Tunnel City is an unincorporated census-designated place in the town of

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, Wisconsin, United States, named after the train tunnel through a hill just to the west of town.

Milwaukee Road tunnels

This first tunnel was built by the La Crosse and Milwaukee railroad, and used by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad (Milwaukee Road). The first tunnel was completed in 1858 as the last segment of the rail route from Milwaukee to

La Crosse La Crosse is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of La Crosse County, Wisconsin, La Crosse County. Positioned alongside the Mississippi River, La Crosse is the largest city on Wisconsin's western border. La Crosse's populat ...

. The station was simply named "Tunnel". This tunnel was updated in 1861. It was replaced by another tunnel directly to its north in 1874. That tunnel, and the railroad itself, is now owned by the

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...

, whose Soo Line subsidiary purchased the rail assets of the Milwaukee Road in February 1985. The CP also hosts Amtrak’s '' Empire Builder'' passenger train, though rail traffic is dominated by freight as the

Tomah Subdivision The Tomah Subdivision or Tomah Sub is a railway line that runs about from La Crosse, WI in the west to Portage, WI in the east. The line is operated by the Canadian Pacific Railway through its subsidiary, the Soo Line Railroad. The line crosse ...

. The ''Empire Builder'' does not stop in Tunnel City. The Soo Line had raised the bore of the tunnel completed in 1993 to accommodate double stack traffic. The Soo Line considered excavating the hill or "daylighting" the tunnel bore.

Chicago and North Western tunnel

The Milwaukee, Sparta, and Northwestern Railroad Company, a subsidiary of the Chicago and North Western Transportation Company, built the "Air Line" or "Adams Cutoff" towards Sparta, Wisconsin in 1910. This is when the third tunnel through the hill west of the town was constructed. It is just to the north of the Milwaukee Road tunnels, and parallel. This 1910 tunnel collapsed in March 1973. An extra heavy snow added to already saturated ground. The Chicago and North Western rerouted to the older Milwaukee tunnel. The CNW route, to Onalaska and Winona, is now mostly abandoned between Tunnel City and Medary. The Union Pacific Railroad, which purchased the CNW, has trackage rights from Tunnel City to Winona (Tower CK) on the parallel Canadian Pacific track. These rights date from the CNW tunnel collapse in 1973.

Census information

As of the 2010 census, its population is 106. Tunnel City has an area of , all of it land.

Gallery

Notes

{{authority control Census-designated places in Wisconsin Census-designated places in Monroe County, Wisconsin