Three Boys Killed in Spruce Creek Tunnel

The tragic tunnel at Spruce Creek, on right. The newer tunnel was completed in 1900.

The Spruce Creek Tunnels have attracted hundreds of Pennsylvania "railfans" throughout the years, but most be surprised to learn that the tunnel served as the site of a heart-rending tragedy in the fall of 1880, when three young boys walking through the tunnel were struck and killed by a train.

From the October 19, 1880 edition of the New Bloomfield Times:

Michael and John Carson, and a 12-year old boy named Samuel Benner, were killed in Spruce Creek tunnel last Sunday, but at what hour and by what train is not certainly known. The bodies all lay between the two tracks that run through the tunnel. It is believed that they were on their way to see the wreck of the trains in which DeHuff lost his life.

Vintage postcard of Spruce Creek tunnels.

(original newspaper article can be read here)