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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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at gmail.com for the show notes check out our website MountainStateMystery's podcast.com

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you