Author: Cassie

We couldn’t not think of death when we thought of the Hoosac Tunnel.

The history of the tunnel is riddled with death and seemed odd to avoid the darkness heavily associated with the tunnel. But at the same time, we couldn’t avoid the life we saw in the space around the West Portal… We couldn’t ignore the presence of the beavers.

The longer we thought about it, the more we felt that we couldn’t disregard the local ghost stories. Even as a college student who spent approximately 7 months here a year for four years, I always hear of these tales. I often  find myself referencing the stories or talking about their to people back at home.

It cannot be ignored.

We decided to create the pages, “Life”, “Death”, “Afterlife”, and “Regrowth” to try and capture the full identity of the Hoosac Tunnel.

To take any of these aspects away from the identity of the tunnel we are trying to present would not give a clear and accurate picture of all that the is the Hoosac Tunnel.

–Cassie

We discovered early on in our research that the task of finding information on Hoosac Tunnel would not be easy.

Our first roadblock was trying to find information. We found a singular book, Builders of the Hoosac Tunnel by Cliff Schexnayder, that provided a lot of the ins and outs of the tunnel ranging from funding, important figures, and deaths. The problem? It seemed to be our only source of information, and thought it was vast, we felt we needed more.

After sometime, we decided to ask just once more if they had anything else on the tunnel. We were surprised to find that the reason we were initially given just one book was because they had “too much” information to give us.

We were directed to an online database of everything that was in the public library’s vault (archive).

Our new problem was searching through all of our new material. What should we use? What was important to use? What was our focus?

 

–Cassie

I’ve been having such a hard time locating information on Ringo Kelley, Ned Brinkman, and Billy Nash. Nearly every article of the unsolved murder leads straight to the ghost stories of the three explosive experts. I was able to locate one article that did start with the mention of a police case and the name of the officer in charge, but I was unable to find anything else.

I’ve been wondering about this story a lot lately. The first mention that I was able to find of it is around 1970… As a ghost story.

Looking back on what we know about the story of these men, after they died many workers reported hearing moaning and yelling that they believed were the spirits of these men. Many even believed that the vengeful spirits of Brinkman and Nash were the ones who killed Kelley.

Their story has always been a ghost story.

I wonder if we’ll be able to find more information on them.

I wonder how much of their story is true, and how much was changed as their story has been passed around.

–Cassie

We visited the tunnel the other day and decided to do a little ghost hunt.

That was a few days ago and I am still a little spooked if I’m being honest.

We started the trip by using one of those supposed ghost finding apps. I do not trust the ability of those apps to (1) locate a ghost nearby or (2) tell me what it is trying to say to me. We had some fun and made jokes using the app. The first spook: when the ads kept popping up on the app.

I think it is fair enough to say those apps are pointless and if you were to go ghost hunting: do not use the apps as your only evidence.

I almost wish we had real equipment for at least EVPs… What I would do for a Spirit Box… Especially after the experiences we had.

To say my eyes were playing tricks on me a huge understatement. There was this one area down the tunnel that I strictly referred to as “the white bit”.  I was entirely uninterested (read: terrified) and would not venture to “the white bit” to see exactly what it was. I think we concluded that it was just the coloration of the stone down the tunnel. My eyes always found their way back to the white bit and that’s where my eyes played the most tricks on me. I kept making jokes trying to prepare myself in case it moved.

It did seem to move, whenever I moved. Once I figured that out I relaxed, but only slightly. I remember my eyes staring into the darkness beside the white bit and I felt like someone was staring back. I kept trying to convince myself to just not look down into the darkness of the tunnel. But I did. If I hadn’t I may not have seen whatever it was that moved in front of the white bit.

It wasn’t a shadow… To be honest, I do not know what it was. It’s possible it was still just my eyes playing tricks. I tried to laugh it off as I explained to Erica that I saw something (I may have said “another white bit”) move in front of the white bit. It was fast too, there was no way to really know what it was. So I pushed it to the back of mind.

It was hard to really hear anything since there’s running water inside the tunnel, and typical of a tunnel: everything echoes around you. I tried to explain to Erica what I was hearing but I am aware, and I was aware in the moment, that I was not making sense. I explained that I heard water but it wasn’t water. It was more like a whisper, but it wasn’t a whisper. I think what I meant was that I heard what sounded like an incoherent whisper, and since it was incoherent: it sounded a lot like the water we were hearing. And I heard that whisper, whatever it was, wherever it was coming from. My ears were straining to separate it from the sound of water. Unfortunately, I am incapable of separating noises like that. In a crowd I wouldn’t hear someone talking to me because I hear all the sounds at once and cannot differentiate between them. That’s what it felt like in the tunnel. I knew I could hear a whisper but it overlapped with the water in a way that made it difficult for me to truly hear it.

