Dear Triton Folks:
We know there are stories that lie beneath those streets and sidewalks in downtown Wheeling because so much has been uncovered in the past. We also realize a part of your job along Main and Market streets is to completely destroy the curbs and sidewalks.
One challenge you’ll face during that demolition process is the presence of historic storage vaults beneath the downtown walkways because that’s what they did when constructing buildings through the years. We understand some of them are still utilized, and many have been walled off or buried and forgotten.
But here’s the thing – there might be more down under there.
See, there are legends to consider, and the most popular tales told for many years about downtown mentions tunnels. That’s right, hidden passageways traveled by people to move other people secretly between the riverfront and the downtown district.
But how extensive was this mythical underground channel system, and what was its purpose?
Was it a connected collection of covert caves employed for bootlegging and prostitution? Did the Underground Railroad actually travel beneath the first capital city of West Virginia? Or are there just more of those fantastic and historic storage vaults?
The answers to those often-asked questions just might be in your hands one day between now and late 2024, and we’d like to ask that you be most careful with anything out of the ordinary. Rumor is a few construction laborers working on the last downtown makeover back in the 1990s encountered something peculiar; something that looked a little more like a tunnel than a vault.
And? And they covered it up – literally with dirt – as the story is told.
So, just in case, can we please not repeat history so we have a chance to compose a chapter of new history?
Sincerely,
Local History Hunters
