John Henry was a steel-driving man.

The small West Virginia town of Talcott, located on the banks of the Greenbrier River, celebrates the memory of John Henry each July with a festival. John Henry was a 200-pound black man and freed slave who helped dig the tunnel for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad in the 1870s. Folklore and folk song suggested that he claimed to bust more rock with his hammer than a steam drill. Whether he died during this challenge or from a cave-in from lose shale, we may never know, but one thing is certain, John Henry was quite a man. The John Henry Park is above the Big Bend Tunnel. The railroad tracks coming out of the portal of the tunnel can be observed in lower right photo.

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