1 00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:05,120 Speaker 1: Hello, it's Richard McLain Smith here, not the impostor you've 2 00:00:05,160 --> 00:00:09,400 Speaker 1: been listening to on the podcasts the real one. Join 3 00:00:09,480 --> 00:00:14,360 Speaker 1: me for Unexplained TV at YouTube dot com Forward Slash 4 00:00:14,800 --> 00:00:29,800 Speaker 1: Unexplained pod. When we think of ghosts, we often think 5 00:00:29,880 --> 00:00:34,120 Speaker 1: in terms of human drama. We conceive of haunted places 6 00:00:34,200 --> 00:00:38,360 Speaker 1: as theaters, sites of post mortem performances that are no 7 00:00:38,479 --> 00:00:42,440 Speaker 1: less recognizable for the fact that the players are dead, 8 00:00:43,040 --> 00:00:46,600 Speaker 1: And as with all performances, it's the drama we tend 9 00:00:46,640 --> 00:00:52,120 Speaker 1: to pay attention to, not the stage itself. Guilt and grief, 10 00:00:52,600 --> 00:00:57,600 Speaker 1: anger and injustice, longing and loss. These are the things 11 00:00:57,640 --> 00:01:01,880 Speaker 1: that drive the spirits in our store. But not everyone 12 00:01:02,120 --> 00:01:06,320 Speaker 1: as conceived of hauntings in this way. Some think that 13 00:01:06,440 --> 00:01:12,360 Speaker 1: staging matters a great deal. Indeed, scientists and spiritualists alike 14 00:01:12,600 --> 00:01:16,000 Speaker 1: have theorized that elements of our physical world may not 15 00:01:16,080 --> 00:01:20,200 Speaker 1: be merely the sight of haunting, but both catalyst and cause. 16 00:01:21,280 --> 00:01:26,759 Speaker 1: In eighteen thirty seven, Charles Babbage, celebrated polymath and forefather 17 00:01:27,040 --> 00:01:32,440 Speaker 1: of the modern computer, pend a startling idea. The material world, 18 00:01:32,720 --> 00:01:37,119 Speaker 1: Babbage suggested as a vast library on whose pages are 19 00:01:37,200 --> 00:01:41,880 Speaker 1: forever written, or that man has ever said or woman whispered. 20 00:01:42,920 --> 00:01:46,640 Speaker 1: For Babbage, this was no metaphor. He was making a 21 00:01:46,760 --> 00:01:50,480 Speaker 1: very literal point that the movement of the air set 22 00:01:50,520 --> 00:01:53,680 Speaker 1: in motion by a human voice does not cease with 23 00:01:53,800 --> 00:01:57,000 Speaker 1: the words that prompted it, nor even with the death 24 00:01:57,040 --> 00:02:01,320 Speaker 1: of the speaker. Like endless ripples in an infinite pond, 25 00:02:01,720 --> 00:02:06,600 Speaker 1: are passing presence lingers in the world. He didn't extend 26 00:02:06,600 --> 00:02:10,400 Speaker 1: this theory to account for ghosts, but others made that leap. 27 00:02:11,760 --> 00:02:15,080 Speaker 1: In a nineteen thirty nine lecture to the Society for 28 00:02:15,160 --> 00:02:19,680 Speaker 1: Psychical Research, the then Society president A. J. H. Price 29 00:02:20,080 --> 00:02:24,600 Speaker 1: offered the concept of place memory. He insisted that objects 30 00:02:24,720 --> 00:02:29,000 Speaker 1: can capture and carry traces of past events, and that 31 00:02:29,040 --> 00:02:32,840 Speaker 1: when a suitably sensitive person is in close proximity to 32 00:02:32,919 --> 00:02:36,400 Speaker 1: such an object, they will have what he termed a 33 00:02:36,480 --> 00:02:43,120 Speaker 1: retrospective experience. According to Price, ghosts are not active, supernatural 34 00:02:43,200 --> 00:02:47,880 Speaker 1: visitors from beyond the veil, but more like photographic negatives. 35 00:02:48,600 --> 00:02:52,520 Speaker 1: They are effectively developed in the moment by those with 36 00:02:52,639 --> 00:02:57,160 Speaker 1: the right sensitivities to what Price called the psychic ether. 37 00:02:58,440 --> 00:03:04,040 Speaker 1: Twenty years later, archaeologist Thomas Charles Lethbridge would further refine 38 00:03:04,120 --> 00:03:08,399 Speaker 1: the idea in his book ghost and ghoul provoked by 39 00:03:08,400 --> 00:03:20,960 Speaker 1: his own uncanny experience. On a warm summer morning in 40 00:03:21,040 --> 00:03:25,560 Speaker 1: nineteen fifty nine, Thomas Lethbridge was outside his home in Devon, 41 00:03:25,919 --> 00:03:29,280 Speaker 1: waving across a stream to his neighbour when he apparently 42 00:03:29,320 --> 00:03:33,840 Speaker 1: saw a tall woman dressed in antiquated clothing standing not 43 00:03:33,919 --> 00:03:38,200 Speaker 1: a yard behind her. So curious did the old fashioned 44 00:03:38,240 --> 00:03:41,160 Speaker 1: woman look that Later in the day he asked his 45 00:03:41,360 --> 00:03:45,560 Speaker 1: neighbour who her visitor was. So you're seeing my ghosts 46 00:03:45,560 --> 00:03:49,760 Speaker 1: as well, now, she replied. When Lethbridge and his wife 47 00:03:49,920 --> 00:03:54,040 Speaker 1: investigated the immediate area of the sighting, both claimed to 48 00:03:54,080 --> 00:03:57,800 Speaker 1: feel a deep tingling sensation and a sense of pressure 49 00:03:58,120 --> 00:04:02,960 Speaker 1: akin to an electromagnetic lace. The whole production, he wrote, 50 00:04:03,400 --> 00:04:08,279 Speaker 1: was comparable to a television broadcast, the figures like pictures 51 00:04:08,480 --> 00:04:14,000 Speaker 1: transmitted by somebody or something else and merely received by him. 52 00:04:14,440 --> 00:04:19,560 Speaker 1: Lethbridge echoed Price's argument that ghosts are not spiritual entities 53 00:04:19,560 --> 00:04:24,200 Speaker 1: with agency and intent, but merely images replayed by an 54 00:04:24,279 --> 00:04:29,560 Speaker 1: unspecified energy source running through the natural world. He thought 55 00:04:29,640 --> 00:04:33,520 Speaker 1: the nearby stream might be important, as running water as 56 00:04:33,600 --> 00:04:37,120 Speaker 1: commonly featured in the law and logic of the supernatural. 