| Tunnel No. 1 is 3 miles from Kendall and 6 miles from Wilton. It is
1,694 feet long and was completed in 1873 after one and a half years of digging. It cost
$98,971 or $58 a foot. 
Tunnel entrance before the doors were built, circa 1874.
State Historical Society of Wisconsin photoprint
Tunnel 1 as it appears now.
Note the biker silhouetted at the far end of the tunnel.
2 travelers on their way from Onalaska to Reedsburg on the Trail.
Warning poles or "telltales" were placed at both ends of each tunnel. As
the train passed under a telltale, the dangling wires would alert the brakeman to climb
down before the train went through the tunnel. These were also called "Hobo
Poles" because during the 1930s homeless men often hitched free rides on top of
trains.
|
Elroy-Sparta Tunnel Number 1
