America’s Bloodiest Tunnel
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DINGESS,
West Virginia — Hidden deep within the coal filled Appalachian
Mountains of Southern West Virginia rests a forgotten land that is older
than time itself. Its valleys are deep, its waters polluted and its
terrain is as rough as the rugged men and women who have occupied these
centuries old plats for thousands of years.
The region is known as “Bloody Mingo”
and for decades the area has been regarded as one of the most murderous
areas in all of American history.
The haunted mountains of this territory
have been the stage of blood baths too numerous to number, including
those of the famed Hatfield’s and McCoy’s, Matewan Massacre and the
Battle of Blair Mountain. Even the county’s sheriff was murdered this
past spring, while eating lunch in his vehicle.
Tucked away in a dark corner of this
remote area is an even greater anomaly – a town, whose primary entrance
is a deserted one lane train tunnel nearly 4/5 of a mile long.
The story of this town’s unique entrance
dates back nearly a century and a half ago, back to an era when coal
mining in West Virginia was first becoming profitable.
For generations, the people of what is
now Mingo County, West Virginia, had lived quiet and peaceable lives,
enjoying the fruits of the land, living secluded within the tall and
unforgiving mountains surrounding them.
All of this changed, however, with the industrial revolution, as the demand for coal soared to record highs.
Soon outside capital began flowing into
“Bloody Mingo” and within a decade railroads had linked the previously
isolated communities of southern West Virginia to the outside world.
The most notorious of these new railways
was Norfolk & Western’s line between Lenore and Wayne County – a
railroad that split through the hazardous and lawless region known as
“Twelve Pole Creek.”
At the heart of Twelve Pole
Creek, railroad workers forged a 3,300 foot long railroad tunnel just
south of the community of Dingess.
As new mines began to open, destitute
families poured into Mingo County in search of labor in the coal mines.
Among the population of workers were large numbers of both
African-Americans and Chinese emigrants.
Despising outsiders, and particularly
the thought of dark skinned people moving into what had long been viewed
as a region exclusively all their own, residents of Dingess, West
Virginia, are said to have hid along the hillsides just outside of the
tunnel’s entrance, shooting any dark skinned travelers riding aboard the
train.
Though no official numbers were ever
kept, it has been estimated that hundreds of black and Chinese workers
were killed at the entrance and exits of this tunnel.
Norfolk & Western soon afterward
abandonment the Twelve Pole line. Within months two forces of workmen
began removing the tracks, ties, and accessory facilities.
Soon, silence soon reigned in the rugged
mountains overlooking the area. Gone were the whistles of locomotives
and the rumble of cars. Nothing but long, winding bed of cinders, a few
decayed ties, several steel bridges remained.
For decades the skeletal remains of
Norfolk & Western’s failed railway line stood as a silent testimony
to the region’s ghostly ways.
In the early 1960’s, however, the
resourceful men of the mountains commandeered the former railroad line
and built upon its beds a road for motorists to travel upon.
Unfortunately, residents of this
impoverished region failed to secure funding from the state’s
legislature to improve the tunnel and bridges, thus today – over half a
century later – residents of this community are forced to drive atop
countless one lane train bridges and a nearly mile long one lane tunnel.
To the residents of this community, such
a drive is just another part of their daily routine, however, for
visitors unfamiliar with the thought of driving through a one lane
tunnel with a fifty ton coal truck at the other end, such an experience
can be a rush, to say the least.
One writer said the following of his experience driving through the Dingess Tunnel:
“Locals state that proper usage is to
turn lights on, indicating that you are entering the tunnel. Drivers
from the other end know not to enter if lights are on. We saw an 18
wheeler tanker go through while there, but it is a tight fit. Water
drips from the top and one can barely see as it takes a while for eyes
to adjust. Locals state that the roadway was dirt up until a couple of
years ago and had deep holes in it. Now it is paved, but no lighting.”
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