The Haunted Cowee Tunnel and the Fugitive Ghost

My usual routine is to research a topic and write a blog about it. That blog then gets shared on Facebook, Twitter, and maybe one of the other social media platforms I play around on. However, there are times when just the opposite happens---I'll be inspired to write a blog post AFTER posting the information on Facebook.  And, that's the idea behind today's blog, lol. 

It all started with a video from one of my favorite YouTube explorers, The Carpetbagger. In one of his travels, he tells the story of the haunted Cowee train tunnel near Dillsboro, North Carolina. I've embedded the video below for you to watch, but the basic gist of the tale is both sad and horrific. 

On December 30, 1882, work was being done to dig a tunnel for the Great Smokey Mountain Railway, just outside Dillsboro, North Carolina. The digging was the work of an African-American chain gang, many of the group having been sent to prison over incidents of petty theft. To access the tunnel, the group had to take a boat across the Tuckasegee River from their camp on the other side.  On that fateful day, 19 men would never see the other side of the river alive again.  

The boat began to fill with water, and the men panicked. The more they panicked, the worse conditions got, and the boat quickly capsized. For 19 of the men, chained together, this was a death sentence. Tangled together, they sank to the bottom of the icy river.

Not all lives aboard the boat were lost, however. Anderson Drake was a black overseer who wasn't attached to the chain gang. Not only was he able to swim to safety, but he also managed to jump back into the river and save the life of a white guard named Fleet Foster.

Now, one would think that Foster would be grateful to have been pulled from the clutches of icy death, but it would seem that he felt offended that his life was in the hands of a black man, and a criminal at that. So, later that evening when his wallet went 'missing,' and the prisoners searched, it was found among the possessions of Drake. Drake, who should have been hailed as a hero, was severely beaten and had his sentence extended.

A few days later, the bodies of the 19 men who perished were removed from the river and buried in a mass grave near the site. Work continued on the tunnel, but the story does not end here. Many believe that to this day, the Cowee train tunnel is haunted. Even in dry weather, the tunnel is prone to vast amounts of moisture dripping from its ceiling and sides. Visitors attribute this to being the tears of the 19 deceased men. Also attributed to the men are the frequently heard voices and screams, crying out from the area around the tunnel.

Some even say the tunnel is cursed, possibly by Anderson Drake in response to his harsh treatment. Over the years, the tunnel has seen cave-ins, derailments, and other horrific accidents. But the weirdest ghost story associated with the tunnel wouldn't surface until decades after the incident.

When the movie, The Fugitive (1993) was being filmed, CGI technology was not what it is today. So,

to achieve the best possible shot for the iconic prison bus vs. train scene, a REAL bus and train wreck was staged on scene near Dillsboro, NC...only about a mile or so away from the haunted Cowee train tunnel!  After filming wrapped up, the remnants of the wreck were simply left on the side of the road, much to the delight of film buffs, urban explorers, and YouTubers. You can still visit the area and get up close and personal with the abandoned movie props....but that's not the most interesting part of this whole scene.

Allegedly, when that shot was being filmed, someone (or someTHING!) managed to show up on camera that shouldn't have been there. If you look closely at the part when Harrison Ford is looking up from inside the train crash, you can see what appears to be a face of a man, wearing a hat, peering down into the camera. This anomaly was confirmed by a member of production in an 'extras' interview, which can be viewed on YouTube.  He says that no one could identify the man  at the time and that his image was digitally removed from the DVD copy of the movie. You can still see it on VHS copies and throughout YouTube, with much speculation as to whether or not the image was a ghost.  Some say that he was probably a fireman on set that accidentally got caught on film.  Others believe he is a ghost associated with the Cowee Tunnel, located just a mile or so away from where the filming took place. Take a look at the footage from the link provided and let me know what YOU think!

Extra Links and Reading:
YouTube footage--DVD Interview and Ghost Scene from The Fugitive
Smoky Mountain News Article by Garrett K. Woodward
Atlas Obscura: The Fugitive Train Wreck
Dave Tabler article from Appalachian History
The Carpetbagger YouTube Channel

Dingess Tunnel

Dingess Tunnel ca 1893

Dingess Tunnel is one of those super-haunted locations that everyone seems to know about.  Everyone...except for me!  Originally constructed in 1892 for the Norfolk and Western Railroad, the tunnel served as a major landmark along what was known as the Twelve Pole Creek Line, between Lenore and Wayne.  Nearly a mile long and now open to automobile traffic, the tunnel is today used as a major thoroughfare into the small Mingo County town of Dingess.  However, a long and seedy reputation of violence and death has permanently scarred the historic structure and ensured its position as a Haunted West Virginia place of interest!

As already stated, the tunnel was constructed in 1892 and according to local history, it was constructed largely by African American and Chinese immigrant labor.  It was these two ethnic groups, among many impoverished families of all colors and backgrounds who not only flocked to the area to work on the railroad tunnel construction, but also to work the coal mines in and around Dingess.  It is said that there were a fair share of accidental deaths while the tunnel was under construction...but that there's an even darker history to account for the high number of deaths surrounding the tunnel itself!

