“The stolen gold was never recovered, and Nancy’s grave was never marked”

Just outside Campbellsville, Kentucky, an abandoned railroad tunnel disappears into the side of Muldraugh Hill. Spurlington Tunnel stretches nearly 1,900 feet through solid rock, far enough that once you walk inside, the entrance behind you begins to shrink and the darkness ahead seems to go on forever. I made the trek there with a few friends years ago, but long before I ever walked through it, people around Taylor County were telling stories about strange sounds, hidden treasure, Jesse James, and a woman named Nancy Bass.

Construction on the tunnel began after the Civil War as part of the railroad line connecting Lebanon and Greensburg. Cutting a tunnel through the hill in the nineteenth century was slow and dangerous work. Crews worked their way through limestone and flint, sometimes making only a few feet of progress in a day. A deep vertical shaft was cut down through the hill near the center, eventually providing ventilation for the trains passing below. The tunnel was completed in the 1870s and remained part of the railroad for generations.

Even the construction of Spurlington developed its own strange stories. Workers supposedly heard the sounds of pickaxes striking rock when no one else was working nearby. Donkeys were used underground during construction, and stories were told of animals becoming blind after spending so much time inside the tunnel. Some reportedly died there, and years later workers claimed they could still hear or see them moving through the darkness. But the story that lasted wasn’t about the men or the animals that helped build the tunnel. It was about Nancy.

Nancy Bass, sometimes called Aunt Nancy, became known in local folklore as the Spurlington Witch. She was said to live around the community and was feared by people who believed she could bring bad luck to anyone who crossed her. When crops failed, livestock died, or something happened that couldn’t easily be explained, Nancy could become the person blamed for it. People supposedly gave her food and allowed her to sleep in their barns rather than risk angering her.

Exactly how Nancy ended up connected to Spurlington Tunnel depends on which version of the story you hear. In one, her reputation as a witch eventually led to her death. Another brings one of America’s most famous outlaws into the story.

Jesse James and his gang were supposedly traveling through Kentucky carrying stolen gold and silver when they came to the isolated area around Spurlington. The tunnel gave them a place away from town where they could hide what they had stolen. Nancy happened to see them burying the treasure, and once the gang realized she knew where it was, she knew too much.

Nancy was killed.

Some versions say the gang hanged her from the ventilation shaft in the center of the tunnel. Others say she was killed elsewhere and buried near the tunnel along with the treasure. Another version combines her murder with the stories that she was a witch, making her death as much about what people believed Nancy was as what she had supposedly witnessed.

The treasure and Nancy eventually became part of the same story. The stolen gold was never recovered, and Nancy’s grave was never marked. One version says she was buried directly over the treasure so anyone trying to find the money would have to disturb her first. Another says a chain was attached to her coffin and stretched toward the surface. If you found the chain, you could follow it to Nancy. And if you found Nancy, Jesse James’s gold was supposed to be underneath her.

Of course, there was a problem with digging it up. Nancy wasn’t supposed to be willing to give it back.

She was said to guard the treasure after death, and anyone searching for it risked attracting her attention. People still went looking. Over the years, treasure hunters dug around the tunnel and surrounding land hoping the stories were true. Whatever Jesse James may have hidden there has never surfaced, but Nancy apparently doesn’t require anyone to find the gold before making herself known.

There is an old challenge connected to the tunnel. Walk from one end to the other and then turn around and walk back. When you reach the ventilation shaft, look up. Nancy may be hanging above you. Some people have reported hearing a woman whispering inside the tunnel, while others describe footsteps or the feeling that someone is following behind them. The warning becomes a little more serious for anyone entering the tunnel looking for treasure. Nancy supposedly knows why you’re there.

When I went to Spurlington Tunnel with friends, the railroad had already been abandoned for years. The tracks were gone, vegetation had grown around the entrance, and there were no trains coming through to break the silence. Once you’re inside, the temperature drops. Light from the entrance fades behind you, and your footsteps echo off the walls. Eventually, you reach a point where you’re surrounded by almost nothing but stone and darkness.

I didn’t find Jesse James’s gold when I walked through Spurlington Tunnel, and I didn’t see Nancy hanging above me. I wasn’t looking for either one.

Considering what supposedly happened to the people who did, that was probably a good decision.