Hauntings at Massachusetts' Hoosac Tunnel

This article, entitled "Ghosts of the Bloody Pit", from PrairieGhosts.com talks about hauntings at Massachusetts' Hoosac Tunnel. We were interested since the name of the tunnel (and the mountain range) figures into some of John's books that take place in Minnesota.

The rugged lands of western Massachusetts are somewhat dominated by the beautiful and remote Berkshire Hills. They are part of a land that has been haunted for centuries and ghost stories are commonplace here. Many tales are told of spirits in the forest, calling voices that have no source and of those who have wandered into the woods, never to return again. Of all of these stories though, perhaps the most chilling is the tale of the Hoosac Tunnel near North Adams in the Deerfield Valley.

The tunnel was one of the greatest undertakings of the region and work was started on it in 1851. It was not finished for almost 25 years! During that period, hundreds of miners, using mostly black powder, shovels, picks and their own hands, fought against the unyielding rock of Hoosac Mountain. By the time the tunnel was finally finished, more than 200 men had died in what came to be known as the “Bloody Pit”. They died in fires, explosions, tunnel collapses and in one case, by the hand of another. It would be the cold-blooded murder that occurred in 1865 that would give the tunnel its reputation for ghosts.