57 00:04:38,279 --> 00:04:42,520 Speaker 1: This evolving hypothesis has since settled on a specific name, 58 00:04:43,279 --> 00:04:47,000 Speaker 1: a name that points to one material above all others 59 00:04:47,200 --> 00:04:50,360 Speaker 1: as the foundation for what we think of as ghosts. 60 00:04:51,200 --> 00:04:56,560 Speaker 1: It is known as stone tape theory. Stone, particularly quartz 61 00:04:56,560 --> 00:05:00,000 Speaker 1: and limestone, is thought by some to be uniquely case 62 00:05:00,600 --> 00:05:05,960 Speaker 1: of storing and projecting past events, especially when those events 63 00:05:06,120 --> 00:05:09,960 Speaker 1: are ripe with emotion, say at the point of death 64 00:05:10,560 --> 00:05:16,159 Speaker 1: or agony or great loss. Under these conditions, proponents of 65 00:05:16,200 --> 00:05:19,880 Speaker 1: the stone tape theory argue that something of that emotion 66 00:05:20,200 --> 00:05:24,560 Speaker 1: remains trapped in the bedrock and buildings, like energy in 67 00:05:24,640 --> 00:05:29,240 Speaker 1: a battery, waiting only for the presence of someone sensitive 68 00:05:29,560 --> 00:05:33,880 Speaker 1: to trigger a transmission. And what then, of a place 69 00:05:34,200 --> 00:05:38,000 Speaker 1: not just built from stone, but carved from it, a 70 00:05:38,120 --> 00:05:41,840 Speaker 1: place we have cut into the world with force and 71 00:05:41,920 --> 00:05:47,080 Speaker 1: trauma and mass tragedy. Is it any wonder that there 72 00:05:47,560 --> 00:05:53,040 Speaker 1: we might also have inscribed something of ourselves that still remains. 73 00:05:54,160 --> 00:05:59,279 Speaker 1: You're listening to unexplained, and I'm Richard mc lean smith. 74 00:06:06,680 --> 00:06:10,280 Speaker 1: The Hoosac Tunnel is a stretch of single track working 75 00:06:10,400 --> 00:06:14,560 Speaker 1: railway cut through the quartzoth rock and limestone of the 76 00:06:14,600 --> 00:06:20,400 Speaker 1: Berkshire Hills and western Massachusetts. Completed in eighteen seventy five. 77 00:06:20,920 --> 00:06:24,040 Speaker 1: It was the first major mountain tunnel of its kind 78 00:06:24,279 --> 00:06:28,719 Speaker 1: in North America, undertaken to provide a rail connection between 79 00:06:28,880 --> 00:06:33,000 Speaker 1: New York and Boston. For thirty years, it was the 80 00:06:33,080 --> 00:06:38,039 Speaker 1: longest tunnel on the continent. The tunnel's eastern end opens 81 00:06:38,120 --> 00:06:42,359 Speaker 1: up on the outskirts of Florida, Massachusetts. The western opening 82 00:06:42,640 --> 00:06:45,719 Speaker 1: is nearly five miles away in the small city of 83 00:06:45,880 --> 00:06:51,120 Speaker 1: North Adams. Between these two portals there is only darkness 84 00:06:51,160 --> 00:06:55,839 Speaker 1: and stone, the exposed innards of the mountain, illuminated for 85 00:06:55,920 --> 00:06:58,880 Speaker 1: only a brief few seconds by the lights of the 86 00:06:58,960 --> 00:07:04,480 Speaker 1: rushing freight train. From each entrance. The way ahead slopes 87 00:07:04,560 --> 00:07:08,080 Speaker 1: slightly upward to a meeting point in the middle. This 88 00:07:08,240 --> 00:07:11,960 Speaker 1: allows water to drain out, but for those on foot, 89 00:07:12,400 --> 00:07:15,200 Speaker 1: the rise is enough to obscure any site of the 90 00:07:15,280 --> 00:07:20,920 Speaker 1: exit ahead. It makes the Husack that rare thing, a 91 00:07:21,000 --> 00:07:25,920 Speaker 1: tunnel without a light at its end. Its construction is 92 00:07:25,960 --> 00:07:30,520 Speaker 1: a testament to the nation's industrial might, prove that nothing, 93 00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:36,360 Speaker 1: not even the land itself, can withstand American ambition. Though 94 00:07:36,520 --> 00:07:39,840 Speaker 1: if you read the history, it's clear that the land 95 00:07:39,880 --> 00:07:42,680 Speaker 1: put up a hell of a fight, and if you 96 00:07:42,760 --> 00:07:48,680 Speaker 1: believe the stories, that fight still echoes on the housack 97 00:07:48,880 --> 00:07:52,960 Speaker 1: was played by problems from its inception. Ground was first 98 00:07:53,000 --> 00:07:56,960 Speaker 1: broken in eighteen fifty two. Whenever spoke boring machine was 99 00:07:57,000 --> 00:08:00,760 Speaker 1: set to work on the mountain, it failed after only 100 00:08:00,840 --> 00:08:04,880 Speaker 1: ten feet and there it remained for years, its drill 101 00:08:04,960 --> 00:08:08,000 Speaker 1: bit trapped in the rock like the finger of a 102 00:08:08,000 --> 00:08:12,440 Speaker 1: greedy child. It was then that those in charge realized 103 00:08:12,480 --> 00:08:16,760 Speaker 1: the true scale of the challenge they faced. Engineers were 104 00:08:16,800 --> 00:08:20,800 Speaker 1: sent to Europe to research cutting edge drilling techniques, while 105 00:08:20,880 --> 00:08:26,200 Speaker 1: financiers waited in Massachusetts with mounting in patients. No more 106 00:08:26,240 --> 00:08:30,280 Speaker 1: work would take place for the next two years. In fact, 107 00:08:30,680 --> 00:08:35,040 Speaker 1: it would take a quarter century of hand digging, pneumatic drilling, 108 00:08:35,080 --> 00:08:39,600 Speaker 1: and blasting before the tunnel was complete, leaving a vast 109 00:08:39,800 --> 00:08:43,440 Speaker 1: artery in the earth twenty feet high and twenty four 110 00:08:43,440 --> 00:08:48,319 Speaker 1: feet wide. Workers dug inward from the east and west 111 00:08:48,360 --> 00:08:52,960 Speaker 1: simultaneously with the aim of meeting in the middle, and impressively, 112 00:08:53,280 --> 00:08:56,280 Speaker 1: they did so with less than an inch of error, 113 00:08:57,120 --> 00:08:59,880 Speaker 1: and that is without considering the need for a central 114 00:09:00,120 --> 00:09:05,040 Speaker 1: ventilation shaft, a thousand foot vertical chimney running all the 115 00:09:05,080 --> 00:09:08,520 Speaker 1: way to the top of the mountain, which itself took 116 00:09:08,640 --> 00:09:13,080 Speaker 1: four years to dig over two million tons of earth 117 00:09:13,120 --> 00:09:16,640 Speaker 1: and rock were cleared from the hills, the two million 118 00:09:16,679 --> 00:09:21,760 Speaker 1: dollar budget ballooning to ten times that amount in today's money. 119 00:09:21,960 --> 00:09:25,360 Speaker 1: The cost of that first big dig equates to almost 120 00:09:25,520 --> 00:09:29,320 Speaker 1: half a billion dollars, but there were other costs too, 121 00:09:30,040 --> 00:09:45,000 Speaker 1: losses that could never be recouped. The Hoosac Tunnel was 122 00:09:45,040 --> 00:09:49,680 Speaker 1: a deadly project. Construction accidents were hardly rare in the 123 00:09:49,720 --> 00:09:53,360 Speaker 1: mid eighteen hundreds, but even by the periods lacks health 124 00:09:53,400 --> 00:09:59,800 Speaker 1: and safety standards, workers on the Hoosack experienced notable misfortune. 125 00:10:00,200 --> 00:10:03,520 Speaker 1: The recorded number of deaths on the project totaled one 126 00:10:03,600 --> 00:10:07,480 Speaker 1: hundred ninety five, enough for workers to begin calling the 127 00:10:07,559 --> 00:10:12,840 Speaker 1: Hohosuck the Bloody Pit. Workers were exposed a daily peril 128 00:10:13,320 --> 00:10:17,880 Speaker 1: from falls and falling rock to fires and flooding. Above 129 00:10:17,920 --> 00:10:23,200 Speaker 1: it all loomed the dread of nitro glycerine. For over 130 00:10:23,360 --> 00:10:27,920 Speaker 1: ten years, Whosok miners relied on gunpowder to blast away 131 00:10:27,960 --> 00:10:31,880 Speaker 1: at the mountain, a crude and inefficient approach that was 132 00:10:31,960 --> 00:10:35,839 Speaker 1: stared down by the rock, often only removing a few 133 00:10:35,880 --> 00:10:40,600 Speaker 1: feet for each explosion. Nitro Glycerine was used for the 134 00:10:40,679 --> 00:10:44,040 Speaker 1: first time on the Hoosack dig in eighteen sixty five, 135 00:10:45,160 --> 00:10:47,680 Speaker 1: the first time it was ever put to use in 136 00:10:47,720 --> 00:10:53,240 Speaker 1: a major American construction project. The explosive compound more than 137 00:10:53,320 --> 00:10:58,000 Speaker 1: doubled the rate of progress, but it came with terrifying downsides. 138 00:10:59,360 --> 00:11:03,840 Speaker 1: Extremely volatile and sensitive to heat and shock, it seemed 139 00:11:03,880 --> 00:11:07,520 Speaker 1: almost to have a malicious mercurial mind of its own. 140 00:11:08,840 --> 00:11:13,719 Speaker 1: On March twentieth, eighteen sixty five, three explosive experts were 141 00:11:13,760 --> 00:11:18,760 Speaker 1: planting nitroglycerine deep inside the tunnel. Two of the men, 142 00:11:19,240 --> 00:11:22,600 Speaker 1: ned Brinkman and Billy Nash, were making their way to 143 00:11:22,679 --> 00:11:26,840 Speaker 1: the safety bunker to shelter from the blast when the third, 144 00:11:27,400 --> 00:11:32,680 Speaker 1: Ringo Kelly, lit the charge. Only he did it early. 145 00:11:33,679 --> 00:11:37,800 Speaker 1: Brinkman and Nash were buried instantly beneath tons of rock. 146 00:11:39,040 --> 00:11:43,640 Speaker 1: Kelly vanished almost immediately, and rumors soon began to circulate 147 00:11:44,120 --> 00:11:49,880 Speaker 1: that its actions had been intentional murderous. Even as the 148 00:11:49,920 --> 00:11:53,160 Speaker 1: story goes, it was just over a year later, on 149 00:11:53,240 --> 00:11:57,800 Speaker 1: the morning of March thirtieth, eighteen sixty six, when, with 150 00:11:57,920 --> 00:12:02,800 Speaker 1: the area now cleared, Ringo Kelly's relatively fresh body was 151 00:12:02,880 --> 00:12:07,439 Speaker 1: found two miles inside the tunnel, at almost the precise 152 00:12:07,480 --> 00:12:10,480 Speaker 1: spot where he'd brought the rock down on his colleagues. 