March 2019
Running underneath the Canadian National Railway line near the intersection of the Queen Elizabeth Way and Highway 405 outside of Niagara Falls, Ontario, is one of the lesser known and more unusual tourist attractions in the area.
Known locally as “The Screaming Tunnel,” this 125-foot-long, 16-foot-high arched limestone tunnel has an allegedly horrific past.
Built in the early 1800s, originally as a drainage tunnel underneath what was then the Grand Trunk Railway line for the nearby farmland, it also saw use as a footpath for people and livestock.
Legend has it that a young girl burned to death inside the tunnel. Stories vary from her clothing caught fire in a blaze at a nearby farm, to she was set on fire by her enraged father after he lost custody of his children in an acrimonious divorce, to a girl who was raped inside the tunnel and her body burned to destroy evidence.
Regardless of the story, they all include the girl screaming as she burned to death; thus the “Screaming Tunnel.”
Those wishing to visit the tunnel will find it near the east end of Warner Road.
The tunnel also appeared in David Cronenberg’s 1983 film version of the Stephen King horror novel “The Dead Zone.”
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screaming_Tunnel,
https://www.nightmaresfearfactory.com/blog/haunted-niagara-screaming-tunnel.
