I then headed to Kings Switch Tunnel (aka Kings Hollow Tunnel). Do you ever wonder if these couples actually last? Photo by Beth DeLong. Some of the locks on the bridge before the tunnel. While much of the old rail line can be hiked, a few trestles have gone out, meaning you either have to cross the creeks or, if the water is too high, go back to the road. I continued walking the path until I got to the first destroyed trestle. You know, in case you wanted to have a snack while you waited for the resident ghosts to show up. At the time of my visit, the picnic table had been moved partway into the tunnel. I’m not really sure what that says about your love life when you use the bridge of an abandoned railway leading to a haunted tunnel as the symbol of your relationship…Īnother fun fact is there’s a cute little picnic area on the other side of the tunnel. Oddly enough, people have chosen this bridge to serve as some sort of lovers bridge, with love locks adorning the fencing. There’s a moderately sized parking area, and it’s only a short walk across the bridge to the tunnel. The drive to the tunnel was beautiful, and the tunnel itself was easy to find. Though really not that far from where I grew up, I never knew this place existed. Such was the case with Moonville Tunnel for me this fall. It seems that every so often there’s a location that keeps popping up in your social media newsfeeds. This thing is huge! Photo by Beth DeLong. The Hope Iron Furnace, one of the two remaining furnaces in the area. The towns may be little more than rubble, and the train tracks reduced to a grass and gravel hiking path, but the ghosts of those killed by trains during the heyday of the late 1800s are said to still haunt the tunnels. Since then, Vinton County and surrounding state parks have preserved the land, turning the former rail line into a hiking path. The railway was still used until 1986, and the tracks were removed in 1988. Moonville and some of the surrounding towns were abandoned in the early 1900s, the last family leaving Moonville in the 1940s. This includes young ladies walking the track, to a drunken man on his way home, to two engineers killed in a head-on train collision. A number of accidents and fatalities are recorded in the histories of the tunnels. But as anyone who’s seen “Fried Green Tomatoes” knows, train tracks are not always the safest routes for pedestrians. The locals thus chose to walk the train tracks from town to town because the route was much flatter than the hilly roads. As such, the terrain has some considerable hills. It may surprise those who aren’t familiar with the area, but southeastern Ohio is considered part of Appalachia. Iron was another hot commodity of southeastern Ohio, leading to 69 iron furnaces and a rail line between Cincinnati and Marietta. Photo by Beth DeLong.īoth Moonville and Kings Switch Tunnels were built in the 1850s when coal mining was big in the area. The Moonville Tunnel in all its autumn glory.
0 kommentar(er)