153 00:12:11,679 --> 00:12:15,120 Speaker 1: A deputy sheriff, Charles Gibson, is said to have quickly 154 00:12:15,200 --> 00:12:21,080 Speaker 1: declared that Kelly had been murdered by strangulation. Examination of 155 00:12:21,120 --> 00:12:25,840 Speaker 1: the body suggested he'd been killed the night before. No 156 00:12:26,000 --> 00:12:30,440 Speaker 1: culbrit was ever found or pursued, but rumors soon began 157 00:12:30,520 --> 00:12:34,800 Speaker 1: to emerge. But for whatever reason, Kelly had returned to 158 00:12:34,880 --> 00:12:38,480 Speaker 1: the scene of the crime, only for the unforgiving ghosts 159 00:12:38,480 --> 00:12:42,840 Speaker 1: of Brinkman and Nash to murder him. They were the 160 00:12:42,840 --> 00:12:47,600 Speaker 1: first supposed ghosts thought to haunt the houssack, their shades 161 00:12:47,760 --> 00:12:58,200 Speaker 1: forever trapped in the rock that had crushed them. Over 162 00:12:58,240 --> 00:13:02,120 Speaker 1: the next few years, dozens more people were killed by 163 00:13:02,280 --> 00:13:07,760 Speaker 1: errant detonations in the houssac. On October ninth, eighteen sixty nine, 164 00:13:08,400 --> 00:13:11,880 Speaker 1: three miners truged a half mile from the Eastern Tunnel 165 00:13:12,040 --> 00:13:16,000 Speaker 1: entrance to the nitro glycerine stock to prepare the substance 166 00:13:16,160 --> 00:13:20,600 Speaker 1: for that day's work. Something went wrong, and the ensuing 167 00:13:20,720 --> 00:13:24,600 Speaker 1: explosion left only one of the three with a body 168 00:13:24,679 --> 00:13:28,880 Speaker 1: to be buried. The other two, Felix and Oswald and 169 00:13:28,960 --> 00:13:35,960 Speaker 1: Montaigue brothers, were entirely vaporized. At least seven more major 170 00:13:36,080 --> 00:13:40,679 Speaker 1: explosions were recorded over the remainder of the dig, including 171 00:13:40,720 --> 00:13:44,200 Speaker 1: the deaths of four men in April eighteen seventy one, 172 00:13:44,760 --> 00:13:48,920 Speaker 1: when incredibly a bolt of lightning struck the track outside 173 00:13:49,000 --> 00:13:52,920 Speaker 1: the tunnel and coursed nearly three thousand feet down the 174 00:13:52,960 --> 00:13:57,000 Speaker 1: metal rail before detonating the nitro at the other end, 175 00:13:58,040 --> 00:14:02,120 Speaker 1: a terrible accident that would forever define a more moderate 176 00:14:02,200 --> 00:14:06,120 Speaker 1: project for the husuc, though it was just one more 177 00:14:06,400 --> 00:14:11,239 Speaker 1: in a long sequence of tragedies. There is one especially 178 00:14:11,320 --> 00:14:15,280 Speaker 1: black day in the tunnel's history, however, that does stand out. 179 00:14:16,640 --> 00:14:19,520 Speaker 1: It was one o'clock on the afternoon of nineteenth of 180 00:14:19,520 --> 00:14:23,640 Speaker 1: October eighteen sixty seven, when a fire broke out in 181 00:14:23,680 --> 00:14:27,360 Speaker 1: the building on top of the central shaft. A lantern 182 00:14:27,520 --> 00:14:31,880 Speaker 1: was left too close to the tank containing flammable nafta gas. 183 00:14:32,640 --> 00:14:36,359 Speaker 1: When this tank was opened for checks, the vapor ignited 184 00:14:36,880 --> 00:14:42,320 Speaker 1: and rapidly enveloped the entire structure in flames. At the time, 185 00:14:42,720 --> 00:14:46,280 Speaker 1: thirteen men were at the bottom of the shaft. By 186 00:14:46,320 --> 00:14:50,120 Speaker 1: that point, the dig had reached just under six hundred feet, 187 00:14:50,920 --> 00:14:54,800 Speaker 1: about half of its eventual depth, but far enough doubt 188 00:14:55,080 --> 00:14:58,480 Speaker 1: that those inside must have felt as though they'd been 189 00:14:58,560 --> 00:15:03,000 Speaker 1: swallowed whole by the A rough structure of steps and 190 00:15:03,080 --> 00:15:07,840 Speaker 1: wooden platforms ringed the inside of that stone throat, leaving 191 00:15:07,920 --> 00:15:11,000 Speaker 1: only enough space for the bucket to pass with its 192 00:15:11,080 --> 00:15:15,800 Speaker 1: load of excavated stone. It was a cramped and frightening 193 00:15:15,880 --> 00:15:20,160 Speaker 1: place to work. The bucket had just ascended and been 194 00:15:20,200 --> 00:15:24,880 Speaker 1: emptied when the fire engulfed the machinery. A foreman tried 195 00:15:24,920 --> 00:15:28,320 Speaker 1: to lure it back down to help retrieve the tunneling men, 196 00:15:28,840 --> 00:15:32,080 Speaker 1: but the flames kept him at bay. He could only 197 00:15:32,120 --> 00:15:36,280 Speaker 1: watch helplessly as the ropes and cables melted and the 198 00:15:36,320 --> 00:15:42,600 Speaker 1: bucket dropped into darkness. Even worse, the platforms at the 199 00:15:42,600 --> 00:15:46,320 Speaker 1: top of the shaft were laden with tools and machine parts. 