Stumphouse Mountain Tunnel in

Oconee County, South Carolina Oconee County is the westernmost County (United States), county in the U.S. state of South Carolina. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 78,607. Its county seat is Walhalla, South Carolina, Walhalla and its large ...

is an incomplete railroad

tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

for the

Blue Ridge Railroad of South Carolina The Blue Ridge Railway was a 19th-century railroad in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was originally chartered in 1852 as the Blue Ridge Railroad of South Carolina. Original plans were for a 195-mile line from Anderson, South Carolina, to Knoxv ...

Sumter National Forest The Sumter National Forest is one of two forests in South Carolina that are managed together by the United States Forest Service, the other being the Francis Marion National Forest. The Sumter National Forest consists of which are divided into 3 ...

. The tunnel, along with nearby Issaqueena Falls, are now a Walhalla city park. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1971.

History

The tunnel was first proposed in 1835 by residents of

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...

as a new and shorter route for the Blue Ridge Railroad between Charleston and the

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valley area which until then was only accessible by bypassing the mountains entirely to the South and then traveling up north through

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and middle

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

. In 1852, 13 miles of tunnel were proposed to cross the Blue Ridge Mountains through South Carolina,

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

, and into Tennessee. Construction on the railway was begun in the late 1850s and was successful through most of South Carolina until hitting the mountains around Wallhalla in Oconee County. There Stumphouse tunnel along with three other tunnels was to be built. Construction on Stumphouse tunnel began in 1856 when the George Collyer Company of London brought many Irish workers into the area for this project. Many of the workers lived in housing on top of Stumphouse mountain called Tunnel Hill. By 1859, the State of South Carolina had spent over a million dollars on the tunnel and refused to spend any more on the project, therefore the tunnel work was abandoned. The tunnel had been excavated to a length of 1,617 feet of the planned 5,863 total feet. Today, where the tunnel was meant to end on the other side of the mountain, there remains a mound of earth (intended for the railway tracks) submerged during the summer months under

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, located just west of Highway 28. As a part of the planned Blue Ridge Railroad, two other tunnels were begun in the 1850s and are all connected by terrain at railroad grade. Middle Tunnel, a quarter mile from Stumphouse Tunnel was successfully completed but mostly collapsed and was partially sealed off in the mid-1900s. It is only accessible by foot. Saddle Tunnel, the last of the South Carolina complex was also begun for a short distance 1.5 miles north of Middle Tunnel. Saddle is partially completed yet is mostly submerged by a small lake. Only the entrance to the tunnel is visible. Beginning in the 1950s Stumphouse tunnel was used by

Clemson University Clemson University () is a public land-grant research university in Clemson, South Carolina. Founded in 1889, Clemson is the second-largest university in the student population in South Carolina. For the fall 2019 semester, the university enro ...

to grow blue cheese until the 1970s when the blue cheese operation was relocated to air-conditioned cheese ripening rooms where the tunnel environment was duplicated. Today, Stumphouse tunnel is operated as a public park along with nearby Isaqueena Falls by the city of Walhalla. It is open daily except Christmas Day and during inclement weather from 10am until 5pm. Inside the tunnel the temperature is a constant 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius) with humidity of 85%. The tunnel is easily accessible by foot, a few yards from a gravel parking lot. The structural integrity of the tunnel is solid and almost no cracking is apparent minus an enlarged vent halfway through the tunnel. In 1999 this vent was impacted by a rock slide, however in 2000 the town of Walhalla re-excavated the tunnel and safely returned it to public use. After a developer attempted to purchase the property from the City of Walhalla in 2007, Naturaland Trust, a conservation agency created by C. Thomas Wyche, pledged about $2 million to protect the surrounding property; and a consortium of non-profit conservation groups, private individuals, and the state of South Carolina provided the money and resources to preserve the mountain for public use.Tonya Maxwell, "Wyche recalled for conservation efforts," ''Greenville News'', January 27, 2015, 7A.

References

External links

Stumphouse Tunnel and Issaqueena Falls

Video overview of Stumphouse Tunnel and Issaqueena FallsStumphouse Tunnel Complex
photos and history {{National Register of Historic Places in South Carolina Railway buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in South Carolina National Register of Historic Places in Oconee County, South Carolina Sumter National Forest Railway tunnels on the National Register of Historic Places Tourist attractions in Oconee County, South Carolina Buildings and structures in Oconee County, South Carolina 1853 establishments in South Carolina