Moonville Tunnel

Moonville Tunnel, built around 1856 for the Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad in Ohio's Zaleski State Forest, is haunted by four named ghosts: engineer Theodore Lawhead (killed in a head-on collision), a decapitated brakeman, the Lavender Lady (believed to be Mary Shea), and Baldie Keeton, thrown from the tunnel top in 1886.

Four ghosts haunt a tunnel in the middle of nowhere, and the weird part is they all have names. The Moonville Tunnel sits in Zaleski State Forest in Vinton County, Ohio, about as isolated as you can get in the eastern half of the state. The tunnel was built around 1856 for the Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad, cutting through a ridge so trains could reach the small mining communities scattered through the hills. Moonville was one of those communities. Families named Shirkey, Kennard, Ferguson, and Coe lived along a two-mile stretch with a depot, a schoolhouse, a gristmill, and a sawmill. The coal mining industry kept people employed from the 1850s through the early 1900s, then collapsed. By the 1940s, Moonville was empty. The tracks were pulled up. The tunnel stayed.

The oldest ghost belongs to Theodore Lawhead, an engineer for the Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad. In the early 1880s, dispatch failed to warn him about an oncoming train sharing the same single track through the tunnel. The head-on collision killed him. After the wreck, engineers on the line began reporting a figure floating down from the stones near the tunnel entrance, lantern in hand. He's been the tunnel's primary ghost for over 140 years.

The Brakeman is the most dramatic legend. Late one night in the 1800s, a railroad worker was walking through the tunnel on his way home after a card game. He'd been drinking. A train entered the tunnel behind him, and he swung his lantern frantically trying to get the engineer to stop. The train hit him and took his head off. Visitors today report seeing a figure swinging a lantern in the darkness inside the tunnel, retracing those final steps.

The Lavender Lady, identified by local historians as Mary Shea, was, killed on the tracks at the far end of the tunnel. People describe seeing a figure in a long dress near the tunnel exit, and the scent of lavender filling the air just before and after she appears. The Athens Messenger reported on deaths along this stretch of track as early as October 1873.

Then there's Baldie Keeton, locally known as the Bully. The Hocking Sentinel reported in July 1886 that Keeton, a known drinker and fighter, was thrown from the top of the tunnel after a confrontation outside a local saloon. His body ended up on the tracks, run over by at least three trains before anyone found him. His ghost reportedly stands on top of the tunnel and stares down at approaching hikers.

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad took over the line in 1883, but the deaths and the legends predate the ownership change. The tunnel is now part of a hiking trail through the state forest. It's about a mile walk from the nearest parking area through dense woods. The tunnel is unlit, roughly 160 feet long, and damp. You'll want a flashlight and decent shoes. The Moonville Cemetery, where some of the town's former residents are buried, sits nearby in the trees.

The best time to visit is midweek, when you're more likely to have the tunnel to yourself. On weekends and especially around Halloween, the trail gets crowded enough that any ghost would have a hard time getting a word in.