West Virginia's Monkey Cemetery

Great (or Big) Bend Tunnel
Near Hinton, WV

Last year, Luke and JR accompanied me on a quest to find as many Legends and Lore roadside markers as we could. The Legends and Lore markers are part of the William G. Pomeroy Foundation and provide information for travelers on places of interest regarding folklore, traditions, superstitions, and even supernatural occurrences! So far, we have visited quite a few in West Virginia, but the one that eluded us was the one I was most intrigued by: The Monkey Cemetery in Ronceverte.

We drove around that area for literally an HOUR. Unfortunately, at the place of the given address and coordinates, there was nothing. NOTHING! My disappointment was immeasurable and my day was ruined (bonus points to anyone who gets that reference, lol). But seriously, I was really saddened that we couldn't find the marker for what the website listed as the final burial place of 300 dead monkeys.

Yeah. 300 dead monkeys. As the legend was told, a circus train for the Sells and Downs Circus had just played a show in Charleston, WV and was heading to their next venue in Ronceverte. While passing through the Big Bend Tunnel near Hinton on Sunday, August 5th, 1906 (the same Big Bend tunnel made famous by John Henry), the train stalled. The tunnel, being just a little less than a mile and a half long, already wasn't known for its great air quality, but the actions of the steam engine trying to get started again further complicated matters by filling the tunnel with steam and gases. It wasn't pleasant for the people...but it was deadly for the circus' monkey collection.

When the train finally got going again and reached its destination, the deceased primates were buried in a large trench, where the Virginia Electric and Power Co. would later be built. 

As of right now, the website has been updated to note that this particular roadside marker is no longer available, and it really made me wonder why it was so short-lived. So...I did some digging into old newspaper articles, both from the time of the accident, and from 1956 when several newspapers ran an article by Fred McCoy telling the tale. According to an online article from the Mountain Messenger, it appears that the information for this tale came from a piece in the Greenbrier Independent from June 8, 1950 that features former circus employee, W.F. Beard, reminiscing about the tragic event. Beard, who worked with the circus at that time, quit after the incident and settled in the Ronceverte area. 

But, as often seen in legends of this caliber, the story told didn't exactly match up with historical documentation. To further complicate matters, even contemporary news articles couldn't quite get the story straight...

I've included the relevant news articles, as well as some other online resources below, so you can follow along with the jumble of misinformation. There are, however a few things that the 1906 articles tend to agree on that dispute Beard's recollections. For example, the articles all claim that it wasn't the Sells circus, but the John Robinson circus show, which did just wrap up in Charleston on August 4th. On August 5th, the train did stall in the Big Bend tunnel, and animal lives were lost.  However, the number of lives varies GREATLY from article to article. One article claims it was 100 monkeys. Another states only 25. Still, another states only 16 monkey deaths. Some claimed this was the entire monkey population of the circus, while others claim that it was only half. (I found some articles not included that support the idea that the circus did have surviving monkeys. In fact, an ape was born several weeks later!) All of these are a far cry from 300. 

Big Bend Tunnel

What happened with the bodies is also up for debate. As the more modern articles claim, the monkeys were buried in a trench where the power company would later be built. However, the 1906 articles all agree that the monkeys were cremated, and the urn containing their ashes was buried on Fort Hill. This urn, which may have been silver, may also have been transcribed with a quote from Darwin. It is also believed that M.E. preacher, W.H. Sheak who traveled with the circus, presided over the funeral and gave an eulogy. 

Among the dead were claimed to be a talking baboon named Jocko, a large mandril ape with the strength of multiple men, and a black-maned lion named Robert E. Lee who succumbed later and was donated to the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. 

I don't have a good explanation as to why there are so many conflicting details in the story of West Virginia's Monkey Cemetery. I honestly thought (and am still not entirely convinced either way) that the articles from the 1950's were a type of thinly-veiled racist commentary on the many African-American railroad workers that gave their lives building the Big Bend tunnel, and others throughout West Virginia after the Civil War. We all know the story of John Henry, but there were countless others who passed away from silicosis, accidents, etc. that aren't named, and never received a proper burial. But, there does seem to be some historical documentation that there's a least a kernel of truth about circus monkeys meeting their demise in a tragic accident among the West Virginia hills. Perhaps it was just a poor recollection from an aging circus employee many years after the incident, maybe it was just poor journalism, and maybe it's just a really strange story that we'll never truly know about for sure.

As of this writing, you won't find a roadside marker for the Monkey Cemetery, but you can visit the Big Bend Tunnel. See the statue of John Henry. Learn about the history from the interpretive signage posted throughout the park. And of course, listen REALLY closely. You might hear the swing of John Henry's hammer striking railroad ties...or you might hear the hoots and hollers of 16 to 300 circus monkeys who took their last breath over 100 years ago.  

Sources and Further Reading: 

Ronceverte's Famed Monkey Cemetery Has Roots in Traveling Circus, by Doug Hylton. 31 May 2017 Mountain Messenger. 

