Black Hand Gorge--Interurban Rail Tunnel

I went to Black Hand Gorge for the canal lock, thinking I might be able to see the black hand itself (not being aware it'd been destroyed something like 185 years earlier). But what really drew me in was this random tunnel we found down the trail.

I mean, look at that thing. And I don't mean Katie's infinity scarf.

It wasn't so much the tunnel itself I found fascinating. That part made sense--you're probably sick of my talking about how where there's one mode of transport there's going to be others. There's only so many efficient travel routes in this great nation of ours, so there's going to be overlap. But the thing of it was...there was no hint of what the heck this tunnel was for.

It's long enough you get this neat light-to-dark, dark-to-light effect--must have been fun on a train

It wasn't really big enough for a rail line, based on other tunnels I'd seen. Also, it was hewn out of the rock itself without any additional prettying or reinforcing--something I also thought odd based on my experience. Looking at this now, there'd be no need to line this tunnel because it's cut directly out of the rock. But at the time, I had the Moonville tunnel in my head. But I couldn't see a need for a tunnel that wasn't rail based--couldn't be a canal tow path, you wouldn't put this much work into a road for horse carts or even automobiles just to cut down the gorge.

Keirns tells the story of a blast in the tunnel while under construction that might tie back to this scrawl

There was also this little bit of trivia. It resonated with me because I'd done some looking on what was up here at the preserve (one does not propose a couple hour round-trip to one's wife without having some good sights set up), but none of my initial pings on Black Hand Gorge said anything about a tunnel through the rock. I know better than to think this, but I started having thoughts of some forgotten mystery I could get to the bottom of. An untold story.

The uniform height and arch reminds me of photos I've seen of cathedrals--very impressive to walk through

It wasn't so much an untold story as an undertold story. Some "tunnel" based searches led to me a Wikipedia page, which cited a book by Aaron J. Keirns titled Black Hand Gorge: A Journey Through Time (put out by Little River Publishing). It looked just about perfect for what I wanted to know and did not disappoint. Chapters on the gorge cover everything from the Native American legends to the canal and rail era to "present" day (the book was published in 1995--hard to believe that was 20 years ago, right?). Historical and author's photos provide some fantastic perspective much like I try to achieve here.

Those round spots in the ceiling? Pretty much the only sign of the blasting that took place.

The tunnel was cut for an interurban rail line--think streetcar, but for travelling between cities. They made travel between towns and cities are practical in the 1890's as cars do today, rather than the rail lines that were more of a hassle. The run between Newark and Granville (and by extension, I'm sure, to Columbus) was very successful, and the goal was to extend out to Zanesville--through the gorge, and through Red Rock. It took two shifts of men using dynamite over three months to carve this tunnel out of the rock, and the evidence of the incredible workmanship still shows today.

Red Rock presented some challenges--it was ALL rock

So mystery solved--no grand conspiracy, just an instance of "We only have so many resources, what do we highlight about the gorge?" This rings especially true when you consider Black Hand Gorge is a nature preserve, not a historical one. Which seems like an oversight to me, in a lot of ways, considering the stories around just this one artifact from a bygone era--in "A Journey Through Time" you can read about how the public used the tunnel after the closure of the interurban line (probably after Ford or GM bought it, but that's a story for a different blog).

For now, just try and picture electric trains shuttling back and forth through here each day, people all along the farmland of eastern Ohio taking trips we now consider routine (how many of us commute from Newark to Columbus, or to Zanesville?) but at the time were a huge deal--as much of a game changer in the Ohio economy as the canal system or railroad had been before it.

Incredible to think this was just solid rock--the amount of activity is staggering to think about

Ohio and Erie Canal Lock 16

Picture it: you're a big time producer of something, maybe pig iron south of Columbus. You know there are plenty of buyers for your iron. Factories and mills in places like Cleveland and Buffalo are just dying to turn iron into expensive things.

There's a minor problem, however...those places are hundreds of miles away. And there's no interstate highway system to send truckloads of iron down. There are hardly roads at all, and even fewer trucks. There also isn't a  railroad, because in the 1820's that little world changer hadn't arrived yet.

So what do you do? Use the rivers, of course. Well, if you're able. Rivers are great, but you still have to get to them, challenging with limited overland options. They also have to have enough water in them to float your barges, but not so much water that your barges crash against the river banks and obstacles. Plus, if you're trying to go up river with a heavy load that might be difficult, expensive, or even impossible if there are falls along the way. Finally, the river you have might not even go within a hundred miles of your customers.

For these (and most likely some other) reasons, canal systems were dug all over the place. You had them in England, in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, in New York. And right here in Ohio, both in the East and the West of the state. I find it interesting that ground was broken on the Ohio and Erie Canal not far from Lock 16 pictured here--in Newark, about as close to Columbus as the canal would ever get on it's way to Portsmouth. This is a difficult thing to comprehend for the modern Ohioan.

Of course, the coming of the railroads largely put the canals out of business because they could move freight so much more quickly than the average 3 mph the canals could attain. Many of the right of ways used by the canals were passed to those rail roads or otherwise developed by private citizens until not much sign of the might canal network remains. However, if you know where to look you can still see reminders of the days when 3 mph in a boat being hauled by a mule was the best way to move 10 tons of freight.

Locks--in case you're not familiar with this somewhat obscure piece of technology--are the system used in canals to move boats through different elevations. A boat needing to move from upriver with a nice high water level would need a safe way to navigate a 5-10 foot drop in elevation, since you can't send a boat loaded with 10 tons of anything up (or even down) a stretch of rapids or mini falls.

The boat moves into the lock--this stone channel pictured below--and a set of gates are opened while another is closed. Moving down stream, the gates (which rested in the cutouts pictured above, where even today you can see where the stone was worn smooth by the opening and closing) are closed after the boat--and the ones at the far end open, allowing the boat and all the trapped water to flow safely on the way. If the boat is moving back upstream, the gates up river are opened--to allow water to flood into the lock, and lift the boat up to the proper height.