The St. Paul Pass Tunnel was a

railway tunnel Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

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— ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

at St. Paul Pass, on the

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...

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, Northern Idaho, or simply the Panhandle—is a salient region of the U.S. state of Idaho encompassing the state's 10 northernmost counties: Benewah, Bonner, Boundary, Clearwater, Idaho, ...

. 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 mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

at East Portal in Montana. The pass above the tunnel is at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''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 equipotenti ...

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 states, Mountain West, Great Pla ...

. With ongoing financial problems which worsened in the 1970s, the Milwaukee line abandoned its

right-of-way A right of way (also right-of-way) is a specific route that people, animals, vehicles, watercraft, or utility lines travel, or the legal status that gives them the right to do so. Rights-of-way in the physical sense include controlled-access h ...

in the West in 1980, but the tunnel and its approach grades have been revived as a

rail trail A rail trail or railway walk is a shared-use path on a Right of way#Rail right of way, 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 rail corr ...

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, the Heartland or the American Midwest) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau. It occupies the northern central part of the United States. It ...

area of

Milwaukee Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

St. Paul Paul, also named Saul of Tarsus, commonly known as Paul the Apostle and Saint Paul, was a Christian apostle ( AD) who spread the teachings of Jesus in the first-century world. For his contributions towards the New Testament, he is generally ...

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 great-circle distance, straight-line distance from the northernmost part of Western Can ...

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

, ending at the

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

Tacoma Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, southwest of Bellevue, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, northwest of Mount ...

area on

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ; ) is a complex estuary, estuarine system of interconnected Marine habitat, marine waterways and basins located on the northwest coast of the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. As a part of the Salish Sea, the sound ...

. 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 ...

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 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 table (landform), tablelands. The word ''butte'' comes from the French l ...

starting in August 1906 and continuing through November, using the tools of the era:

transit Transit may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Transit'' (1980 film), a 1980 Israeli film * ''Transit'' (1986 film), a Canadian short film * ''Transit'' (2005 film), a film produced by MTV and Staying-Alive about four people in countrie ...

stadia rod Stadia may refer to: Measurements * Stadia mark, crosshairs on the reticle of a theodolite or other surveying instrument * Stadiametric rangefinding (also stadia method), a technique of measuring distances with a telescopic instrument * Stadion (u ...

, 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: * Grading in education, a measurement of a student's performance by educational assessment (e.g. A, pass, etc.) * A designation for students, classes and curricula indicating the number of the year a student has reach ...

, 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 ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Missoula County, Montana, Missoula County, Montana, United States. It is located along the Clark Fork River near its confluence with the Bitterroot River, Bitterroot and Blackfoot River (Montana), ...

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 Rail Transport, railroad tunnel near Snoqualmie Pass in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington, located east of Seattle. The tunnel crosses the Cascade Range about south of the pass, which is used by ...

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 Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad Company Historic District. The St. Paul Tunnel route was officially ‘rededicated’ on June 23, 2001, as part of the ''Route of the Hiawatha''

. 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 The Palouse to Cascades State Park Trail, formerly known as the John Wayne Pioneer Trail and the Iron Horse Trail, is a rail trail that spans most of the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. It follows the former railway roadbed of the ...

, 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: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

William Howard Taft William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) served as the 27th president of the United States from 1909 to 1913 and the tenth chief justice of the United States from 1921 to 1930. He is the only person to have held both offices. ...

, 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), also known as Teddy or T.R., was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York (state), New York politics, incl ...

; 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 18 ...

). 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 ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

, 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

in 1962, and now nothing remains but its name; on I-90 is named "Taft."

References

External links