Busk–Ivanhoe Tunnel was a 9,394 ft (2,863 m) long railroad

tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

at an elevation of 10,953 ft (3,338 m) in

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

. It was built by the Busk Tunnel Railway Company for the

Colorado Midland Railroad The Colorado Midland Railway , Railway Equipment and Publication CompanyThe Official Railway Equipment Register June 1917, p. 786 incorporated in 1883, was the first standard gauge railroad built over the Continental Divide in Colorado. It ran ...

in 1891 as a replacement for the

Hagerman Tunnel Hagerman Tunnel was a 2,161 ft (659 m) railroad tunnel crossing the Continental Divide in Colorado at an altitude of 11,528 ft (3,514 m). Constructed in 1887 by the Colorado Midland Railroad The Colorado Midland Railway , ...

at a lower, more direct route. The tunnel was briefly abandoned following Colorado Midland's 1897 bankruptcy, but returned to use a few years later."NEWS OF THE RAILROADS.; The Federal Receivership for the Colorado Midland Ended – Busk-Ivanhoe Tunnel Abandoned" (1897-11-02). ''The New York Times'': 11. It was converted to auto traffic in 1922 as the Carlton Tunnel, a

toll tunnel A toll tunnel is a road tunnel where a monetary charge (or ''toll'') is required to pass through. List of toll tunnels United States Alaska Maryland Massachusetts Michigan / Ontario, Canada New Jersey / New York New York Texas V ...

carrying then- State Highway 104, closing in 1942 when the state discontinued maintenance of the road. The tunnel collapsed in 1945.John N. Winchester
A Historical View: Transmountain Development in Colorado
, 2000; retrieved July, 2015. Starting in 1921, while it was still a highway tunnel, the tunnel was also used as a water diversion tunnel, moving water from Ivanhoe Lake in the

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid drainage basin, watershed that encompasses parts of ...

Basin to Busk Creek in the Arkansas River Basin. After the tunnel collapse, the Highline Canal Company purchased the tunnel, repairing it at a cost of $50,000. The water was originally used for irrigation of agricultural lands in the Arkansas Valley in Southeastern Colorado. The Board of Water Works of

Pueblo, Colorado Pueblo () is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule municipality that is the county seat and the List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous municipality of Pueblo County, Colorado, Pueblo County, Colorado ...

bought half of the water rights in 1971, and the City of Aurora bought most of the remaining rights in 1988.

References

External links

Photo of the tunnel's west portal as a rail tunnel
between 1890 and 1910
Photo of the tunnel's east portal as an auto tunnel
1929 Transportation buildings and structures in Lake County, Colorado Transportation buildings and structures in Pitkin County, Colorado Railroad tunnels in Colorado Water tunnels in the United States Tunnels completed in 1893 Former toll tunnels in the United States Former toll roads in Colorado Road tunnels in the United States 1893 establishments in Colorado {{US-tunnel-stub