Mountain State Mysteries contains adult content that may not be suitable for all audiences.

Listener discretion is advised. I'm your host Mark and this is Mountain State Mysteries.

The story I have for you this week is one that everyone may know but you may not know the haunting

behind the story. Since Courtney is off this week I decided to tap into one of the hauntings

from the Mountain State. This is a story of John Henry and Big Ben Tunnel.

One of the most famous American legends is John Henry. A man whose story is told in ballads and

lore. John Henry, an African-American, stood six feet tall and weighed around 200 pounds. John Henry

is famous for his steel driving abilities. There is actually still a lot of debate on whether John

Henry was a real person or not. Believe it or not there are several places in other states

that have been credited for the sight of his death. However, the best evidence is here in West Virginia,

the Big Ben Tunnel near Talcott in Summers County. Legend says that he was working on the tunnel

that goes through Big Ben Mountain when he collapsed and died in 1870 and that his ghost

still haunts the tunnel. The construction of the Big Ben Tunnel began in the 1870s as part of the

Chesapeake and Ohio Railways very ambitious project on extending its rail line through West Virginia.

Big Ben Mountain got its name from the long eight mile bend that the Greenboro River makes around

it. While creating the tunnel they found out that it was a very difficult task compounded by frequent

and deadly rockfalls, a brittle shell which crumbled once it was exposed to the air. The estimated

deaths were one in five workers as well as mules dying from the rockfalls. John Henry had the

reputation of being one of the best steel drivers whose job was to pound the drills by hammer.

Steel drivers had to be strong, resilient, and able to keep up a steady beat. John is said to drive

drills with both hands for hours on end. One thing that steel drivers absolutely loved to do was hold

contests with each other to see who could drill the most in a period of time. This may be no surprise

but John would always come out as the winner. Do you ever find yourself searching for a true

crime podcast focused on West Virginia while I have you covered? I'm Mark Covey, the creator of

Mountain State Mysteries where every Friday my co-host Courtney and I will tell you about one

of West Virginia's coldest unsolved cases. Tune in to Mountain State Mysteries on your favorite podcast

platform. In 1870 high technology was introduced to the mining and tunnel blasting companies

in the form of steam drills. A steam drill more than likely a burly joined the steel drivers at

Big Bend Tunnel. John often made remarks that he would outperform the burly. A match was set up between

him and the machine. For 35 minutes both John and the drill tore away at the rock. The people

watching could hear the drill clog up and have to be cleared but John would stay at a steady pace.

By the end of the match John had driven 14 and the burly had only driven nine. According to the

ballad John Henry said quote your holes done choke and your drill done broke end quote John Henry

may have won the contest but at the cost of his life. After the contest he had trouble walking

he staggered to his home and went to bed complaining of a roaring and rolling in his head. The next

morning he was dead. After his death workers said they still saw his ghost in and around the tunnel.

The CNO had trouble even trying to get people to work in 1883 because of all of the reports of his

ghost. In 1873 the Big Bend Tunnel was completed running only one and a quarter miles through

the mountain. In 1972 the first train went through the tunnel while work was still going on. The

tunnel was lined with timber and the brittle shell kept falling through it killing more people

including an entire train crew. The CNO had the tunnel lined with six million bricks

which took 10 years to complete. John Henry's ghost has lingered through the decades some say

you can hear the sound of his hammer inside the tunnel some also say you can see his apparition

swinging two hammers while construction of the tunnel was still going on workers would sometimes

stop and refuse to work whenever they heard John Henry's ghost. A man named Alfred Owens was one

of the workers they hired to line the tunnel with bricks. On a cold November afternoon he was finishing

his shift when he heard something in the tunnel. At first he thought it was just an animal maybe a

rat cat or a dog maybe it was some shawl falling down maybe even some rock shifting in the tunnel

then he heard a clanking sound like a hammer hitting metal. While he was looking down towards

the tunnel's exit he saw the shadowy figure of a six foot tall man near the opening the man had a

hammer in each hand and he swung them in rapid strokes. Owens moved towards the opening the only

way out of the tunnel while Owens was trying to get out he slipped on wet rock and fell down

near the shadow figure when he looked up the shadow figure was gone and the tunnel was silent

after this happened Owens told Banks Terry about the event that happened to him Banks told Owen

that he saw the ghost of John Henry. Today at the east end of the tunnel is John Henry Park

with an eight foot tall bronze statue of the still driving man with the hammer in his hands.

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