M.A. Kleen

Just north of Lexington, Virginia, a forgotten stone tunnel lies beneath the old Valley Railroad. Some say it whispers. Others say it watches. Whether you’re drawn by folklore or something you can’t explain, the Poor House Road Tunnel leaves a chill that lingers long after you leave.

• The tunnel was built for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, yet some believe it was originally constructed by slave labor or prisoners.
• Locals have long reported phantom screams, ghostly whispers, and a dark figure standing inside the tunnel.
• investigators have recorded unexplained cold spots, drained batteries, and strange photos showing light anomalies.
• A persistent legend says that if you drive through the tunnel, stop, and turn off your lights, you may hear tapping on your car or see shadowy forms move just outside your window.

North of Lexington, Virginia, hidden along a forgotten stretch of gravel road, lies a mossy stone-arch tunnel built in 1883. It once carried Poor House Road beneath the old Valley Railroad, a spur of the Baltimore and Ohio line that connected Staunton to Lexington. The trains are long gone. The rails have vanished into the woods, but the tunnel remains. Still, still enough to make you uneasy.

I found it on a quiet spring afternoon. Poor House Road isn’t far from the highway, but it feels worlds away. The road narrows to a gravel path, hemmed in by forest. At its heart sits the tunnel, carved from massive stone blocks, dark with age. The creek beside it gurgles softly. Roots spill down the embankments where the trains once ran above.

It is easy to see why this place is tied to so many strange stories. Even in daylight, the tunnel feels separate from the world around it. Cold, quiet, watchful.

According to local legend and paranormal researchers, the Poor House Road Tunnel has a reputation for unexplained activity. One of the most widely shared accounts comes from Virginia Paranormal, who visited in December 2007. The team recorded an EVP, short for “electronic voice phenomenon,” that captured what sounds like a child’s voice whispering. They made the recording before learning of any local legends, which left them shaken.

The stories vary. Some say two girls were playing in the woods nearby when they were lured to the tunnel and murdered. Others tell of a woman who was raped and killed inside. Still another claims a man died on the tracks above, crushed by a passing train. Though none of these accounts can be confirmed with historical records, they have become part of the tunnel’s identity. The lack of documentation has never stopped people from coming forward with their own experiences.

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Hey, Sleuthhounds!

Where is the old poorhouse believed to have stood in relation to the tunnel? Why might this be significant?

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Witnesses describe hearing footsteps, even voices, with no one in sight. Some report a heavy mist rising from the ground when they stand in the center of the tunnel. There are tales of phantom headlights approaching from behind, followed by sudden engine failure that prevents people from driving away. Urban legends or not, something about this place unsettles even the skeptical.

When I visited, I didn’t hear voices. But I did hear my own footsteps echo louder than they should. I noticed how sound seemed to vanish just beyond the tunnel’s midpoint. The graffiti on the walls, soaked with years of rain and runoff, looked like it had bled into the stone itself.

There is a kind of visual distortion when you look from the inside out, as though the tunnel reshapes the light. It would not take much—a breeze, a shift in shadow, the trickle of the creek—to convince a tired mind that something else was present.

Paranormal investigators have captured strange photographs and audio clips here. Bright streaks of light with no source. Disembodied voices. Shadows that flit across the mouth of the tunnel without explanation. One visitor reported hearing frantic, muffled voices, like a crowd murmuring in another room. Others say they have seen ghostly figures, or felt something cold brush against their arm in the dark.

Whether or not you believe in ghosts, it is easy to understand how Poor House Road Tunnel became a magnet for haunted folklore. The setting alone is enough. The overgrown woods. The crumbling road. The echoing stone. This isn’t a place people pass by. It is a place they go looking for. And when they leave, they remember it.

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Sources

Carmichael, Sherman. Mysterious Virginia. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2022.

Varhola, Michael J. Ghosthunting Virginia. Cincinnati: Clerisy Press, 2008.

Woody, Reagan. “The Haunting Of Poor House Road Tunnel.” The Prowler (Lexington, VA) 3 March 2021.