I made a comment about how if there was no running water we would be hearing a lot happening around us. I almost regret saying that, especially looking back on everything.

If we could hear more clearly I never would’ve asked for something to move closer to us.

To be honest, a lot of the times I was asking question for purely for the sake of asking questions. I made a comment about not asking “how they died” because it could upset “them”…. Minutes later: “I’m just going to do it- how did you die?”

Down the tunnel I could hear rocks moving. It was an odd sound, and it was so far down that I could barely make it out. I asked if that was them moving things if they could move it closer so that we could actually be able to hear it.

Mistake.

It wasn’t just a shuffle of rocks. I didn’t see anything thrown, and but it wasn’t just a rock falling– which I also did not see– (and also, where would it have fallen from?)… But it was a rock, it was loud, and it was right next to us.

I think I laughed as we ran out. But that was from fear rather than amusement. Because I can tell you that in that moment I was most definitely, not even remotely, amused. Knowing me I probably played it off that I was not that scared. I thanked whatever it was for doing what I asked, but I really wish I hadn’t asked.

Erica and I talked for a while, talking about how that noise came from this open bit off to the left that we would not look into. I’m kind of glad we didn’t look into it, but at the same time: I wish I had, even just briefly, because looking into it from this moment on is going to feel a lot creepier than before.

And we went back. I recorded into the tunnel, and Erica recorded us and behind us. The water was loud, my jacket made noise any time I moved (more like breathed) and we kept shuffling about here and there. Erica, still the logical one, made a point to comment on things as they happened for the sake of the audio.

I think it was this time that I said we shouldn’t ask how they died. I joked about asking what their favorite color was because I had seen that done before. I think I was just reaching for something to ask since I said we shouldn’t ask how they died… Which I did anyways because I wanted to see what would happen (honestly… Why am I like this?).

I remember asking if we bothered it by running out earlier. Erica asked it to move something if we were bothering it. And something moved. It wasn’t like before, but it was a movement of rocks (maybe) beside us… The only thing near me was Erica and the only thing near Erica was me. We were alone. But I guess we weren’t.

We heard the noise and immediately turned around to leave. We thanked it as we walked out as calmly as we could possibly manage.

Maybe you do not believe in ghosts, and that’s okay.

I believe in them. And after that experience I can finally understand the stories I’ve heard from friends about feeling like someone is watching you in there, or that things happen around you and not farther down into the tunnel.

I’m just happy I wasn’t touched.

Your girl would have booked it all the way back to Connecticut if I had.

–Cassie

I’ve finally visited Hoosac Tunnel and I’m itching to go back. Standing before the tunnel, imagining what it was like when the work for the tunnel first began… Imagining the conversation that needed to be had when the initial plan failed… Imagining how many people were just trying to do their job but ended up never making it home at the end of the day… Are they still here? In the tunnel?

There are so many stories within and around the Hoosac Tunnel, waiting to be told. It doesn’t seem fair to present them in a singular way when there are numerous tools to help. To simply layout the land with words alone wouldn’t do it justice. The tunnel calls for layers– photographs, story maps, video, audio, and timelines to accompany the words.

We’re lucky to have rich material to work with. With the help of the North Adams Public Library and the North Adams Historical Society, we have extensive information on the tunnel at our fingertips. The library not only has extensive information on Hoosac Tunnel but they also have physical artifacts tucked away somewhere in The Vault. With our differing busy schedules and limited, and sometimes inconvenient, hours at the library it’s a bonus that most of this material has been cataloged online for easy access.

We plan on sharing the experience of maintaining the blog and writing pieces to post as well as researching and visiting the site together. But we have also designated other responsibilities between the two of us as this project progresses:

Erica: Filming and editing videos.

*Driver / navigator extraordinaire.

Cassie: TimeLineJS, StoryMap.

*Positive affirmation guide / spotter of beavers.

 

—

I’ve always described North Adams as “falling apart” and I’ve heard others doing the same. But what if there was another way of seeing it? What if it was just nature reclaiming abandoned man-made structures that we’ve given up on? What if nature was having a comeback in the Berkshires? Maybe we can start to live with nature instead of destroying nature. Maybe instead of moving on to destroy more land to replace something that has fallen apart… we can try to fix it first…

…like the beavers.

 

 

–Cassie