Experience the Moffat Tunnel’s legacy. Follow its incredible construction journey through time with exclusive stories, images, and more.
Moffat Tunnel Construction Happenings from 100 Years Ago
Exactly 95 years after its construction, the Moffat Tunnel remains a powerful testament to the human spirit and an incredible engineering achievement—but how did it begin?
Flanking the simple portals at each end of the tunnel are two tarnished and oxidized years, “1923” and “1927”—what sagas, challenges, successes, and chronicles are held between those bookended dates both inside and outside the tunnel? How has the intervening century changed our impressions about this astonishing American feat and how can we best mark and celebrate this epic triumph? Apart from the concrete edifices at either end, what vestiges of the past still exist and how can we best protect and preserve this history for subsequent generations?
Today marks the 95th anniversary of the tunnel’s opening. Our five-year story begins in earnest later this summer exclusively on this page and concludes February 26, 2028—the opening ceremony centennial of the Moffat Tunnel.
To begin, we need to play with the predictable plod of time—and imagine now that the date on each Facebook post is the date as it was 100 years ago. Picture that it is now February 26, 1923, and construction on the tunnel has not yet begun. We stand at a stony shoulder of James Peak, and we pause to share the same fragile wisps of an ethereal dream once visualized by David Moffat: that a tunnel would one day pierce the great hydrological barrier known as the Continental Divide in the Southern Rocky Mountains of north-central Colorado.
Like or follow this page and experience the construction of the world-famous Moffat Tunnel, as told by published Rollins Pass and Moffat Tunnel historians Kate Wright and B. Travis Wright—a 2022 Colorado Preservation, Inc. State Honor Award recipient. We’ll share never-before-seen imagery, video, and items—along with stories and perhaps some special guests along the way as well.
B. Travis Wright, MPS | Preserve Rollins Pass | February 26, 2023
The primary purpose of our work is to inform the public.
