.

I believe this stone "cup" holding wild plans may have been a ventilation or seepage trough.

And the date, 1868.

This is the location of the former Tunnel #16, I believe. 14, 15, and 16 were all daylighted during the clearance project.

I made it through unscathed, and did indeed meet Larry on the other side.  We walked back to the van, and drove to the right place to find our actual goal for the day, Tunnel #13, the Bond's Creek tunnel.


Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Tunnel #7

After visiting Silver Run and looking for marbles in Cairo, we still had enough daylight left to hunt for one more tunnel. We settled on finding Tunnel #7, also known as Calhoun's Tunnel. This one, 770 feet long, is located in the small town of Pennsboro. Once again we had to ask someone for directions as our map was not clear. The man we asked was helpful but when we tried to follow his directions we were still confused, so we pulled over once again to look at the map. To our surprise, the man we'd asked directions from pulled in behind us and offered to lead us to the right place. What a nice guy.

When we got to the parking area beside the rail trail, he asked us if we had a flashlight. Well, I had the one on my phone. The next thing he said surprised me. "Do you have anything for protection? Like a heavy flashlight or something?" He went on to say that there were some not-so-good people in the area, and the tunnel being in a lonesome place, but close enough to the houses where these people lived, well, anything could happen.

You know, I'd never considered the potential danger of these dark, lonely tunnels. Larry took the man at his word, and retrieved a piece of pipe from the van. I was surprised he had it, but he said it was a breaker bar for the lug wrench, in case we had a flat.

Somehow, though, the man's well-meant warning took the fun out of finding tunnel #7. I forged ahead anyway, but Larry was on edge and wary. I admit, I was glad he had the pipe.

So we walked through the tunnel, which actually crossed under US Route 50. I saw many bike tracks in the mud in the tunnel floor, which somehow made me feel better about the place. Still, I was glad to get through it and back again.

You can see how this tunnel takes a slight bend. I am amazed at the brickwork in these tunnels--and at how water trickling down the walls leaves calcium deposits and in some places even forms stalactites.

While this wasn't one of the haunted tunnels, it sure won the prize for creepiness. There must be some story about this tunnel that I have not found, and our informant certainly had his own misgivings about it. Maybe one day I'll come across the tunnel's history.

Burning Bush has naturalized in some places along the trail.

A sassafras leave stands out in gold on green grass.

A huge sycamore leaf, one of many we saw on our walk.

The North Bend Lodge looked pretty welcoming when we returned.

Neither of us were very hungry, but went into the restaurant for a piece of pie (lemon meringue) and some decaf coffee before heading up to our room. Comfort food, maybe? That night I dreamed of trains and tunnels.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

The Silver Run Tunnel

I first heard the story of the haunted Silver Run tunnel about 20 years ago, but it's taken me this long to visit it.

The Silver Run tunnel (#19, about 1376 feet long) is located on the North Bend Rail Trail, not far from the town of Cairo, West Virginia. The North Bend Rail Trail has 10 tunnels included in its 72-mile length, with two abandoned tunnels close by and another 10 places where old tunnels were opened up into cuts, called "daylighting." Mark Twain once referred to the original railroad line as the "Appalachian Subway" because there were so many tunnels.

So far, my husband and I have been through 5 of the remaining tunnels, and explored one of the abandoned tunnels, as well as Eaton Tunnel (#21), a collapsed and sealed tunnel which has a ghost story of its own. You can read the story of Eaton Tunnel in this blog post. There is one more tunnel with stories of a haunting, and another that should have a story because of a horrific train wreck that occurred there.

Here's the general story, and as usual with such folk legends, there are several versions. Basically, there was a young woman who waited at the Silver Run station for her young man. They were to be married, so she was wearing a long white dress. She was beautiful, the story says, with long black hair. Her young man never arrived. Perhaps she jumped, or perhaps she was so upset she just stepped in front of a train without looking. But ever since then, engineers have reported seeing a woman at the mouth of the Silver Run tunnel. She appears when it's too late to stop the train, try as they might, and just before they hit her, she shoots up and over the train. The website West Virginia Haunts and Legends gives a slightly different version, along with an added story about an engineer who scoffs at the story, only to later find that she'd ridden his cowcatcher all the way to Parkersburg.

To get back to Silver Run: we had vague directions from Park staff at North Bend Lodge, and the map they gave us made it look simple enough. We drove into Cairo, found a trail entrance and started walking. It was a chilly but beautiful morning, and we were enjoying the walk when I noticed that we were walking east--and the tunnel was west of town. We turned around and headed back, fortunately before we'd gone too far. We asked for more directions, got some more vague, hand-waving instructions and tried again.

We also dead-ended up here on top of a hil at the old abandoned high school. I bet there are stories here too.

This time we drove a little ways out of town, found a road marked Silver Run Road, so we were sure we'd found the right place. But when we dead-ended in someone's yard we found out we were mistaken again.

The nice lady who lived there came outside and hollered directions over the barking of several dogs (one, a huge mastiff, jumped up on the van door and gave Larry a BIG facelick! Too funny).

Third time was the charm. We found the right parking area and were at the tunnel within minutes.

I was glad that we had it to ourselves for a little while, just to feel the atmosphere. Soon some young men and children arrived, and it got a little noisy. And soon after them, a large group of teenagers came, and they were having a blast whooping and hollering and scaring each other.

Which gave Larry an idea. All along the length of the tunnel are "manholes", which are alcoves just big enough for a man to get out of the way of a coming train.

He tucked himself into one near the western end of the tunnel, and waited.

I was outside the tunnel's western portal entrance at the point, and decided to help him out by staying visible to the approaching teens. I took photos and generally meandered around.

As I waited, I heard some of the teens saying, "Look! There's a black figure up there! What is that?" 

Eventually they came to where Larry was hiding. They were looking at me, probably wondering what I was doing, when Larry jumped out with a loud shout. Those poor kids cleared the ground be several feet! It was so funny--most of them laughed although a couple of the girls gave  Larry some dirty looks. Ah well, they wanted a scare, and they certainly got one! I am just glad Larry didn't get punched. They were very good sports about it.

Larry standing inside the western portal, as these entrance are called.

It was time to leave, although I could have stayed longer--we wanted the kids to have the place to themselves for a while, just as we had.

There is always a good breeze coming out of these tunnels, and it's a cool--or cold one, depending on the outside temperature. When the trains were running through them, the tunnels often got very hot, especially the longer ones like this one, and complicated ventilation systems were put in place to cool them down. (info from WVNCrails.com)

Of course we saw no ghost, and with so much noise from other people there wasn't much chance of hearing or seeing anything, but we enjoyed the walk and finally getting to see this storied place.

Read more about this tunnel and others on the North Bend Rail Trail at WVNCRails website. It's an amazing resource.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Last Week's Storytelling Journey: That Strange Tunnel

High on a mountain in Randolph County, West Virginia, there is a tunnel.

It is just off the side of US Rte 33, behind the guardrail.

No sign explains how it came to be there or what its former use was.

The tunnel is tall--at least 15 feet tall, and wide, probably 20-30 feet. It divides just inside the entrance into at least two different tunnels. Water lays still on its floor. Ferns and other plants surround the entrance and a few hardier ones live within the cave.

When I took these pictures, there was no fog or mist visible. It was a clear, hot, sunny day. Yet each photo shows distinct mist rising from within the tunnels.

Like in the picture below...
...and in this one, a large orb is centered in the tunnel entrance, with others nearby.

I would love to know more about this tunnel. Was it a railroad tunnel, a mine, a quarry?

If anyone knows, please share!