page_title: Dingess, West Virginia
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Dingess, West Virginia / History
caption_attribution_description: English: This file shows the Dingess Tunnel as it appears in 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dingess,_West_Virginia
context_page_description: Dingess is an unincorporated community in Mingo County, West Virginia, United States. Dingess is 10 miles northeast of Lenore and 13 miles west of Logan. Dingess has a post office with ZIP code 25671.
  Dingess is widely known for an approximately mile-long tunnel situated on a county road south of town. Originally built by Italian immigrants, the tunnel opened for rail traffic on September 25, 1892. It has been opened to one lane vehicular traffic since at least the mid-1900s. Another much shorter tunnel is located between Dingess and the Breeden.
context_section_description: The community was named after William Anderson Dingess, a pioneer settler.
  As of 1894, Dingess contained two hotels, eight boarding houses, four restaurants, four groceries, four saw mills, and a school with two teachers and about 100 students. 133 coal miners lived in Dingess.
  The community once garnered a reputation for being a lawless land. In his book They’ll Cut Off Your Project, Huey Perry, wrote “Old-timers there said it was common practice to have a killing once a month. As ‘Uncle’ Jim Marcum described it, 'Why, a colored person couldn’t think about riding through Dingess. They would stop the train, take him off and shoot him, and nobody would say a word. Why, they would even stop the train and take all its cargo. It was a wild country then, and it ain’t much better now.’”
  From 1900 to 1972, approximately seventeen lawmen were shot to death in the area which stretches fifteen miles along Twelve Pole Creek.
  In 1901, robbers raided the community, dynamiting a large safe. According to a November 23, 1901, edition of the Bluefield Daily Telegraph: "Citizens were on the scene almost immediately after the heavy report, and the burglars hadn’t time to gather up their booty as a number of citizens opened fire and probably forty shots were exchanged. The burglars, who secured a lot of valuable jewelry, escaped on a hand car which was recovered later four miles from Dingess, and on which blood spots were plainly visible.
caption: The Dingess Tunnel as it looks today, with paved road and serving single lane traffic.
exif: {"Image Make": "Apple", "Image Model": "iPhone 5", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Instagram", "Image DateTime": "2018:03:10 16:44:27", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "208", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "N", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[37, 52, 261/20]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "W", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[82, 10, 2017/50]", "GPS GPSAltitude": "40471/133", "GPS GPSTimeStamp": "[0, 0, 0]", "GPS GPSDOP": "1", "GPS GPSDate": "1970:01:01", "Image GPSInfo": "1018", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1314", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "11288", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/60", "EXIF FNumber": "12/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "50", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2018:03:10 16:44:27", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2018:03:10 16:44:27", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "4761/806", "EXIF ApertureValue": "4845/1918", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "4834/1095", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Spot", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "103/25", "EXIF SubjectArea": "[1003, 1334, 610, 612]", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "279", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "279", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3264", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2448", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "33", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[103/25, 103/25, 12/5, 12/5]", "EXIF LensMake": "Apple", "EXIF LensModel": "iPhone 5 back camera 4.12mm f/2.4"}