March 1924 saw record-breaking progress at the Moffat Tunnel, prohibition-related incidents, and a near disaster caused by a dynamite blast.
Moffat Tunnel Construction Happenings from 100 Years Ago
March 1924 finds new records being set at the Moffat Tunnel. A new record was set “when the water tunnel at West [P]ortal was driven 24 feet in 24 hours. The distance made at East Portal during the same time was 14 feet, total 38 feet for Monday. The new machinery is beginning to tell and very soon both portals will be showing increased results. The goal that is being striven for is 45 feet per day counting both portals and the boys at West Portal exceeded that mark Monday. The progress in the water tunnel sets the pace for the railroad tunnel, for in the latter enough headings can be run to keep pace with the smaller bore. Forty-five feet per day would complete the tunnel in two years. Work at West Portal is proceeding much more favorably with better ground. Tunnel officials and contractors were elated and sent warm congratulations to the officials and workmen at West Portal. The railroad tunnel is now under cover at both portals and from the crosscuts the headings in the main tunnel have been driven more than 600 feet. The water [tunnel] is in approximately 1,500 feet at East Portal and 1,800 feet at West Portal.”
The Craig Empire newspaper wrote, “On each side of the divide, therefore, the visitor may now see the portals of both the Moffat [T]unnel proper and the water tunnel.”
The Moffat Tunnel was constructed entirely during prohibition; however, that doesn’t mean that liquor didn’t play a part in the Moffat Tunnel’s history. Several months earlier, in the second half of 1923, two folks in Tabernash, Colorado were charged with illegal possession of intoxicating liquor. John Mitchell and N. Darbyshire were sentenced to sixty days in the county jail as “the pair were attempting to supply workers at the Moffat [T]unnel with moonshine when they were arrested.”
Other articles in The Middle Park Times for Grand County chided the general public, “Every citizen of this county remembers the years of struggle to secure the right to construct this tunnel. We all know how much benefit we can and will receive from the development of our county by means of proper transportation. It is up to each citizens [sic] to use his influence to see that the workmen are not supplied with illicit liquor. If any citizen knows of any person who is in a position to make or sell this stuff to the tunnel workers he is working against his own interest if he fails to report the case to the proper authorities. The success of building the tunnel is up to you Mr. Citizen.”
The headlines around the third week of March 1924 read something to the effect of what was published in the Routt County Sentinel regarding a dramatic event that transpired Sunday, March 16, 1924: “Whiskey Incites Attempt to Wreck Moffat Tunnel.” The details pieced together from multiple articles are that “Daniel Sullivan… foreman of a construction gang working at the [W]est [P]ortal of the Moffat [T]unnel… was arrested Sunday morning at the tunnel…. Several sticks of dynamite were fired near the mouth of the bore, but the blast was not strong enough to damage the props of the tunnel seriously, according to members of the commission. Sullivan is said to have been drunk for a week preceding the attempt to destroy the bore, and is believed to have had trouble with the night foreman. He was seen running from the tunnel entrance as the charge was fired…. Had the charge been of sufficient strength, tunnel engineers say, considerable damage would have been done. As it was, only a few props in the tunnel were broken. Had the large props been blown away, tons of earth and rock would have blocked the entrance to the tunnel, seriously hampering progress of the work.”
More rural papers said that “Denver papers made a sensation of the affair, stating that Sullivan is an I.W.W., but the superintendent at the portals states that until Sullivan began drinking recently he was a model employee.”
For a happy ending: many of the historic photographs taken during the construction are of workers with their dogs. Underscoring the fact that history is not the story of strangers, it is the story of us, had we been born a little bit earlier. How many of us within the past week have taken a photograph of or with our pet?
B. Travis Wright, MPS | Preserve Rollins Pass | March 30, 2024
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