200 00:15:47,000 --> 00:15:51,680 Speaker 1: When they collapsed, hundreds of drill bits, chisels, and assorted 201 00:15:51,760 --> 00:15:57,000 Speaker 1: sharp metal spilled into the hole like deadly rain. After 202 00:15:57,080 --> 00:16:01,920 Speaker 1: that came the platforms themselves, which crumpled in a mixture 203 00:16:01,960 --> 00:16:05,040 Speaker 1: of timber and ash and sealed the mouth of the 204 00:16:05,120 --> 00:16:10,600 Speaker 1: shaft completely. People rushed to the site, including over a 205 00:16:10,720 --> 00:16:16,920 Speaker 1: hundred fire fighters, who eventually extinguished the burning plug. Once cleared, 206 00:16:17,200 --> 00:16:21,120 Speaker 1: they peered breathlessly into the opening that seemed to yawn 207 00:16:21,200 --> 00:16:24,720 Speaker 1: back at them like a screaming mouth, but not a 208 00:16:24,800 --> 00:16:31,320 Speaker 1: sound was heard. Eventually, a workman named Mallory volunteered to 209 00:16:31,360 --> 00:16:35,280 Speaker 1: be lowered into the shaft on a single rope. He 210 00:16:35,360 --> 00:16:39,240 Speaker 1: descended around four in the morning, swapping the gloom of 211 00:16:39,280 --> 00:16:50,920 Speaker 1: an October night for the deeper darkness below. A journalist 212 00:16:50,960 --> 00:16:55,480 Speaker 1: for the North Adams Transcript described Malory's descent as an 213 00:16:55,520 --> 00:17:00,560 Speaker 1: exhibition of genuine heroism, with no stirring battle music, no 214 00:17:00,760 --> 00:17:05,159 Speaker 1: rushing thousands to share and reduce the terror. His peril 215 00:17:05,359 --> 00:17:09,639 Speaker 1: was grim and dreadful, and he went alone amid silence 216 00:17:09,880 --> 00:17:16,159 Speaker 1: and shuddering suspense. Hundreds of onlookers huddled in anticipation for 217 00:17:16,240 --> 00:17:21,080 Speaker 1: the thirty or forty minutes that Malory was in the shaft. Eventually, 218 00:17:21,480 --> 00:17:24,600 Speaker 1: he was drawn back up, ashen faced and on the 219 00:17:24,720 --> 00:17:29,120 Speaker 1: verge of passing out from air, noxious enough to extinguish 220 00:17:29,160 --> 00:17:33,919 Speaker 1: his lamp. Before lapsing into unconsciousness, he could only gasp 221 00:17:33,960 --> 00:17:39,639 Speaker 1: out the words no hope. Malory described how he'd reached 222 00:17:39,680 --> 00:17:43,119 Speaker 1: the bottom to find that the shaft was flooded to 223 00:17:43,240 --> 00:17:47,400 Speaker 1: a good dozen feet. This was to be expected, as 224 00:17:47,440 --> 00:17:50,760 Speaker 1: the machinery that pumped water out of the shaft had 225 00:17:50,800 --> 00:17:55,120 Speaker 1: been destroyed by the fire. However, the series of ladders 226 00:17:55,119 --> 00:17:59,080 Speaker 1: and platforms that the miners used to climb out sat 227 00:17:59,119 --> 00:18:02,919 Speaker 1: seventy feet above the bottom. A hoist was needed to 228 00:18:02,960 --> 00:18:06,040 Speaker 1: bridge that gap, but it had been rendered useless by 229 00:18:06,080 --> 00:18:10,399 Speaker 1: the fire, and so it was decided. Even if the 230 00:18:10,440 --> 00:18:14,040 Speaker 1: men survived the hail of falling debris, they never had 231 00:18:14,080 --> 00:18:18,480 Speaker 1: a chance of escaping the flood. They likely died in 232 00:18:18,520 --> 00:18:22,880 Speaker 1: the darkness and panic as the cold water inched slowly 233 00:18:23,160 --> 00:18:28,000 Speaker 1: up their bodies. It was soon after that that strange 234 00:18:28,080 --> 00:18:32,600 Speaker 1: things began to happen. It started with the bodies of 235 00:18:32,760 --> 00:18:36,840 Speaker 1: lost work crew beginning to surface in the shaft, as 236 00:18:36,840 --> 00:18:41,879 Speaker 1: if the hoosack was reluctantly releasing its grip. Over the 237 00:18:41,920 --> 00:18:46,040 Speaker 1: course of that long, heart worn winter, whales were said 238 00:18:46,080 --> 00:18:50,320 Speaker 1: to be heard coming from the shaft, cries of anguish 239 00:18:50,320 --> 00:18:55,280 Speaker 1: and pain, only partially muffled by the earth. More bizarre 240 00:18:55,560 --> 00:19:00,760 Speaker 1: were the apparent sightings of hazy figures carrying pickaxes and shovels. 241 00:19:01,480 --> 00:19:04,760 Speaker 1: They didn't respond when addressed, and they would vanish in 242 00:19:04,800 --> 00:19:08,879 Speaker 1: a moment, leaving no footprints in the freshly fallen snow. 243 00:19:09,800 --> 00:19:13,560 Speaker 1: But they walked the sight like they knew it, like 244 00:19:13,680 --> 00:19:17,480 Speaker 1: they fitted in there. It was almost a full year 245 00:19:17,760 --> 00:19:22,119 Speaker 1: before the shaft was pumped dry and the final bodies retrieved. 246 00:19:23,040 --> 00:19:27,240 Speaker 1: Their discovery painted a new patterner of horror on events, 247 00:19:27,600 --> 00:19:30,600 Speaker 1: as it was found that some of the men had 248 00:19:30,600 --> 00:19:35,000 Speaker 1: apparently survived the initial disaster and even built a crude 249 00:19:35,160 --> 00:19:39,399 Speaker 1: raft from the fallen timber. Whether they had then died 250 00:19:39,520 --> 00:19:42,720 Speaker 1: slowly from a lack of oxygen or through the even 251 00:19:42,800 --> 00:19:48,240 Speaker 1: more prolonged agony of starvation, none could say, nor could 252 00:19:48,240 --> 00:19:52,800 Speaker 1: anyone suggest how Malory had missed them during his rescue attempt, 253 00:19:53,760 --> 00:19:56,679 Speaker 1: or that anyone knew as that they