My family and I went to the Stumphouse Tunnel yesterday in Walhalla, SC. It is a tunnel that was started in 1856 on the proposed Blue Ridge Railroad that was to connect Charleston, SC with Cincinatti, Oh, but never came to pass. In 1859, just before the War Between the States, they stopped digging. The tunnel has an interesting history that includes Irish imigrants and, no lie, blue cheese dressing, though not together.
Pictures and a brief history at the following site –
Oh man, I love that kind of stuff! And I get to South Carolina quite often as well so I’ll have to check it out next time I’m down there.
Joe The Photog…You have posted an awesome site…Must save this so I can look at it more thououghly
Here in Ohio, we have the Moonville tunnel (http://chatanuga.org/Moonville.html), which I got a chance to go see last May after doing a bit of research on the area since it is supposedly one of the most haunted locations in Ohio.
I’m hoping to get back to see the area again sometime in the near future. After my visit last year, I came up with some painting ideas (http://chatanuga.org/KLWArt.html#Paintings), and I’m thinking of going down some morning when the park opens (it’s closed from 11PM to 6AM) so that I can be there at sunrise and try to get some pictures of the tunnel like in my first painting of it.
Kevin
Good job, Joe. Now, on to Aiken, right?
Uh-oh. Refresh my memory on what I am missing in Aiken?
And both the Bridge Hunter and Landmark Hunter web sites are great resources. Lots of railroad material, too.
Well, well; Stumphouse Tunnel has made the big time. I started driving into it once, fifty-three years ago this summer, but decided I might have trouble backing out if I went all the way in, so backed out after going a hundred feet or so.
Though it wasn’t abandoned, this reminded of the time in 1975 when I foolishly decided to walk into the B&M’s Hoosac Tunnel. I remembered pictures of the west portal when the tunnel was double tracked and trains were headed by box cab electric motors. The scene was much changed and only the tunnel portal itself looked the same. The double track was now single, gone was the manned tower that once stood close to the tunnel entrance and the concrete support bases were the only trace left of the overhead catenary. I walked no more than a hundred yards into the damp and spooky tunnel before my common sense returned and made a hasty retreat worrying all the time that a train might be coming.
Mark