Right out of the line of sight, tucked into the side of the road bordering a fairly large dam in Clinton Massachusetts, sits an abandoned beauty of a train tunnel. When you start searching out places like this, as with any "slightly off" hobbies like: bird watching, rock collecting and the entire field of entomology, people that share your interest sometimes become excited (or really, really, overly excited) and like to tell you, in rapid succession, about their own happenings. That was the case with
this site. I was speaking to someone this winter and they, with a sparkle in their eye, told me about a tunnel that was still open, but not commonly known, and was completely abandoned by the state. I heard... and let it fall into the files I keep in the back of my head about these things. (These files are the reason that other things like taking out the trash every week and returning library books, don't seem to find a place in my memory.) So I, flanked by a small but pretty awesome assortment of friends, their children and my own children, set out to find it. (Props to Ruben, Ben and Keri... I think we may be setting out on more of these "adventures" in the future.)
Finding the place was actually really easy. There is the remains of a trestle still visible on the side of the road
The trestle
opposite the dam. The tunnel lies directly in back of that. Also, you could just reference the map at the upper corner of this website to find out the exact location. The dam on the opposite side is also worth exploring. It is actually quite beautiful and has trails that run both sides of the valley. At one point people were allowed to walk across the top. I don't think that that is still a possibility, but the trails are really worth the trip. Just one more thought before we get back to the tunnel, there is also a museum dedicated to Russian Icons that is actually pretty extensive and worth the time it takes to go through it.
Right... back to tunnels. This tunnel, as you can see by the picture at the top, was really big. The
construction was kind of breath taking. It went way above utilitarian in my opinion. Massive stone blocks, nicely splayed out at the main entrance, led into a smooth walled, enormously tall tunnel. I estimate the tunnel to be maybe a quarter of a mile long, but it really does feel longer when you are walking through. A little over half way through the walls change from manicured cement, to roughly chiseled out stones. I think the stones are more impressive than the cement. They have fallen in places, but I think it all remains reasonably sound.
The temperature drops a good twenty degrees on the inside. When Ben and I stood in front of the
tunnel waiting for the others to arrive, the breeze carried through the tunnel was like air conditioning. The floor of the tunnel is wet in places, especially near the end where it gets pretty swampy. If you are considering going past the far end of the tunnel, I strongly recommend boots. Cracks in the roof have begun to develop stalactites. There is some graffiti, as can be expected, but I was surprised by the overall lack of trash. There was some, and evidence of party fires, but it was kind of minimal for an open tunnel hidden from view. Parts of the wall had broken off in places revealing the wooden supports structure beneath.
There is internet talk about this place being haunted by ghost trains. Oh if there were only ghost trains, my life would be so much cooler. In truth the creepiness factor is sadly missing here. It is awesome, but it isn't creepy despite a couple of traditional ghost-hunteresque happenings: Keri's newly bought flashlight did inexplicably run out of batteries half-way through. Ben and I did have one moment where we stopped and looked at each other as what sounded like a large truck, or by a small stretch of the imagination, a train, sounded like it was roaring its way through the tunnel. The sound was deep, the kind that you can feel in your chest. There is nothing but woods on top of the tunnel, so the best that we could figure it, the sound of trucks going by on the nearby road
might sometime get amplified in the tunnel. The only scary part of the tunnel really was the poison ivy that lines the left had trail leading to the tunnel. My son summed up the tunnel by calling it similar to something out of Indiana Jones. I agree, there are parts of it, surrounded by woods that have completely retaken it that did seem like an ancient ruin. The far end for example does seem have that grand, abandoned feel. All in all, this is a pretty cool place and totally worth the trip. I heard talk about the Rail Trail claiming it. That would be very, very cool.
As with all good tunnels, trips also have to have an end. We ended ours by going to another secret worth sharing, the nearby Rota Springs Farm for ice cream. I highly recommend the Lemon Sorbet... little chunks of lemon rind right in the sorbet... yes!
