Dingess Tunnel

The other major motivator for our trip to the Coalfields was visiting the Dingess Tunnel. Originally built as a railroad tunnel in 1892 it was part of Norfolk and Western’s main line along Twelvepole Creek until an easier route was constructed along the Big Sandy River (easier grades) and a train crash occurred inside the tunnel in 1905 that left three people dead. Since 1914 it has been part of the road network down there and, from my own experience now, driving through it is quite the experience!

Because the tunnel was originally built to accommodate a single track of rail, the tunnel is only wide enough to accommodate traffic traveling in one direction at a time. It is customary for those in the tunnel to have their lights on so that someone who may wish to enter from the opposite direction knows to wait until that vehicle exits the tunnel. This is important because the Dingess Tunnel is not lit. Small efforts have been made to ensure there is drainage, on one side of the roadway there is a small ditch that is able to move the water that works its way through into the tunnel.

The tunnel feels very small and cramped, so even in a regular car the sounds can seem loud and overwhelming, coupled with the strong scent of diesel exhaust (there’s no ventilation in the tunnel)—it is not difficult to imagine you’re on a loud, stinky train of the past going through what was as wild as anything going on over on the western frontier. After clearing the tunnel, back out into the silence of the remote Logan County countryside, Chris said, “I can almost hear a train horn.” You really, really could.

One of the portals for the Dingess Tunnel, you can also tell it's election season

A brief search on the internet will turn up countless stories of how haunted the tunnel is and how strange and backward the region is, but it is a worthwhile experience and West Virginians are typically the nicest people you’ll ever meet.

Due to the dramatically different needs and dimensions, I don’t know of many other rail tunnels repurposed into road tunnels (though there is another from this Norfolk and Western line in Logan County, but it is much shorter and much less storied). If anyone knows of any others, please share!

Free Caching WV's Northern Panhandle

We had celebrated the birth of a nation by visiting three of the finest caches in the southwestern part of state that was the site of America’s formation (Pennsylvania!) and then dining with one of our many families. After a pleasant night at the DoubleTree near the Pittsburgh Airport (though surprisingly dirty: lots of other people’s hair all over the pool area and unknown substance on the toilet seat in the room), we regrouped and decided to change our caching strategy.

We had been seeking caches in the top 100 by favorite points within 200 miles of Morgantown, WV (caveat, our laziness put a hard, and very low limit, on the terrain we were willing to tolerate). We decided on the next day, July 5, to start with one of these caches but then “free cache” on the Northern Panhandle until, basically, we got hungry enough to head down to our favorite DiCarlo’s Pizza location (downtown Wheeling! …though I’ve been told it’s worth defecting to the Glen Dale location).

Our first stop of the day, a cache at the World's Largest Teapot

To us, free caching is when you don’t have a specific aim or theme in mind. For us, we merely applied our maximum desired terrain rating and bounced from cache to cache all over Brooke, Hancock, and Ohio counties. Because we don’t routinely cache there, there were many to choose from and selecting a specific terrain rating was helpful as to not completely overwhelm us. Plus, even when free caching, it can just get obnoxious to drive in half-mile increments.

For our efforts, we found 13 geocaches and discovered two things we found to be particularly interesting.

The Margaret Manson Weir Memorial Pool in Marland Heights Park was a pleasant surprise after picking up a seemingly average guardrail cache in a seemingly average neighborhood. It was recently listed on Preserve WV’s most endangered list for this year, which is how I knew about it. But the pool, opened in 1934, has a unique architectural charm lacking in so many structures today that are focused on function before form (which is a noble goal, but I can’t imagine my local pool in Morgantown being something I or anyone else will care about in 80 years). And, truthfully, West Virginia just doesn’t have a lot of art deco structures. This isn’t Miami Beach, where even the Burger King is authentically art deco.

The other interesting then we discovered are the old bridges over Buffalo Creek on the road to Bethany College (another gorgeous side trip!) from Wellsburg. While after finding only one of these caches we were frustrated over the placement of another (if I have to drive 6 feet into overgrowth on a day that feels very snaky, it’s not a terrain level 1!). We love looking at old infrastructure, even if it is of the old, worn out, and purely utilitarian sort (maybe I will still be interested in the Marilla Park pool in 80 years…).While heading back towards West Virginia State Route 2 we also discovered that when the road along Buffalo Creek, the Bethany Turnpike, was first cut through it actually had two tunnels, the first highway tunnels west of the Alleghenies, to get through the rough terrain, though my husband was crestfallen to discover that the tunnels are long gone (but their locations are identified on this old map).

So even seeking out the less exciting or highly rated caches in an area has rewards. Or maybe it is just our undying love of infrastructure.