had lingered in 254 00:19:56,720 --> 00:20:01,040 Speaker 1: the pitch. Those ghostly cries said to have been heard 255 00:20:01,280 --> 00:20:06,480 Speaker 1: emanating up from it, perhaps not quite so ghostly after all. 256 00:20:17,200 --> 00:20:20,320 Speaker 1: That final burial of the men from the pit seemed 257 00:20:20,320 --> 00:20:23,920 Speaker 1: to put to rest the supposed sightings of eerie figures 258 00:20:24,280 --> 00:20:27,920 Speaker 1: on the hillside around the shaft, but it didn't dampen 259 00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:33,160 Speaker 1: the strange activity deeper inside the hoosack. With so much 260 00:20:33,280 --> 00:20:38,480 Speaker 1: trauma stacking up, disquiet had arisen among the workforce. Men 261 00:20:38,560 --> 00:20:41,560 Speaker 1: began to complain about hearing the voice of a man 262 00:20:42,040 --> 00:20:46,760 Speaker 1: crying out in agony from somewhere within the tunnel. They 263 00:20:46,760 --> 00:20:51,639 Speaker 1: became so nervous that entire teams refused to enter after sunset, 264 00:20:52,200 --> 00:20:55,919 Speaker 1: and some walked off the job for good. One of 265 00:20:55,960 --> 00:20:59,840 Speaker 1: the dig managers, and mister Dunn, insisted that the noises 266 00:21:00,080 --> 00:21:03,560 Speaker 1: and no more than wind rushing through the cavity, But 267 00:21:03,720 --> 00:21:06,959 Speaker 1: faced with the labour revolt, he reached out to his friend, 268 00:21:07,280 --> 00:21:11,040 Speaker 1: a mechanical engineer named Paul Travers, to see if he 269 00:21:11,119 --> 00:21:15,159 Speaker 1: could help. As well as being respected within the industry, 270 00:21:15,520 --> 00:21:19,600 Speaker 1: Travers was also a decorated cavalry officer who'd served in 271 00:21:19,640 --> 00:21:24,159 Speaker 1: the Civil War. Everything about him spoke of common sense 272 00:21:24,440 --> 00:21:28,480 Speaker 1: and strong nerves, and on the night of September seventh, 273 00:21:28,520 --> 00:21:32,359 Speaker 1: eighteen sixty eight, he and Dunn toward the tunnel to 274 00:21:32,440 --> 00:21:37,439 Speaker 1: try and help dispel the worker's superstitions. In a letter 275 00:21:37,680 --> 00:21:41,760 Speaker 1: composed the following morning, Travers wrote how he and Done 276 00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:45,720 Speaker 1: bought a good two miles into the tunnel, notably to 277 00:21:45,800 --> 00:21:49,159 Speaker 1: the area below the central shaft and near the place 278 00:21:49,320 --> 00:21:54,480 Speaker 1: where Ringo Kelly's body was found. There in the cold silence, 279 00:21:54,920 --> 00:21:59,200 Speaker 1: they did indeed hear what sounded like a man groaning 280 00:21:59,240 --> 00:22:03,639 Speaker 1: in pain right by their position, But when they turned 281 00:22:03,680 --> 00:22:08,119 Speaker 1: on their lamps, they saw that they were entirely alone, 282 00:22:08,600 --> 00:22:13,680 Speaker 1: I'll admit, Travis wrote, I haven't been that frightened since Shiloh. 283 00:22:15,280 --> 00:22:18,920 Speaker 1: Travers and Dunn heard only what they took to be voices, 284 00:22:19,880 --> 00:22:24,800 Speaker 1: evidence perhaps of Charles Babbage's theory that human utterances can 285 00:22:24,920 --> 00:22:28,679 Speaker 1: linger in the air long after we are gone. But 286 00:22:28,800 --> 00:22:32,600 Speaker 1: in June eighteen seventy two, another trip into the tunnel 287 00:22:32,960 --> 00:22:38,000 Speaker 1: climaxed in a more viscerule encounter. A doctor named Clifford 288 00:22:38,080 --> 00:22:43,359 Speaker 1: Owens accepted the invitation to explore the houssack alongside drilling 289 00:22:43,440 --> 00:22:48,520 Speaker 1: Superintendent James mc kinstry. As they later described it, the 290 00:22:48,600 --> 00:22:53,919 Speaker 1: two men entered the tunnel at precisely eleven thirty p m. And, 291 00:22:54,160 --> 00:22:57,880 Speaker 1: just like Travers and Dunn four years before, they walked 292 00:22:57,960 --> 00:23:03,159 Speaker 1: two miles into the darkness. Owens later described their procession 293 00:23:03,680 --> 00:23:07,040 Speaker 1: lit only by the dim smoky light of their lamp 294 00:23:07,320 --> 00:23:12,280 Speaker 1: as the outside air and moonlight dwindled behind them. Nearing 295 00:23:12,320 --> 00:23:16,320 Speaker 1: the middle of the tunnel, they paused to rest. Suddenly, 296 00:23:16,680 --> 00:23:20,680 Speaker 1: they both began to hear a mournful sound and allulating 297 00:23:20,760 --> 00:23:25,320 Speaker 1: cry approaching them from down the tunnel. Before they could 298 00:23:25,400 --> 00:23:28,840 Speaker 1: so much as query the source, they apparently saw a 299 00:23:28,920 --> 00:23:32,680 Speaker 1: dimly lit figure walking towards them from the western end. 300 00:23:33,720 --> 00:23:37,440 Speaker 1: At first glance, Owens took the figure for a workman, 301 00:23:37,960 --> 00:23:42,879 Speaker 1: perhaps lost or injured, struggling toward the rescue of their lamps. 