| Poor House Road Tunnel December 2007 In an attempt to understand the background of this alleged haunted area, I tried to find an event that may have triggered the activity. Although rumors abound about the place, you can’t find any reference to them on the internet. According to locals, Poor House Road Tunnel, located just outside of Lexington, Virginia, holds dark secrets that the town would probably rather forget. Not only was it a place where many a lynching occurred in the 1900’s, it is also reportedly a place where other deadly tragedies have occurred. Two stories, in particular, are whispered about amongst locals. It is said that in the not too distant past, two young girls were playing in the nearby woods where they were shot and killed by an unknown male. There is also talk of a woman who was raped and murdered inside the tunnel. I have not been able to verify any of this, so as with many urban legends, you are left with only rumors or hearsay. Present on our investigation were Tom, Bethany, Devin, Adrienne and I, along with two newcomers, Daniel and Andrew. We took two separate vehicles keeping in touch by walkie-talkie and left from Virginia Beach at about 7:30 PM. Our equipment arsenal consisted of one RCA 64M digital voice recorder with a condenser microphone two RCA EDU10510 digital voice recorders, one Canon Power Shot SD1000 7.1MP Digital Elph camera, one Kodak Easy Share Z700 4 MP digital camera Digital Camera - Sony Cyber Shot 816, a Sony Handy Cam Mini DVD with night shot, flashlights, and a digital thermometer. December 7th 2007 was a frigid night noticeably colder the further from the coast we drove. Knowing we had about a four hour drive ahead of us, we all settled in for the long drive. The mood was cheerful and light, and there were jokes and bantering as the miles passed by. We arrived just outside of Lexington, Virginia at around 11:30 PM. As we wound our way around the darkened back roads, it was noticeable that the sounds of the day had quieted and the air temperature had lowered considerably. Even though according to the moon charts (which I checked before leaving) the moon was waning 3% crescent, there was no moon visible. We accessed the site via Valley Pike Road turning right onto Poor House Road. As we neared the tunnel we slowed the vehicles. The road is narrow with trees along both sides making the darkness seem to close in on you. Being so remote does lend an air of creepiness to the place. It was decided that we would drive through the tunnel to see what was on the other side. Tom announced this via walkie-talkie to the rear vehicle and we proceeded cautiously. Inside the tunnel there is graffiti covering most of the walls letting you know that there have been recent visitors, but when examining the architecture you get the sense that the tunnel has been around a while. Actually it was originally part of the railway system that ran between Lexington and Staunton back in the 1900's. We did not know it yet, but there are trees and bushes that have grown over the place where the tracks once were. The road on the back side of the tunnel seems even more remote, and the large trees that skirt the road form an arch that frames the road, creating an awning effect. We found a place to turn around and approached the tunnel from the opposite direction. Wanting to get some pictures of the outside of it, we stopped and shone our headlights directly on the tunnel. |
| After the initial "sizing up" of the site, we all bundled up and headed towards the tunnel. The temperature was 34 degrees both inside and outside of the tunnel. There was slight precipitation, which mainly consisted of a light fog towards the end of the night. Together we walked through the tunnel and congregated on the opposite side. Teams of two were dispersed back into the tunnel. Claims have been made that children's voices can be heard saying "c'mon" inside of the tunnel. Also there is said to be a black mist or haze that forms near the entrance of the tunnel and approaches those inside. None of us experience that night what others have claimed. We did, however, capture these anomalous photos. |
| The lights were not visible to the naked eye, yet were captured on the Canon Power Shot SD1000 7.1MP Digital Elph camera. The one near Bethany seems to be casting a glow onto the wall in front of her. Although she did have a flashlight with her that night, she did not have a flashlight on when this picture was taken. The only device that she had with her that had any kind of light was a RCA EDU10510 digital voice recorder, which does have a red light when in use (it was at the time). I'm not sure if that could cause the golden hue that seems to be eminating from in front of her. I suppose it is possible. After we transferred this picture onto the computer for better analysis, we did go back into the tunnel to see if there was any graffiti on or near the spot that Bethany is facing. We found nothing that matched the picture. As for the photo with Tom and me towards the entrance of the tunnel. You can see Tom's hands are nowhere near where the light is coming from, but he did have a flashlight with him when we entered. It kinda looks to me as though he has the flashlight under his chin as he tries to turn on the camcorder. Is this paranormal or would a flashlight's beam caught by a camera shutter look like this? I'm not sure, and we will have to experiment and try to recreate this anamoly. It does seems strange to me that we have two pictures which are similar to each other. In one picture the person has a flashlight on, and in the other picture (producing the same effect) the person does not have a flashlight on. Is this paranormal? I can't say one way or the other, but it does make one wonder that if the flashlight is left out of the equation, what is the element that would cause the pictures to produce similar results? I am not a big fan of orbs, but the one in the picture below just sorta pops out at you given the circumstances surrounding the taking of this photo. While Bethany and I were outside of the tunnel waiting for our turn to do EVP inside, we both saw flashes which began above and to the left of the tunnel and moved to the right. The flashes were intermitten over the timespan of about five minutes. Devon snapped this photo in the direction of those flashes shortly after we visually saw them. It was very damp that night. As a matter of fact, there is a small trickle of water that runs through the tunnel, so I suppose this could be moisture in the air and may very well have nothing to do with the flashes that were witnessed. |
| We next decided to walk up the road away from the tunnel. As we were leaving the tunnel, this intriguing EVP was captured using an RCA M64 digital voice recorder equipt with a radioshack 33-33013 condenser microphone. In the beginning of the clip you can hear all of us talking. The voice that was captured seems much closer to the microphone than even me. I had the microphone clipped onto my pocket, and the recorder was inside my pocket. |
| Later we captured this one as we came back towards the tunnel on the same recorder. While it is not as clear as the first one, it is there all the same. I ran both clips through Audacity, but have not changed them in any way (not even amplification). I did select just the portions of the raw audio that I believe to be EVP to be posted here in order to conserve space. I don't think anyone would want to sit through 45 minutes of audio just to hear a two second EVP. I would love to hear what you think they may be saying. |
| Can I say that Poor House Road Tunnel is haunted? No, I cannot. I can only share with you what we have uncovered with our investigation and let you decide for yourself. It seems to me that some urban legends are better off staying hidden beneath the rumors and hearsay, lest the truth be worse. Special thanks to VAMP Investigations for their help in compiling the background for this story. You can check them out at: http://www.vampinvestigations.com/ |