![]() (quoting a Zaleski Backpack Trail publication).Ī similar account from the Marion Star differs from other tellings of the tale only in regard to the location of the ghostly lanterns sightings, preferring to report them from the nearby Moonville Cemetery, rather than along the tracks themselves: Lancaster Eagle-Gazette - Lancaster, Ohio - Thursday, February 19th, 1987 And if you come here at night, some say you can see his lantern a-glimmerin’ and a-wavin’, still trying to stop the train.” Reportedly, he was buried in the Moonville graveyard. The man was exceedingly drunk and unfortunately swayed into the path of the oncoming steam locomotive. “At the turn of the century, as the story goes, a brakeman was killed near the Moonville tunnel as he waved his lantern to stop the train. The Circleville Herald - Circleville, Ohio - October 27th, 1978Īnother newspaper tells the story with a bit less mystery surrounding the death: “Many Legends of Ghosts come from Ohio Hills” There were no clues to his death.” Since the mysterious death, Mills reports that on certain foggy nights passersby have seen a lantern eerily bobbing along the deserted railroad track.” One morning the man was found lying bloodless along the tracks. “Each night a railroad man would stand along the tracks with his lantern to signal the train. “There was a railroad track that ran through the town,” said Ron Mills. Today, the standard tale reads as follows: Depending on which story you hear, the ghost himself may be seen as a phantom figure otherwise, only his light is seen floating as if held aloft by an unseen hand (see Note #1). As at many other spooklight sites around the country, this location is said to be haunted by a lantern-wielding spirit who appears along the route of the former railway. The Moonville Tunnel has a colorful history of train-related catastrophe and untimely demise, which has inspired a great deal of local folklore here. The tunnel and a small cemetery nearby are the most noteworthy reminders of human habitation in this wooded region of Ohio. Although trains continued to run through this tunnel until the late 1980’s, Moonville itself became a ghost town after the 1940’s and little evidence of the community remains today. The Moonville Tunnel in Vinton County, Ohio, marks the site of a small, isolated town established here in the mid-1800’s. For the record, although I visited here in the very month of a fatal 1880 train-accident attributed to the tunnel’s ghostlore, I did not experience anything out of the ordinary during this daylight venture. The Moonville Tunnel is weirdly photogenic - below, please enjoy my shots from a very chilly November morning, as I tell you about the history and lore associated with this site. If you’re in search of a creepy, haunted train-tunnel, you could hardly ask for a better one than this - or for a name more appropriate to such a mysterious location.
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