Investigation Team: Dave Miller, Matt Miller, Nick Kelly, Rosie Miller, Breanna Miller, Holly Miller, Jacque Miller Investigation Date: June 2020
The tunnel is in the middle of nowhere by the Wayne National Forest and difficult to find. The parking lot is small. Fortunately, the Moonville Tunnel was only about ¼ mile from the parking lot along Racoon Creek.
HISTORY: The mining town of Moonsville, consisting of a general store, saloon and a few houses, had a population of one hundred in 1870. The town sprang up on the Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad. By the early 1900’s, the town was abandoned. Only a small cemetery and the tunnel remains.
PARANORMAL CLAIMS: Many railroad workers died during construction of the tunnel or working on the line like brakeman standing on the train and falling off. Some Moonville residents perished walking in the tunnel or on nearby rails walking to other towns. Rastus Dexter was a dunken local who walked into the tunnel and could not get out in time and the train hit him. This was an article documented from the “McArthur Democrat” newspaper of March 29, 1859. An urban legend also has it that there was an epidemic in Moonville and the train would not stop there. The story claims a local took a lantern to try to flag down the train for supplies but he didn’t make it to the other side of the tunnel and the train hit him. Today, people claim seeing lanterns (called “Lantern Man”) moving in the tunnel along the track bed carried by dark figurers or just the lanterns floating by themselves. Reports of train whistles or noises are heard.
INVESTIGATION: In the daytime the tunnel looks more historical than paranormal. Photos from the inside are spooky looking. I did two rushed EVP’s but to evidence reported. I can only imagine how creepy this isolated tunnel would like at night, hence why it is called one of the Top 10 Haunted Places in Ohio.
