The St. Paul Pass Tunnel was a
railway tunnel
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in Track (rail transport), tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the ...
in the
northwest
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sep ...
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
at St. Paul Pass, on the
Montana
Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...
-
Idaho
Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...
border. The tunnel was on the main line of the
Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad,
commonly known as "The Milwaukee Road."
The pass is on the
Bitterroot Range
The Bitterroot Range is a mountain range and a subrange of the Rocky Mountains that runs along the border of Montana and Idaho in the northwestern United States. The range spans an area of and is named after the bitterroot (''Lewisia rediviva' ...
of northwestern Montana and the
Idaho Panhandle
The Idaho Panhandle—locally known as North Idaho—is a salient region of the U.S. state of Idaho encompassing the state's 10 northernmost counties: Benewah, Bonner, Boundary, Clearwater, Idaho, Kootenai, Latah, Lewis, Nez Perce, and Shosh ...
. The Milwaukee Road crossed under it in the St. Paul Pass Tunnel, also known as the Taft Tunnel, completed in 1908; its length is at above
sea level
Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...
at East Portal in Montana. The pass above the tunnel is at an
elevation
The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...
of . The East Portal is southwest of
exit 5 of
Interstate 90
Interstate 90 (I-90) is an east–west transcontinental freeway and the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at . It begins in Seattle, Washington, and travels through the Pacific Northwest, Mountain West, Great Plains, Midwest, and ...
.
With ongoing financial problems which worsened in the 1970s, the Milwaukee line abandoned its
right-of-way
Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another.
A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...
in the West in 1980, but the tunnel and its approach grades have been revived as a
rail trail
A rail trail is a shared-use path on railway right of way. Rail trails are typically constructed after a railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed, but may also share the right of way with active railways, light rail, or streetcar ...
route for hikers and bicyclists, the
''Route of the Hiawatha'' Trail.
Selection of route and construction
The tunnel was constructed as part of the Milwaukee Road's "Pacific Coast Extension" project, undertaken in the first decade of the 1900s. It expanded its concentration of railroad lines in the upper
Midwest
The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...
area of
Milwaukee
Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...
-
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
-
Minneapolis
Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...
-
St. Paul
Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...
across the
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...
to
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
, ending at the
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
-
Tacoma area on
Puget Sound
Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...
. The construction occurred late in the historical era of American railroading; it was the last
transcontinental
Transcontinental may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* "Transcontinental", a song by the band Pedro the Lion from the album ''Achilles Heel''
* TC Transcontinental, a publishing, media and marketing company based in Canada, a subsidiary o ...
line built. Surveying began in 1901 and continued until 1909, when a final golden spike was driven in Montana at
The St. Paul Pass route was surveyed from
Butte
__NOTOC__
In geomorphology, a butte () is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus, and tablelands. The word ''butte'' comes from a French word mea ...
starting in August 1906 and continuing through November, using the tools of the era:
transit
Transit may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Film
* ''Transit'' (1979 film), a 1979 Israeli film
* ''Transit'' (2005 film), a film produced by MTV and Staying-Alive about four people in countries in the world
* ''Transit'' (2006 film), a 2006 ...
,
stadia rod {{short description, Graduated rod used to measure differences between heights
A level staff, also called levelling rod, is a graduated wooden or aluminium rod, used with a levelling instrument to determine the difference in height between points ...
,
surveying chain, and
barometer
A barometer is a scientific instrument that is used to measure air pressure in a certain environment. Pressure tendency can forecast short term changes in the weather. Many measurements of air pressure are used within surface weather analysis ...
.
The Milwaukee Road was committed to a route with no more than a 2.2 percent
grade
Grade most commonly refers to:
* Grade (education), a measurement of a student's performance
* Grade, the number of the year a student has reached in a given educational stage
* Grade (slope), the steepness of a slope
Grade or grading may also ref ...
, and the surveying west of Butte to the St. Paul Pass was thorough and extensive; it covered some in order to select a route of .
in spite of this diligent work, the surveyors and engineers only achieved a grade of 1.7% grade from
Haugan on the east to
Avery on the west in Idaho.
