Blue John Remembers: A gorgeous spectacle put on in the crater of Natural Tunnel along about 1924. A motorcade of officials of the American Hotels Association made a tour of Southwest Virginia seeking possible locations for new hotels. I joined the party in Bristol and we arrived at Natural Tunnel a little before dark. The party walked to the top overlooking the crater and then came down to the railroad level and walked through the tunnel. Then as it grew quite dark, the creek which flows through the tunnel suddenly burst into flames as a drum of oil was poured on the stream at the north end and had been lighted. No sooner had the red flames licked their way to the south portal than there was a terrific explosion which released an intensely brilliant magnesium flare that lit up every nook and crag of the chasm. Then from above, on the rim of the crater, hundreds of Roman candles began spitting their multicolored balls into the night sky. Another flare lit up the scene as the Roman candles died away, and another volley of rockets and Roman candles lit the sky. A steadily increasing roar signaled the approach of a train from the south. Soon out of the mouth of the Little Tunnel roared a huge Mallet engine, its pilot, cab, and tender ablaze with blazing red fusees. A long string of empty coal cars followed, trailed by the red caboose, it too blazing with red fusees. As the blazing caboose disappeared around the curve in the tunnel, there came a crackling sound from above, looking up we saw a veritable wall of fire spilling over the rim of the crater, accompanied by another volley of rockets and Roman candles. The effect was breath-taking, but it did not take the breadth of E. Lee Trinkle, then Governor of Virginia. Lee took off his hat, tossed it high in the air and let out with a tremendous Rebel yell that could be heard over half of Scott County. Of course , all these big shots from Manhattan wanted to appear blase, but I could see that they would not soon forget that night in the crater of Natural Tunnel.
Posted on: Mon, 05 Aug 2013 13:07:46 +0000
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