Rumor has it that the tunnel is haunted by the spirits of the construction workers who supposedly died during the building of the road. It is said that if you walk through the tunnel late and night, that when you get halfway through your flashlight will go out. I have been to The Road to Nowhere. Inside the tunnel is a lot of graffiti. Some of the pictures are extremely scary when looking at them in pitch-blackness with a flashlight. There is an eerie feel to the tunnel and the road leading up to it. While walking through the tunnel I had a constant

feeling that someone was behind me or that someone was watching me. My friends and I even walked past the tunnel through the woods in search of a cemetery. We never made it far enough to find anything because wildlife and strange noises spooked us.

The building of the Fontana Dam in the 1940’s was the final great transformation of Swain County. The damming of the Little Tennessee River flooded out parts of the main road and wiped out many small towns. This meant that over 1,000 families were going to have to be removed from the area. By 1944 all houses had to be torn down. The building of Fontana Lake led to what has come to be called The Road to Nowhere. Because Highway 288 was flooded in many places, there was no longer easy access to the many family graveyards that hold generations of relatives, in some cases dating back to the early 1800’s. While all the families were being moved, it was promised that after the war, a road would be built to allow access to the cemeteries. However, there was a major loophole in this promise; it was contingent on Congress appropriating the money for the new road. In the 1960’s, Congress appropr

Some topics in this essay:
Road Inside, Swain County, Road Highway, View Drive, Bryson City, Tennessee River, National Park, Fontana Dam, Fontana Lake, swain county, Appalachian Mountains, bryson city, mountain national park, provide access, national park, money road, fontana lake, anakeesta formation, named road, mountain national, building fontana, smoky mountain national,