This grade was vastly inferior to the Northern Pacific and Great Northern routes from Missoula and Whitefish respectively which had lines to and from Spokane not exceeding 1 percent. Exiting the west portal in Idaho, the route descends through several shorter tunnels,
to Avery at just under , and on down the St. Joe River another
The St. Paul Pass was chosen because of the stands of marketable white pine
''Pinus'', the pines, is a genus of approximately 111 extant tree and shrub species. The genus is currently split into two subgenera: subgenus ''Pinus'' (hard pines), and subgenus ''Strobus'' (soft pines). Each of the subgenera have been further ...
timber and also because there were no other competing railroads nearby. The contract work for the building of the tunnel was done by Winston Brothers Company of Minneapolis, with the primary subcontract work carried out by contractors W.B. Cronk, A.D. McDougal & Company, Stewart and Welch, and Street & Lusk.
Grading toward the pass began from Missoula
Missoula ( ; fla, label=Salish language, Séliš, Nłʔay, lit=Place of the Small Bull Trout, script=Latn; kut, Tuhuⱡnana, script=Latn) is a city in the U.S. state of Montana; it is the county seat of Missoula County, Montana, Missoula Cou ...
in July 1906, and about this same time work began on both approaches to the tunnel, with the approaches being completed in 1906. Heavy boring began in 1907, and the tunnel was officially completed in December 1908. The Milwaukee line recorded the tunnel as "#20" since it numbered its tunnels from east to west. The tunnel's official length was , it was the second-longest on the Milwaukee main line from Chicago to Seattle, behind only the 2¼-mile Snoqualmie Tunnel
The Snoqualmie Tunnel is a former railroad tunnel near Snoqualmie Pass in the U.S. state of Washington, located east of Seattle. The tunnel crosses the Cascade Range about south of the pass, which is used by Interstate 90, on the border betwee ...
in Washington.
Decline and abandonment
Because the Pacific Extension was built without federal land grant assistance that earlier transcontinental railroads had received as an incentive, its construction costs particularly for right of way acquisition, ran significantly over budget. The route by-passed some major population centers and passed through other areas of limited local traffic, which reduced prospective traffic revenues.
Because operation of steam locomotives over the mountain passes was difficult, in 1914 and 1915 the line underwent an electrification process in two sections, one over the Rocky Mountains (1914−1915) and the other over the Cascades (1917) extended to Seattle in 1927, which further deepened cost overruns. The extension became a long haul route. During its history, the Milwaukee offered high speed passenger trains from Chicago and the Twin Cities area to the Tacoma and Seattle area, the well-known ''Olympian Hiawatha
The ''Olympian'' and its successor the ''Olympian Hiawatha'' were passenger trains operated by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (the "Milwaukee Road") between Chicago and the Pacific Northwest. The ''Olympian'' operated fro ...
''.
Throughout its life, the initial overrun of costs for the Pacific Extension left the Milwaukee Road plagued by financial trouble. The depression and several unsuccessful receiverships followed by the general decline of railroad traffic in the 1950s, followed by the consolidation of larger railroads finally caused the Milwaukee to abandon its entire trackage system in the Idaho-Montana area in 1980.
Rail trail
The abandoned tunnel sat dormant and empty for more than twenty years, then it was included in the .[ The St. Paul Tunnel route was officially ‘rededicated’ on June 23, 2001, as part of the ''Route of the Hiawatha'' ]rail trail
A rail trail is a shared-use path on railway right of way. Rail trails are typically constructed after a railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed, but may also share the right of way with active railways, light rail, or streetcar ...
. Tours are available, or one can simply walk or take a bike through the tunnel from portal to portal, and the tunnel sees thousands of hikers and bikers annually. Along with the St. Paul Tunnel, there are other bridges and tunnels intact on the Idaho approaches to St. Paul Pass,[ as are part of the "gallows" structures that bore the overhead wires for the electric trains, and some signs and signals along the right of way.
