Sensabaugh Tunnel
Happy Halloween! We saved the best legend for last. Today, “Ima Goner”, our ghostly friend, is visiting the infamous Sensabaugh Tunnel and learning about its spooky legend.
Sensabaugh Tunnel is a nationally recognized urban legend from Kingsport. Here are the three different tales of everyone’s favorite creepy tunnel.
Sensabaugh Tunnel was built in the 1920s and was named for the man that owned the land, Edward Sensabaugh.
In one version of this legend, Edward let a homeless man into his home as an act of charity. Their guest tried to steal jewelry and Edward confronted him with a gun. The thief grabbed Edward’s baby daughter to use as a shield and ran out of the house. He got away and drowned the baby in the tunnel.
In a second version of the legend, Edward Sensabaugh went mad and killed his entire family and threw their bodies into the tunnel.
But in the third version (that some claim is the most accurate), Edward Sensabaugh lived into his old age, not dying until the 1950s and had none of his children die as babies. By the time Edward grew old, vandals and teens had taken to using the tunnel for their fun. Edward wasn’t happy about it. So he would hide at one end of the tunnel and fill it with an eerie shriek, scaring off anyone hiding inside. Thus beginning the legend of Sensabaugh Tunnel.
Legend has it, if you switch off your car engine in the middle of the tunnel, it won’t switch back on. Some say you can also hear the baby’s cry and the approaching footsteps of Edward himself. Some have even claimed when driving through the tunnel the shadow of a woman appears in your backseat.
Are you brave enough to visit the Sensabaugh Tunnel?
