The Ghosts of Eaton’s Tunnel

In 1861 a tiny village called Eatons was earmarked to have a train tunnel built near it.

The village used to be called Bee Tree, then became Eaton when it landed its small village post office. An “s” was added to the end of the name to distinguish it from other villages with the name of Eaton in neighboring states.

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, famous for being on Monopoly game boards, was laid from Washington to Saint Louis.

The stretch from Grafton to Parkersburg in West Virginia was crucial during the 1800s to deliver coal from the mines and many other supplies.

While California was busy with its gold rush, West Virginia had a gold rush of its own. Railroad track and tunnel construction coincided with oil drilling and coal mining.

The problem was, none of these jobs were glamorous. They also involved extremely hard manual labour, with dangerous conditions present. These new tunnels would often cave in, and the workers were not allowed vacations or even proper meal breaks. Work shifts were twelve hours on at a time.

When this particular tunnel was completed in 1867, it was proudly designated as Tunnel #21 in the Parkersburg Branch of the B & O Railroad.

But you see, this tunnel had a history of problems. The roof kept falling. When it did, people often died as a result. There were other deaths as well. One worker dropped the rope of a bucket as a man fell 125 feet down the shaft to his death, while his fellow miners watched and listened in horror as he hit the bottom to his demise.

Another man by the name of Mr. Simpson couldn’t find the enclave in time before one of the inbound trains ran him over in the tunnel.

One man was in a work vehicle on the track, only to have an unaware train conductor plow into him whilst in the tunnel.

The most notable deaths occurred in 1963, when two men would lose their lives in a well-documented roof collapse. Miners worked in fear as their co-workers were trapped in the rubble.

Ongoing efforts to construct a new tunnel there-hundred feet beside this one resulted in an urban legend of a ghost haunting this tunnel.

When you get here, walk slow, listen very closely, and you just may hear the sound of machinery, a train coming through, or someone else chatting with you. Some people have reported hearing miners talking to each other as they walked through the tunnel.

Join GodSpeed Ministries as we walk the Eaton Tunnel together. Tunnel #21.

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