The Hoosac Tunnel of North Adams, Massachusetts
The Hoosac Tunnel welcomed its first train on February 9th, 1875 with regular service beginning the following year. From the outside and to those uninformed the tunnel seemed like a success.
But to those involved in its creation, it was called the “Bloody Pit”. In the years since stories of ghostly wails and spirits haunting the five-mile-long tunnel have stained its history.
Hoosac Tunnel East Entrance
The Need for A Tunnel
The 1800s saw a rapid expansion in the creation of railroads connecting cities and helping in the creation of others by transporting goods and people quickly between them. In 1819 a proposal to connect Boston and Upstate New York through a canal was shelved only to be revived in 1848 as a railroad that would connect to an existing line in order to complete the trip to New York.
The proposal by the Troy and Greenfield Railroad would require a tunnel through the Hoosac Mountains and at the time of the proposal, at 4.75 miles, it would be the longest tunnel in the world. With $2 million dollars, the equivalent of over $68 million in today’s money, work started in 1851.
Immediately problems arose when workers discovered the rock was tougher than they expected with the tunnel boring machine failing after excavating just 10 feet of rock. The project suffered other setbacks including the defaulting of payments from Troy and Greenfield Railroad and accidental deaths from using the dangerous nitroglycerin to blast through rock.
The First Accident
On March 20th, 1865 three men, Ned Brinkman, Billy Nash, and Ringo Kelley would set a charge of nitroglycerin and run back to safety before detonation. Unfortunately, Kelley would accidentally set off the charge burying and killing Brinkman and Nash under tons of rock.
Several days later Kelley disappeared, not seen or heard from again until one year later on March 30, 1866, when his body was found in the exact spot where Brinkman and Nash were killed. The strange thing is Kelley was strangled to death.
Many of the workers in the tunnel believed the vengeful spirits of Brinkman and Nash took their revenge on Kelley. Soon after many started hearing voices and groans of pain coming from the dark depths of the tunnel.
No Survivors
On October 17th, 1867 the worst tragedy of the project would occur when a team of 13 workers were over 500 feet deep, digging a central shaft into the mountain. Above them a candle would ignite naphtha fumes causing an explosion, dropping their hoist, destroying pumps, and causing the shaft to begin to fill with water and toxic fumes.
Four men at the top of the mountain tried desperately to extinguish the fire. It wouldn’t be until the next day the men were able to attempt a rescue. A worker named Thomas Mallory, made out his will, before being lowered into the shaft. He was pulled back up and nearly passed out from the fumes. He reported no survivors believing all 13 men had drowned in the water.
After this, villagers and workmen began to tell stories of having seen ghostly figures of lost miners wandering through the snow on the mountain as well as wailing near the opening of the central shaft.
Months later, when digging in the central shaft was safe to commence once again, a gruesome discovery was made. The 13 men thought to have drowned immediately were able to make a crude raft and float above the water. They died slowly, asphyxiating on the toxic fumes, as they waited for a rescue.
After their bodies were laid to rest, the ghostly figures disappeared but the wailing within the shaft continued.
The Central Shaft where many were trapped and found dead.
Ghostly Wails
In 1874 a hunter named Frank Webster disappeared near the tunnel only to be found wandering dazed and lost by the workmen. Frank claimed he was lured into the tunnel by voices and once inside was attacked by a ghost before falling unconscious.
On September 20th, 1874, Orrin Wilson was found dead with his head crushed from being struck by an elevator. He was the last death to have occurred prior to the opening of the tunnel. He was 14 years old.
The first train passed through the Hoosac Tunnel on February 9th, 1875 after 20-plus years of construction and over $21 million spent. The final cost was 196 lives.
After its opening, many still reported hearing the sounds of wailing, pain-filled groans emanating from the tunnel, and dim lights appearing and disappearing as they grew closer. A century later stories still persisted, Joseph Impoco, a former railroad employee claims to have heard voices and laughter coming from the tunnel.
In 1976 a researcher claimed to have seen a figure of a man in old-fashioned work clothes wandering in the tunnel.
In 1984, a professor from North Adams State College claims several students left a tape recorder in the tunnel overnight and when returning for it the following day, found several muffled voices on tape.
Today the tunnel is still operational and walking through Hoosac Tunnel is prohibited.
But how about you? Do you believe the spirits of those 196 workmen still walk through the tunnel waiting for something or someone?
