![]() ![]() ![]() It also produces condensation and the tunnel is usually wet. About mid-way in, there is a 16 x 20 foot airshaft that extends 60 feet upwards to the surface, causing a consistent cool breeze to flow out of the tunnel. The tunnel measures 17 feet wide by 25 feet high. Conservation groups would have none of that and a movement is formed to block this from happening.Ģ013 - The tunnel is still open to the public. Work begins on clearing the rocks and accessing the integrity of the structure.Ģ000 - The tunnel reopens for pedestrian use.Ģ007 - A developer proposes to buy the land to build houses. A professor at the college has come up with the idea that the constant 50 degree temperature and 85% humidity inside the mountain would be wonderful for storing and curing blue cheese made by the College Dairy Department.ġ944 - The blue cheese operation stops in part because of the ongoing World War II, but also because Clemson does not own the tunnel and some folks are ticked that they have pretty much taken over.ġ951 - Clemson A&M purchases the tunnel and the blue cheese project resumes once again.ġ953 - By October of this year, some 2500 pounds of blue cheese is curing in the depths of Stumphouse Mountain Tunnel.ġ958 - All manufacturing and curing of blue cheese is now conducted on campus inside the Agricultural Center in Newman Hall.ġ970 - Clemson leases the tunnel to the Pendleton Historical District Commission, which converts the area into a picnic spot and tourist attraction.ġ971 - Stumphouse Mountain Tunnel is added to the National Register of Historic Places.ġ999 - An air shaft built when the tunnel was being constructed is impacted by a rock slide and the tunnel is closed. But funds prove hard to come by in an unstable post-war economy and the entire project is aborted for all intents and purposes.ġ940/41 - Clemson A&M College begins clearing out debris from the tunnel. Workers have finished just over 1,600 feet of the 5,800 feet needed to clear the mountain.ġ869 - The railroad has been completed to the town of Walhalla by this time and officials want to complete the tunnel project. The State of South Carolina has spent over a million dollars on the project and refuses to spend any more. Unmarked graves atop the tunnel stand as a testament to the danger these men faced.ġ859 - Work is suspended on the tunnel. It proves dangerous and many men lose their lives. Some fifteen hundred Irish immigrants are among those working on the construction of the tunnel hired by the state of South Carolina. Travel from Ohio to the seaside city of Charleston is long and hard so to avoid the Blue Ridge Mountains, many folks go around the mountain instead.ġ852 - Planning begins on the tunnel project.ġ856 - Actual hands on work begins on the tunnel using, well, hands as well as chisels, hammers and black powder. Wagener whose son George would build the original Blackville to Seivern railroad line fifty years later) in plotting what they call the "Cincinnati, Louisville, and Charleston Railroad" that would ultimately link Charleston, SC, with Knoxville, TN and Cincinnati, OH. Calhoun leads a group of businessmen (including prominent German immigrant and Charleston merchant J.A. Some important dates on the road to Stumphouse Tunnel:ġ836 - Former Vice-President John C. Lack of funds and an approaching war caused workers to leave the tunnel unfinished on their quest to build a rail route connecting Charleston, SC to Knoxville, TN and eventually Cincinnati, OH. The latter was the case for the never-to-be railroad tunnel called Stumphouse Tunnel near Walhalla, South Carolina. Some railroads are built and have a long, useful life and then for whatever reasons are abandoned. ![]()
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