302 00:23:43,440 --> 00:23:49,440 Speaker 1: As it drew closer, however, he noticed two alarming details. First, 303 00:23:49,840 --> 00:23:54,160 Speaker 1: the figure took on a strange blue hue, dimly illuminated 304 00:23:54,280 --> 00:23:58,240 Speaker 1: against the surrounding blackness, and though it had the familiar 305 00:23:58,320 --> 00:24:02,280 Speaker 1: shape of a man, there was no head above the neck. 306 00:24:09,640 --> 00:24:14,440 Speaker 1: Terrified into paralysis, Owens and McKinstry could only watch as 307 00:24:14,440 --> 00:24:18,880 Speaker 1: the blue shape apparently drew closer, so close that Owens 308 00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:22,440 Speaker 1: could have reached out and touched it. There it stopped 309 00:24:22,720 --> 00:24:26,880 Speaker 1: mere feet away, where it remained motionless for several seconds, 310 00:24:27,359 --> 00:24:29,720 Speaker 1: and though it had no head with which to do so, 311 00:24:30,200 --> 00:24:35,240 Speaker 1: both men agreed that they felt it was observing them. Abruptly, 312 00:24:35,320 --> 00:24:39,080 Speaker 1: the figure moved off, walking past the stunned men and 313 00:24:39,160 --> 00:24:43,720 Speaker 1: dwindling into the dimness. They beat a hasty retreat, all 314 00:24:43,760 --> 00:24:47,040 Speaker 1: the while aware that they were now pursuing the entity, 315 00:24:47,600 --> 00:24:52,159 Speaker 1: though it didn't appear again. Owens and mckinstrey's is the 316 00:24:52,200 --> 00:24:55,919 Speaker 1: most famous apparent encounter in the Houssack, but it is 317 00:24:56,040 --> 00:25:00,159 Speaker 1: far from the last. The first train passed through the 318 00:25:00,200 --> 00:25:04,720 Speaker 1: housack in February of eighteen seventy five, carrying one hundred 319 00:25:04,760 --> 00:25:09,920 Speaker 1: and twenty five curious passengers. Nothing went awry. The huge 320 00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:14,240 Speaker 1: undertaking had been a success. New England was now readily 321 00:25:14,280 --> 00:25:18,560 Speaker 1: accessible by rail, but the end of construction didn't bring 322 00:25:18,600 --> 00:25:22,959 Speaker 1: an end to the tunnel's dark infamy. Several workers from 323 00:25:23,000 --> 00:25:27,959 Speaker 1: the Boston and Main Railroad reported unnerving experiences while making 324 00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:32,080 Speaker 1: the route. In the autumn of eighteen seventy five, a 325 00:25:32,119 --> 00:25:36,960 Speaker 1: fire tender named Harlan Mulvany was transporting a wagon loaded 326 00:25:37,040 --> 00:25:40,639 Speaker 1: with timber into the tunnel. He'd only gone a short 327 00:25:40,720 --> 00:25:44,359 Speaker 1: way into the shadow when something spooked both him and 328 00:25:44,440 --> 00:25:49,520 Speaker 1: his horses. Onlookers watched as the panicked man roughly whipped 329 00:25:49,520 --> 00:25:53,240 Speaker 1: his horses into a tight turn and careened out of 330 00:25:53,280 --> 00:25:58,440 Speaker 1: the tunnel. Several days later, workmen found both the horses 331 00:25:58,800 --> 00:26:02,960 Speaker 1: and Mulvaney's tims wagon in the Adams Woods, more than 332 00:26:03,000 --> 00:26:07,320 Speaker 1: three miles from the Housack of Mulvaaney. However, there was 333 00:26:07,440 --> 00:26:12,280 Speaker 1: no sign and the man was never seen again. His 334 00:26:12,600 --> 00:26:16,960 Speaker 1: was not the only disappearance. A century later, a man 335 00:26:17,080 --> 00:26:20,919 Speaker 1: named Bernard her starboard walked into the North Adams end 336 00:26:20,960 --> 00:26:23,960 Speaker 1: of the tunnel with its fox terrier on a leash. 337 00:26:24,400 --> 00:26:27,600 Speaker 1: His plan was to walk the full length of the Hoosack. 338 00:26:28,680 --> 00:26:31,879 Speaker 1: When asked why, he simply said that he was in 339 00:26:31,920 --> 00:26:35,439 Speaker 1: the mood for an adventure. Whether he got one or not, 340 00:26:35,840 --> 00:26:39,879 Speaker 1: we will never know. Her starboard never emerged at the 341 00:26:39,920 --> 00:26:44,600 Speaker 1: eastern end. Police and rail workers searched the tunnel, but 342 00:26:44,800 --> 00:26:48,719 Speaker 1: no trace of the man or his dog was ever found. 343 00:26:56,080 --> 00:27:00,760 Speaker 1: The stone tape theory posits that ghosts are not spirits, agency, 344 00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:05,960 Speaker 1: or impact. Rather, they are supposedly just visual replays of 345 00:27:06,119 --> 00:27:10,879 Speaker 1: moments of high emotion. The men apparently seen wandering the 346 00:27:10,920 --> 00:27:14,679 Speaker 1: ground around the mouth of the central shaft, the lonely 347 00:27:14,760 --> 00:27:18,240 Speaker 1: voices heard within the tunnel. Both of these would be 348 00:27:18,280 --> 00:27:23,639 Speaker 1: accommodated within the stone tape theory. Joseph in Poco's story 349 00:27:24,080 --> 00:27:28,720 Speaker 1: puts a different complexion on the Housack. In Poco, an 350 00:27:28,800 --> 00:27:32,960 Speaker 1: Italian immigrant to the area, began working aged eighteen for 351 00:27:33,080 --> 00:27:37,120 Speaker 1: the Boston and Main Railroad in nineteen twenty two. He'd 352 00:27:37,160 --> 00:27:40,720 Speaker 1: heard tales of the Houssock's reputation, but