The story
Moonville was never much — a hundred-odd souls digging coal and clay in Ohio's emptiest county, strung along the Marietta & Cincinnati tracks. Residents walked the rails and the tunnel to get anywhere, and the railroad killed enough of them (a brakeman here, a track-walker there) to seed southeastern Ohio's densest ghost-lore.
The mines quit, the last family left in the 1940s, and the rails themselves were pulled in the 1980s. The brick tunnel — 'MOONVILLE' proud over its arch — survives on a rail-trail through the Zaleski forest, equal parts hiking destination and Halloween pilgrimage; the cemetery on the hill holds the town's whole census.
What remains today
The Moonville Tunnel, rail grade (now trail), bridge abutments, and the hilltop cemetery.
Questions from the field
- Is the Moonville Tunnel haunted?
- It has Ohio's best-documented collection of railroad-death lore, which we report as lore: real accidents, embroidered ghosts. The tunnel needs no embellishment at dusk.
From the field
The most valuable part of this record is the part only visitors can write.
Stamp your passport
Check in at Moonville — GPS-verified visits earn an inked stamp.
File a field report
Road conditions, what's still standing, what's gone — your report joins the record.
Add photographs
Credited, dated, and preserved as part of Moonville's permanent record.
No field reports yet — sign in to file the first.
Sources consulted
- — Vinton County histories
- — Moonville Rail Trail Association
- — Marietta & Cincinnati RR accident records