Murray’s Tunnel is 29 feet of unknown history
Kaufman Auction & Realty’s Tim Miller peers out through the opening of Murray’s Tunnel, a 29-foot man-made tunnel that will be included as part of an upcoming auction.
Over the decades Kaufman Auction & Realty has sold countless homes, from simple two-bedroom homes to enormous castles that look like they were built for royalty.
It also has auctioned off vast acres of flowing land, valuable antiques, rifles, coins, vintage automobiles and land with lakes, plus many other interesting features and property.
But a tunnel?
That’s a first for the team at Kaufman, but a tunnel it will be in an upcoming auction that is truly a one-of-a-kind drawing card.
The property and home that hosts the tunnel is located at Jim Town, a tiny berg located west of Glenmont at the intersection of state Route 520, County Road 75 and Township Road 16.
The property was given to the Holmes County Humane Society, which is currently amid moving to Fredericksburg, so the land and building will be auctioned off Oct. 26 at 5 p.m.
Located on that property is Murray’s Tunnel, a 29-foot man-made tunnel that was discovered and uncovered in the 1980s when workers were clearing the land to put in an oil pad. In the process workers destroyed a small portion of the entrance, but the tunnel was surprisingly in terrific shape, considering it is estimated to be around two centuries old, according to Tim Miller of Kaufman Auction & Realty.
“Nobody knows for sure exactly how old it is, but it has to be a couple hundred years old,” Miller said.
In total the tunnel measures 29 feet from the front entrance to the back of the tunnel, which embodies a small room. The tunnel itself is around 2 feet wide and 3 feet high, and getting to the small back room takes some effort.
Miller said not only does no one know when the tunnel was built, but also they aren’t sure of the exact purpose of the tunnel.
“Yeah, nobody really knows what it is and why it was even built because it seems to end in the room,” Miller said. “But is certainly is an interesting piece of history on the property.”
Miller said creeping back through the tunnel elicits some strange feelings, first because of the tight quarters and second because old tunnels just tend to be creepy.
“It’s actually very cool,” Miller said.
The house on the property is a one-room cabin with no heating source, so it is up to the public to conjecture their own stories about the tunnel and its originator. Could it be an old prospector looking to hide away his lucrative stash? Was it a place to hide runaway slaves who came from the south as part of the underground railroad? Was it a unique get-away for a couple who were in the midst of an unrequited tryst, but their families were at war like the Hatfields and McCoys?
Chances are nobody will ever know, but it definitely can be fun to create unique stories concerning the tunnel.
Miller said this unique feature is a first for Kaufman Auction as far as he knows, noting this is the oddest feature he has ever had the pleasure of auctioning off. He said he has heard stories about a church mission being built near there, and some believe the tunnel was connected to that, but that is all conjecture.
The tunnel boasts holes bored into the stone on the sides where it would appear candles or small lanterns might have been placed. Miller said the Holmes County Genealogy Society members were invited to view the tunnel at some point, and they believe it to have the appearance of tunnels from Northern Ireland.
“There’s a lot of really odd things about it that make it fascinating,” Miller said. “This truly ranks about as high on the list of unique things I’ve ever sold; that’s for sure.”
The property being sold is 41 acres, and Miller said exploring the rest of the land could be fun because it wasn’t until recently this tunnel was discovered.
He said the first time he saw the tunnel and peered in, he didn’t think there was any way he was going in it because it was too creepy, but once they placed LED string lighting along the walls, it lit the tunnel up and exposed the fact that the tunnel was actually in pretty good shape.
“It gets illuminated, and the walls glow a little bit with the lights,” Miller said.
Holmes County has plenty of odd historical attractions and features, and an unknown tunnel discovered after sitting dormant for decades certainly adds one more chapter to that growing list.