Pomeroy Foundation: Monkey Cemetery

WV Folklife: Legends and Lore Historial Markers

Southern Spirit Guide: "A Haunt with a Hammer in His Hand" by Lewis Powell IV

The Covington Virginian
08 August 1956

Hinton Daily News
06 August 1906

Chanute Tribune (Kansas)
10 August 1906

Highland Recorder
24 August 1906

The Portsmouth Star
13 September 1906

Wild Man Near Elkins: Wild Man Wednesday

Back in 2023 I shared a series of posts featuring 'Wild Men' of West Virginia. These stories came from articles found in old newspapers. Some of these wild men were obviously humans who had shunned society to live in solitude off the land. Others seemed to have a more...cryptozoological slant...possibly describing beings that we may consider to be Bigfoot. 

Apparently, I forgot to include today's tale, which occurred near Elkins in the small town of Harman, WV!  Honestly, I'm torn as to the identity of this particular wild man. The fact that he has been spotted wearing tattered clothes implies that he is human, but his "bearish appearance" and body covered in long hair DOES sound a little Squatchy. Geographical Note: Harman is in Randolph County, located in a narrow valley between the Allegheny and Rich Mountains. It's also located extremely close to Canaan Valley, and the Davis/Blackwater Falls area, which are both hotbeds of Bigfoot sightings. 

Salisbury Evening Sun (North Carolina)
13 October 1900

Charleston Police Officers See UFO

ECHO-1 Satellite
Source: Wikipedia

When dealing with reports of UFOs, the problem of witness reliability is always present. However, few can argue that fraudulent or untruthful claims are an issue when no less than SEVEN members of the Charleston, WV Police Department reported seeing a strange object in the early morning sky!

It all started on Wednesday, May 11, 1966. At around 2:58 a.m. Company B of the West Virginia State Police, stationed in South Charleston began receiving calls about a strange object in the sky. Twelve minutes later, the object apparently had traveled to Charleston, where it was spotted by Patrolmen Bob Easley and Robert King. The two reported a "blazing light of spectacular appearance." 

Easley radioed back to the station, where interested parties on duty stepped out to look skyward. No less than seven members of the police department, including Desk Sgt. James C. Robinson saw the craft. Robinson, who had a clear view of the object, noted that the object was very bright and fast-moving. He states, "When it got almost directly in my line of vision, there was something that went from the side of it at a much higher rate of speed. After about 15 seconds it completely disappeared.

Many of those who saw the object said it took off, straight up at a very high speed. One officer, who did NOT see it this interesting takeoff however, but did claim to see the object had a theory as to what was witnessed. John Bailes believes what the men saw was an ECHO Satellite. According to Wikipedia: 

"Project Echo was the first passive communications satellite experiment. Each of the two American spacecraft, launched in 1960 and 1964, were metalized balloon satellites acting as passive reflectors of microwave signals. Communication signals were transmitted from one location on Earth and bounced off the surface of the satellite to another Earth location."

Sgt. Robinson did agree that the object resembled the ECHO Satellite, but moved way too fast and was much brighter. In 1966, the United States was not only under threat from the Cold War, but was also deep into a Space Race with the former Soviet Union. Did a group of Charleston police officers really spot an extraterrestrial craft...or was it something from either our own or a foreign government?

The Charleston Daily Mail
11 May 1966

The Raleigh Register
12 May 1966

Weird Wednesday: One Stubborn Elephant at Lake Shawnee

Photo by Theresa, 2024

A couple of weeks ago, I got the opportunity to tag along with WV Unseen Paranormal to a location that I had wanted to investigate for a LONG time! On May 31st, we made the trek to Mercer County for a private investigation of the former Lake Shawnee amusement park. At this time, instead of dedicating a new blog post to the experience, I'll just be giving my current Lake Shawnee post a much-needed update. However, I DID want to add a few new blog posts featuring some additional research---including today's Weird Wednesday about a rather unique traffic situation. The road running past Lake Shawnee has a long history of traffic accidents, many fatal, and while compiling some of these, I stumbled across this story in the Friday, March 25, 1949 edition of the Raleigh Register, a newspaper out of nearby Beckley, WV:

STUBBORN ELEPHANT BLOCKS TRAFFIC IN LAKE SHAWNEE AREA

By the Associated Press

BLUEFIELD-"What's the traffic jam about?" a motorist asked.

"There's an elephant blocking the road," another replied.

"I ask a civil question and what do I get? A blankety-blank silly answer," fumed the first motorist.

But it really was an elephant that had traffic blocked along U.S. Rt. 19-21 near Lake Shawnee, according to a story told here today. 

W.R. (Pete) Cooke of Bluefield, assistant to the Mercer County superintendent of schools, said he was at the scene. Cooke related that:

One day earlier this week, an elephant somehow broke out of one of the trucks of a circus that was headed North from Florida winter quarters.

The elephant took a stubborn stand in the middle of the road and refused to budge, even for his trainer.

Traffic was held up nearly an hour before a farmer broke the blockade with cornbread.

The farmer brought to the scene some cornbread left over from his noon meal and used it to lure the elephant slowly back into the truck. 

(This isn't the only Weird Animal story from Lake Shawnee I've found recently. In April, I included an article about a rain of frogs on the Lake Shawnee property in a post about Fortean Falls from around West Virginia!)

The Raleigh Register
25 March 1949