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<br />1'" ? ~ 27
<br />
<br />THE GUNNISON RIVER DIVERSION PROJECT
<br />
<br />277
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<br />tools for a distance of two hundred yards down the tunnel."
<br />Indeed, so much trouble was encountered in the fault zone, it
<br />took a year to pass through. In April of 1908, a water vein was
<br />encountered which stopped all progress for months and ne-
<br />cessitated the use of additional pumps." Earlier, another
<br />underground water course was hit which discharged from the
<br />West Portal at the rate of 7l/2-second feet. This forced ,the
<br />raising of the tram tracks upon timbers for three and one-
<br />fourth miles, delayed drilling, increased the labor of mucking
<br />and increased the cost of track work."
<br />
<br />Forces from the outside world proved just as bothersome.
<br />On July 30, 1908, a cloudburst raised the level of Cedar Creek
<br />until it rushed into the portal cut, filling the cut with debris
<br />and washing out more than fifty feet of timbering at the end
<br />of the tunnel.;5 The previous August a similar rise in Cedar
<br />Creek broke into the rescue shaft sunk, in May of 1905, and
<br />work was delayed for a week.'" Spring and summer rains
<br />would frequently make the steep River Portal road impassable
<br />for the contracted freight wagons, and government teams often
<br />had to be used to haul in coal to keep tunnel pumps in opera-
<br />tion,
<br />
<br />Despite the complications and frustrations, the work of
<br />the excavation proceeded," At the East and West Portals
<br />steam power plants, air compressors, electric generators, and
<br />cycloidal ventilating blowers were installed. Tramming within
<br />the tunnels was carried on with six-ton electric locomotives,
<br />operating on a 24-inch gauge track and pulling side-dump
<br />(west) or non-dumping (east) cars. Drilling was done with
<br />drills best adapted for the particular substrate, with up to
<br />fifteen power drills operating from the west end.'8 Electric
<br />lines were run into the tunnel headings as work progressed,
<br />and alllightiIi.g was by means of electricity.
<br />
<br />Arthur Page in his "Running a River Through a Mountain,"
<br />has given a good glimpse of the tunnel excavation work:
<br />". . . Two miles and a half in the mountains from the Uncom-
<br />pahgre side are about 15 men with three drills working in the
<br />rock. Two steel pipes, about a foot in diameter, lead from a
<br />shaft to the head of the tunnel, one pumping in fresh air and
<br />the other sucking out foul air. An electric train hauls out the
<br />rock as it is excavated, down the long wet tunnel lighted here
<br />and there by electric lights, . . ."79
<br />
<br />7Z U. S. Reclamation Ser\'ice. 9th AnmULI Report.. 01J. cU... 98-99.
<br />13 Ibid., 98.
<br />1-10 U. S. Reclamation Sen ice, 7th Annual R,eport, 01). cU.. 76.
<br />15 U. S. Heclamation Service, 8th Ann-Hal Report of the Reclamation Service,
<br />1908-1909 (1910),66, Chapman, 01', oit., 179,
<br />70 U. S. Heclamation Service, 7th Annual Report, op. cU... 76.
<br />.7 The most detailed account of the (~onstruction activit\~ i!5 to be found in
<br />the 9th Ann~ml RqJOrt 01 the Redw!I(ltjon Ser1)-ice, 95-100. .
<br />~'i A. "\V, Holk,er and D. A. Willey, "Heroes 9f the Gunnison Tunnel," Evc7'Y-
<br />body's Ma.Qa.:zinc) Vol. 21, No.4 (1909), 516.
<br />~Il Page, op. cit.,. 932~.
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