Front Porch Conversations: Weird and Wonderful West Virginia
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It’s almost as if the legend of Ronceverte’s Monkey Cemetery could have been written by Ray Bradbury: An old-time carnival train chugs its way through the twists and turns of southern West Virginia as it heads toward its next destination. But, the usual cheers and excitement that typically arrive with the sighting of a carnival train were not to be known by local residents. Instead, a macabre disaster struck inside the infamous Big Bend Tunnel – leading to the unfortunate demise and subsequent burial of hundreds of circus monkeys.
Although this legend doesn’t involve a carousel that can reverse time, the reality is still as grim as the fiction. Something wicked this way came.
A little less than 20 years before the State Fair of West Virginia rolled into Greenbrier County, the Sells Brothers Circus was the carnival entertainment for folks of the day.
People could head out to the show to watch a man launch himself out of a cannon, witness horseback performances and see exotic animals like elephants, camels and, of course, monkeys.
A 328-foot big top tent was the center of the show, and often featured horse races. In 1901, Thomas Edison filmed about two minutes of footage from a Sells Brothers Circus called “A Day at the Circus.”
But, one August day in 1906, as the carnival train was heading south from Charleston, West Virginia, to Ronceverte, West Virginia, it broke down in the worst place imaginable – the Big Bend Tunnel in Summers County, which also happens to be the site of another West Virginia legend – where the steel-driving man, John Henry, worked faster than a steam drill and proved that, for him at least, humans were better than machines.
According to information found on the William G. Pomeroy Foundation website, a grant provider for the state’s “Legends and Lore” markers, the train stalled inside the Big Bend Tunnel.
“As the train engineer worked frantically to get the locomotive moving once again, gas and smoke filled the 1.25 mile tunnel. Eventually another locomotive was dispatched from Hinton to aid the distressed train, but by then it was too late for the circus’ 300 monkeys. Extremely sensitive to the gas collecting in the tunnel, all of the monkeys perished,” information found on the website states.
When the train finally arrived in Ronceverte, employees dug a trench somewhere along Monroe Avenue in Ronceverte, where the monkeys were ultimately laid to rest.
There is still some discussion in Ronceverte over the exact burial location of the monkeys, but most everyone says, ‘Oh, it’s just down the road by the recycling center.’ There are also some conflicting accounts of which circus the monkeys may have belonged to, with some stating that it wasn’t the Sells Brothers Circus at all, but the John Robinson Circus. And, some accounts even go on to state that the monkeys were cremated and their remains were scattered at Fort Hill.
Even if the legend of Ronceverte’s circus monkeys is up for debate, and even though the story doesn’t have a Mr. Dark or autumn people, it is still a legend that will stand the test of time.
What legendary stories do you have in your neck of the woods?
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