During construction of the tunnel and throughout its first 12 years of use or so, this was THE main route in this area of Mingo County. However, locals didn't take kindly to outsiders, especially if those outsiders were of a much darker skin tone. Local lore is filled with tales of an unknown number of deaths resulting in outsiders, especially African Americans, being shot to death at the entrances to the tunnel. This violent history continued well into the second half of the 20th century. According to an article for the e-WV Encyclopedia by Robert Spence, writer Huey Perry described it as a notorious ambush site in his 1972 memoir of the Poverty War, They’ll Cut Off Your Project. An example of these ambushes was felt by a contributor to an Ancestry.com query about the tunnel. This person related a tale that happened to her family in 1968 when her husband, child, family friend and herself attempted to go through the tunnel with out of state plates. They were stopped on the other side by several men with shotguns, demanding to know who they were and why they were there. The husband told them they were there to visit family members, and after providing his driver's license as proof of identity and luckily LOOKING like the family he said they were there to visit, the car was begrudgingly allowed through.

In addition to the violence, the narrow tunnel has also seen its fair share of accidents as well. There is mention of an event in June 1905 where two trains collided, resulting in the deaths of at least three people, but I have yet to find any substantial information on it. I did, however, stumble across another train wreck at the tunnel that occurred on September 6, 1899. A freight train crashed, resulting in seven deaths, including those of the brakemen, Frank R. Archer and Charles Booth, fireman John Chafgin, and four unknown

tramps.

From Panoramio

Over the years, the tunnel fell out of favor, and eventually out of use, as a railroad line. In the 1960s, a one-lane paved road was constructed through the tunnel as a main route into the modern town of Dingess.  Today, you can still take an incredibly frightening journey through the habitually dark one-lane tunnel...but keep your eyes open for one of the ghosts of the tunnel!

For years, the tunnel has had a reputation of being haunted by the souls of those who perished in at least one of the train crashes...and possibly those who perished as a result of the high level of violence!  The apparition of a man has been seen hanging at one end of the tunnel, and at least one person claims to have gotten a photo of a little girl standing in the tunnel.  Visitors have also reported experiencing various sounds, both heard audibly to the naked ear, as well as EVP evidence, including a voice saying "Hi" and the sound of organ music.  The tunnel has such a reputation that when the Ghost Lab crew visited in the summer of 2010 to check out an alleged haunted house, locals insisted they make a stop at the tunnel!

UPDATE:  The Logan County Facebook page posted an article from Appalachian magazine about the train collision!  Find the link HERE!

(To those finding this blog through the iReport article, I've noticed some comments in the comment section of that site stating that a ghost hunter's blog is not a legit source, and I wish to clarify.  The purpose of this blog is to combine the fact with the folklore, a tag line clearly stated in my header.  I've reported on the LOCAL folklore and thought I made it clear which parts were backed up by historic resources and primary documentation...and which parts were tales passed down by locals. I'm sorry if I have failed to make that distinction clear enough.  Although I pride myself on doing in-depth research on many of my haunted WV locations, we cannot forget that folklore, no matter how technically "false" it is, is a part of the culture and history of a location as well.)

Excursion Magazine: America's Bloodiest Tunnel

WV Encyclopedia

Was it a Ghost Seen in Barboursville?

While doing some research on a completely different topic, once again I ran into an interesting newspaper article that something in me told me to save.  In fact, its such a small story, located several pages into the publication, that I'm not entirely sure what about it caused me to stop the microfiche reader and take a look.  But, I did, and here's the tale:

From the Huntington Advertiser, September 6, 1945:

Chief Deputy Sheriff One Dunfee reported today that the and aides were unable to find a body along the Chesapeake &  Ohio Railway Co. right-of-way near Barboursville after a freight train engineer had dropped a note to station employees of Barboursville saying that his engine "probably struck a man" just west of that town.  

Tracks and adjacent territory for several miles were searched by the deputies.  A later check-up with residents of the area failed to reveal anyone missing under unusual circumstances.

At first thought, one would assume that there is a logical explanation for this episode.  It is very likely that the engineer is mistaken.  Perhaps the train came close to hitting someone, but that someone made it to safety without major (or any) injury.  It's also likely that perhaps fatigue or other circumstance led him to misidentifying a deer, a tree, or even a simple mirage.

However, I'm a paranormal researcher...and as logical as I try to be, there's always going to be the side of me that WANTS this to be paranormal, lol.  There are so many ghost stories that are linked with the railways and train disasters, and one common theme that has come up in WV ghost-lore many times is the tale of a phantom pedestrian being hit.  Perhaps the most famous of these cases is actually Screaming Jenny from the Harpers Ferry area, who is seen running down the tracks, screaming, as she finds herself engulfed in flames. More than one engineer has claimed to have hit this fiery apparition.

Could there be a chance that this engineer DID hit someone...but that someone was a ghost?  This idea has intrigued me so much, that I'm trying to methodically research if anyone has been hit and killed by a train in that area, perhaps on the anniversary of when this event was reported.  And that is where I need YOUR help loyal readers!  If you have any information, even if its just legends that have been passed down, I'd love to hear them!  I'd love to hear if anyone else has seen or reported a possible pedestrian struck in this area, or if anyone knows of any actual deaths that happened.  I did search the next few weeks' worth of papers, and there was no mention of a body ever turning up, nor any further mention of the case at all....

...but it does bring up another interesting aspect.  If this WAS an actual person that was hit, and a body not found, could that have sparked a new haunting, as an unknown person searches for his own closure to his own death?  Contact me at theresarhps@yahoo.com if you have any information on this subject, and I'll update if I find anything of note.

Photo is of a train near Barboursville in 1955.  Property of the Doors to the Past website, Barry Huffstutler