Supernatural Stories Haunt Hoosac Tunnel

A dimly-glowing blue light floated through the murky darkness toward the two men. At first they thought it was a worker with a lantern, but as it neared they noticed something missing.

It's head.

On the moonless night of June 25, 1872, at 11:30 p.m., James McKinstrey, drilling superintendent, and his friend Doctor Clifford J. Owens stepped into the gaping mouth of the Hoosac Tunnel in N. Adams, MA. Nearly overcome by the heavy, dank, foul air, they stood in the inky blackness, gasping, listening to the far-off echoes of dripping water, the flutter of bat wings and their own heavy breathing.

Well, it was their own, wasn't it?

Stones crunched under their heavy boots as they penetrated deeper into the tunnel. The glow from their swinging, creaking lanterns created a play of shadows that danced hellishly over the wet, black earthen walls. Long shadows fell like bodies across the path ahead.

Nearly two miles into the tunnel, the men were forced to rest. At first the only sounds-an occasional ticking-came from the straining, riblike support beams. Then, hauntingly, a moan. Like a strong gust of wind rushing through leafless tree limbs.

Was someone hurt?

The lanterns, guttering now from lack of oxygen, grotesquely distorted their faces as they stared at each other with terror-stricken eyes It was then that the strange specter appeared. 

The light, about two feet off the ground, approached  from a westerly direction. As it neared it assumed human form. "The headless form came so close that I could have reached out and touched it," Doctor Owens would later write, "but I was too terrified to move. For what seemed like an eternity, McKinstrey and I stood there gaping at the headless thing like two wooden Indians. The blue light remained mtionless for a few seconds as if it were actually looking us over, then floated off toward the East End of the shaft and vanished..."

This was not the only supernatural occurence at the Hoosac Tunnel

On October 18, 1867, came the worst tragedy in the tunnel's violent construction period. A crew working working the Central Shaft in little more than crawl space was buried alive.