HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena, as catalogued
A 1,376-foot B&O railroad tunnel on the North Bend Rail Trail, home to the White Woman of Silver Run legend
North Bend Rail Trail (Tunnel No. 19), Silver Run Road, Cairo, WV 26337
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free public rail-trail; no admission
Access
Limited Access
Crushed-stone rail-trail surface; the tunnel interior is unlit and pitch-dark for its full length
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1857 · Baltimore and Ohio Railroad History · North Bend Rail Trail · American Discovery Trail · Ritchie County Heritage
The Silver Run Tunnel, designated Tunnel No. 19 on the line, was cut through rock for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad during the railroad's mid-19th-century push across what was then western Virginia. Sources place its construction between 1853 and 1857. It is 1,376 feet long and lies on a corridor that once included a string of tunnels between Clarksburg and Parkersburg.
The stretch of line carried B&O traffic for more than a century, including overnight express trains running west from Grafton toward Parkersburg. After rail service ended, the right-of-way was converted into the North Bend Rail Trail, a roughly 72-mile route that incorporates the old grade, ten tunnels, and dozens of bridges between Wolf Summit and Parkersburg. The trail is also a segment of the transcontinental American Discovery Trail.
The Silver Run Tunnel sits near the small community of Cairo and the former Silver Run station. Like most of the North Bend tunnels, its interior is unlit, and walkers carry flashlights to cross the full length. The trail through this section draws cyclists, hikers, and birdwatchers, and the towns of Cairo, Pennsboro, and Salem along the route have added services for trail visitors. The tunnel's combination of darkness, isolation, and a long-circulated ghost story has made it the best-known of the corridor's haunted sites.
Sources
The Silver Run legend dates in its best-known form to 1910, when an engineer running a midnight westbound express from Grafton toward Parkersburg reported a woman in a pale dress standing on the tracks near the tunnel. He braked hard but could not stop in time; when the train passed the spot, no one was there.
A second, often-repeated episode involves an engineer remembered as O'Flannery, who dismissed the story and said he would not brake if he saw her. According to the tale, when his train reached Parkersburg, telegraph operators reported that a figure in white had ridden the front of his locomotive the whole way. Over the following decades railmen continued to describe seeing a woman on the tracks at the tunnel.
Most local versions identify her as a young bride who waited at the old Silver Run station for a man who never came, and who died there on or near the tracks. Betty Jackson, a retired schoolteacher quoted in coverage of the rail-trail, said the figure 'still waits there, near the mouth of the tunnel, for that train even though there hasn't been a train there for a long while.' The story has no documented newspaper origin and is preserved as oral folklore, but it remains one of the most widely retold ghost tales in north-central West Virginia.
Notable Entities
Walk or bike the North Bend Rail Trail through Tunnel No. 19, the Silver Run Tunnel, west of Ellenboro near Cairo. The 1,376-foot bore is completely dark inside and requires a flashlight. The surrounding trail follows the former Baltimore and Ohio mainline and is part of the cross-country American Discovery Trail.
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