Screaming Tunnel

The story has it that a girl burned to death in the middle of the tunnel...

There is a tunnel under the old railroad tracks just to the west of the Queen Elizabeth Way in Niagara Falls. Located near the end of the road on right-hand side of Warner Road, just off of Taylor/Beechwood Road, the tunnel runs under the railway tracks that link Niagara Falls to Toronto and New York City. The tunnel is made of rough-cut stone and measures 16 feet high by 125 long.

According to local legend, over a century ago, a farm house located just past the south entrance to the tunnel caught fire one night. A young girl, her clothes engulfed in flames, fled screaming from the house. She ran through the tunnel in an attempt to extinguish her garments but collapsed and died on the tunnel floor.

Some have heard that the young girl was kidnapped by a crazed butcher, who dawned a pig’s mask and burned her alive after she had tried to escape through the tunnel.

Another legend involves a little girl who was chased down and burned by her angry father when he found out he lost his children to his wife in a bitter custody battle.

Perhaps the most gruesome story, the young girl was raped while inside the tunnel, with the perpetrator burning the body in order to hide the evidence...

It is said that the girl is still in this tunnel, haunting it. The urban legend has it that if you stand in the middle of the tunnel and light a wooden match stick, she will blow it out immediately and you will be able to hear her screams. It is also noted that the middle of the tunnel is quite cold, even on a hot summer day. People report that when they are in the tunnel, they have a feeling of being watched. Orbs are very noticeable on photographs taken inside the tunnel.

Most who know of this tunnel remember it as Christopher Walken’s temporary place of refuge in the 1983 feature film Dead Zone, but to some, this tunnel represents a varying story of fire and death.