There’s a light at the end of every tunnel—and a few ghosts in between.
DINGESS TUNNEL
In Dingess, deep in the Hatfield–McCoy Mountain region, there’s a single-lane tunnel. It may look like your average pathway through an Appalachian mountain, but there is something much more sinister lurking here: a history that contributed to the county’s moniker “Bloody Mingo.”
Starting in the 1890s, Chinese and African American workers for the Norfolk & Western Railway were subject to vicious attacks by locals who were unhappy with their presence in the area and conducted ambushes on those making their way in and out of the tunnel. Hundreds of lives were taken.
Long after, train service through the tunnel was discontinued. The rail line was torn up and the pathway paved, still in use to this day for cars traveling through the area. At approximately a mile long with no traffic signals at either end, this mountain tunnel often brings feelings of unease to those who travel through it. Is it because of the tight quarters and the too-small speck of light at the other end? Or is that thanks to the anguished spirits who never left?
FLINDERATION TUNNEL
Of the 10 tunnels along the North Bend Rail Trail, the Flinderation Tunnel, found in Salem, is one of the most notable, said to be haunted by the eerie sounds of Tommyknockers and the voices of lost souls from the cemetery above it.
There is a bit of discourse behind what Tommyknockers truly are. Some believe them to be the spirits of fallen miners protecting those still working in the tunnels by warning them of rock slides and cave-ins with knocks on the tunnel walls. Others have suggested they may be kin to leprechauns or gnomes, small and mischievous creatures seeking to play pranks and cause chaos.
It’s said that, as Flinderation Tunnel workers listened for warning knocks that might just mean the difference between life and death, they also had to discern the voices of their fellow workers from those of spirits of the cemetery overhead. Pair the loaded knocks with the mysterious, otherworldly voices of those long departed, and you can see why workers may have been a little jumpy.
SILVER RUN TUNNEL
The legend of Silver Run Tunnel in Cairo is one you probably know—hopefully just from stories and not personal experience.
This story starts with a union, a marriage between two young souls looking forward to the future. After the vows were exchanged, the pair were traveling by train through the area when the bride fell from the train car—whether by accident or something darker, we can never know.
Not long after the incident, there were reports of a woman in a white dress along the tracks, often from train conductors who traveled the route and feared hitting her. But there was no one to worry about hitting.
Before long, conductors who traveled the route frequently learned that there was no actual woman standing on the tracks and they could continue on their way with a little less worry—but not much. Especially since she seems to have a wicked sense of humor, seen by some witnesses at least once hitching a ride on a train’s cowcatcher.
HEMPFIELD TUNNEL
Like the Flinderation Tunnel, Hempfield Tunnel in Wheeling shares the earth with those sadly departed from this world. Though tunnel builders in the 1850s were aware of a cemetery nearby, digging went on. The tunnel’s nickname, Tunnel Green, comes from anecdotes about a “green slime” oozing from the walls, believed by many to be from the cemetery above.
The stars of this particular story? Joseph Eisele, also known as the Hatchet Slayer, and Alois Ulrich, one of several of his victims. As it goes, Eisele slayed Ulrich during an altercation in the tunnel then hid the body in a nearby culvert. Eisele was eventually caught and arrested for his crime, but though justice was served, Ulrich would not rest in peace.
An issue of the Wheeling Daily Intelligencer from July 1869 recounts a tale of a spectral figure, covered in green slime, emerging from the tunnel before a group of travelers, and demanding that they “let the dead rest!” Fair enough.
READ MORE ARTICLES FROM WV LIVING’S FALL 2025 ISSUE
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