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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