A similar Milwaukee Road rail trail in Washington through the Cascades, ]Iron Horse State Park
Iron Horse State Park, part of the Washington State Park System, is a state park located in the Cascade Mountains and Yakima River Valley, between Cedar Falls on the west and the Columbia River on the east.
The park is contiguous with a ...
, includes the Snoqualmie Tunnel.
Taft
The tunnel under the St. Paul Pass was also known as the Taft Tunnel, after the Montana boom town of Taft, (1907−1910) which sprang up at the east portal of the tunnel during construction. It had a short but colorful history, and was allegedly named after President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected pr ...
, who visited the work camp while Secretary of War
The secretary of war was a member of the U.S. president's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War", had been appointed to serve the Congress of the ...
under President Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
; he chastised the town as a "sewer of sin" and "a sore on an otherwise beautiful national forest." Either out of jest
A joke is a display of humour in which words are used within a specific and well-defined narrative structure to make people laugh and is usually not meant to be interpreted literally. It usually takes the form of a story, often with dialogue, ...
or spite, the town named itself after Taft.
It was the last of the wide-open towns that followed railroad construction (see Hell on Wheels
Hell on Wheels was the itinerant collection of flimsily assembled gambling houses, dance halls, saloons, and brothels that followed the army of Union Pacific railroad workers westward as they constructed the First transcontinental railroad in 186 ...
).
The town sprang up after the end of the "wild west" era, and drew people who were leaving communities which were increasingly turning to law and order; it also attracted those returning from the gold rushes in Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...
, and became a den of criminals and vice. A long distance from the nearest county seat, then at Missoula, and the county sheriff and deputies let Taft develop as it would in anticipation that it would have a short life. It extended along a half-mile (0.8 km) stretch of right-of-way track and peaked at about three thousand denizens.[ Taft had between twenty and fifty saloons, and the second biggest profession after "railroad worker" was prostitution.
In the spring, the melting banks of snow in the mountain town meant the discovery of dead bodies, and allegedly during the final spring of 1909, as many as seventeen bodies were found.] Buildings in Taft had been hastily constructed of wood and were flimsy. After experiencing a few smaller fires, Taft was destroyed by the 1910 " Big Burn" forest fires that extended over much of the Idaho Panhandle and western Montana.[ As the fire approached Taft, the remaining residents ignored a call to join firefighters, drank up what they could in the saloons and hastily left on an evacuation train. The residents had mostly "squatted" on national forest land, and forest rangers suppressed any effort to rebuild the town. By this time, the railroad construction workers had moved on, and with them the money.]
After the fire, the railroad named the same area "East Portal" and it had an electric substation after electrification of the line in about 1914. The few remaining abandoned buildings were buried by the construction of Interstate 90
Interstate 90 (I-90) is an east–west transcontinental freeway and the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at . It begins in Seattle, Washington, and travels through the Pacific Northwest, Mountain West, Great Plains, Midwest, and ...
in 1962, and now nothing remains but its name; on I-90 is named "Taft."
See also
* Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad
The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (CMStP&P), often referred to as the "Milwaukee Road" , was a Class I railroad that operated in the Midwest and Northwest of the United States from 1847 until 1986.
The company experience ...
*
* Bitterroot Range
The Bitterroot Range is a mountain range and a subrange of the Rocky Mountains that runs along the border of Montana and Idaho in the northwestern United States. The range spans an area of and is named after the bitterroot (''Lewisia rediviva' ...
* ''Route of the Hiawatha'' Trail
References
External links
Description of "Route of the Hiawatha" mountain bike or hike trail at the St. Paul Pass Tunnel
Using Tranz Simulator view, a YouTube video simulating a Milwaukee training running over the St. Paul Pass route.
* ttp://www.traillink.com/trail/route-of-the-hiawatha.aspx "Route of the Hiawatha" by "TrailLink".* - (2003)
{{Idaho
Mountain passes of Montana
Mountain passes of Idaho
Rail mountain passes of the United States
Railroad tunnels in Montana
category:Railroad tunnels in Idaho
Geography of Mineral County, Montana