The Coburn Tunnel aka Beaver Dam Tunnel

Western Portal

     In a scenic area of Centre County, I happened to stumble across an old tunnel on my way to Poe Paddy State Park. The tunnel is just outside the town of Coburn and aptly named the Coburn tunnel. As I approached the western entrance, people were fishing and informed me it was an old railroad tunnel and used to be called the Beaver Dam Tunnel.

     Once I was home, I researched the tunnel and found out that a few other tunnels are in the area and will need to be investigated at a later date. The Beaver Dam Tunnel I accidentally found was constructed in 1877 and approximately 260 feet long. The tunnel was first used by the Lewisburg, Centre, and Spruce Creek RR (LC&SC). Later the ownership switched to the Lewisburg/Tyrone RR in 1879 and then again to the PA RR in 1915. In the 1960s the tunnel was abandoned but locals still use the area round the tunnel to fish, hike and party judging by the broken class and cans in the area. There has been talk to connect a few of the tunnels and old railroad beds in the area to make a Rails-to-Trails for hiking and biking, but nothing has been settled yet with property owners and financiers.

      You can’t have an old abandon tunnel without some sort of folklore surrounding it. There is a story of a man being hung at the entrance of the tunnel sometime before it was closed down in the 1960s. The story does say if someone else hanged the man or if it was a suicide. Since then, at night if you drive an ATV or motorcycle through the tunnel it will shut off halfway.