laughed them off. 353 00:27:41,800 --> 00:27:45,600 Speaker 1: Maybe he retained his good humor for two years until 354 00:27:45,640 --> 00:27:49,520 Speaker 1: February of nineteen twenty four. When he was busy working 355 00:27:49,560 --> 00:27:53,920 Speaker 1: one morning chopping thick ice from the track, he found 356 00:27:54,000 --> 00:27:58,440 Speaker 1: himself separated from his workmates by five hundred feet, which, 357 00:27:58,720 --> 00:28:01,560 Speaker 1: in the blind dark of the Husac, may as well 358 00:28:01,600 --> 00:28:05,800 Speaker 1: have been miles. Joseph was working by lantern light in 359 00:28:05,840 --> 00:28:09,240 Speaker 1: the middle of the tracks when, as he later recounted, 360 00:28:09,720 --> 00:28:13,720 Speaker 1: suddenly the tunnel filled with smoke. It was then he 361 00:28:13,720 --> 00:28:19,440 Speaker 1: heard a yell, Joe, it said, jump Joe. The young 362 00:28:19,480 --> 00:28:22,359 Speaker 1: man looked up to see the bulk of the number 363 00:28:22,440 --> 00:28:27,440 Speaker 1: sixty Express train less than seventy feet away. He threw 364 00:28:27,520 --> 00:28:33,400 Speaker 1: himself sideways and lived to chip ice another day. Looking around, 365 00:28:33,680 --> 00:28:37,440 Speaker 1: he saw no one. The voice seemed to come from 366 00:28:37,560 --> 00:28:42,160 Speaker 1: thin air, and it had saved his life. Six weeks later, 367 00:28:42,720 --> 00:28:45,720 Speaker 1: Joseph was back at work in the tunnel, using a 368 00:28:45,760 --> 00:28:48,840 Speaker 1: heavy bar to free train cars that had frozen to 369 00:28:48,920 --> 00:28:53,520 Speaker 1: the track. Once again, he was alone when he apparently 370 00:28:53,600 --> 00:28:58,320 Speaker 1: heard that familiar voice yell, drop it Joe. When he 371 00:28:58,360 --> 00:29:02,400 Speaker 1: did just that, moments later, the iron bar was flung 372 00:29:02,440 --> 00:29:05,800 Speaker 1: against the tunnel war by the current from a falling 373 00:29:05,920 --> 00:29:11,320 Speaker 1: power line. Weeks later, when he narrowly avoided being crushed 374 00:29:11,400 --> 00:29:14,880 Speaker 1: by a falling oak tree just outside the tunnel entrance. 375 00:29:15,560 --> 00:29:19,600 Speaker 1: Joseph and his workmates claimed to have heard wild peals 376 00:29:19,600 --> 00:29:24,840 Speaker 1: of laughter, seemingly without source. It was enough to convince 377 00:29:24,960 --> 00:29:30,320 Speaker 1: Joseph in Poco to seek employment elsewhere. He resigned and 378 00:29:30,440 --> 00:29:34,840 Speaker 1: moved to Springfield, Massachusetts, but each year he made a 379 00:29:34,840 --> 00:29:38,840 Speaker 1: pilgrimage back to the Hoosac to pay tribute and give 380 00:29:38,960 --> 00:29:43,000 Speaker 1: thanks to what he called his friend in the tunnel. 381 00:29:47,920 --> 00:29:51,160 Speaker 1: Thank you so much again for listening to the show Unexplained. 382 00:29:51,160 --> 00:29:53,760 Speaker 1: We'll take a short break now for the holidays. We'll 383 00:29:53,760 --> 00:29:56,840 Speaker 1: be back in the new year on Friday, January tenth 384 00:29:57,080 --> 00:30:02,280 Speaker 1: with the next new episode. Until then, this episode was 385 00:30:02,320 --> 00:30:07,440 Speaker 1: written by Neil McRobert and produced by me Richard McLain Smith. 386 00:30:08,440 --> 00:30:11,080 Speaker 1: Neil is the creator and host of his own brilliant 387 00:30:11,080 --> 00:30:15,680 Speaker 1: podcast called Talking Scared, in which he discusses the craft 388 00:30:15,720 --> 00:30:19,720 Speaker 1: of horror, writing with everyone from Ta Nanaeve Do to 389 00:30:19,840 --> 00:30:23,960 Speaker 1: the God of horror himself, Stephen King. I can't recommend 390 00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:28,720 Speaker 1: it highly enough. Unexplained as an Avy Club Productions podcast 391 00:30:29,200 --> 00:30:33,400 Speaker 1: created by Richard McClain smith. All other elements of the podcast, 392 00:30:33,480 --> 00:30:37,160 Speaker 1: including the music, are also produced by me Richard McLain 393 00:30:37,240 --> 00:30:41,760 Speaker 1: Smith Unexplained. The book and audiobook is now available to 394 00:30:41,800 --> 00:30:47,200 Speaker 1: buy worldwide. You can purchase from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Waterstones, 395 00:30:47,200 --> 00:30:51,040 Speaker 1: and other bookstores. Please subscribe to and rate the show 396 00:30:51,360 --> 00:30:54,240 Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts, and feel free to get 397 00:30:54,280 --> 00:30:57,680 Speaker 1: in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories 398 00:30:57,760 --> 00:30:59,880 Speaker 1: you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have an ex 399 00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:02,920 Speaker 1: explanation of your own you'd like to share. You can 400 00:31:02,960 --> 00:31:06,560 Speaker 1: find out more at Unexplained podcast dot com and reach 401 00:31:06,640 --> 00:31:11,040 Speaker 1: us online through Twitter at Unexplained Pod and Facebook at 402 00:31:11,080 --> 00:31:15,360 Speaker 1: Facebook dot com, Forward Slash Unexplained Podcast