Blueslide Breakthrough: The Tunnel That Pushed the Idaho & Washington Northern Through
After months of hand drilling, a crew of more than 500 blows a heading through the Blueslide tunnel — while the railroad’s general manager limps on crutches after a freak construction accident.
At 11:55 Saturday night the heading on the big railroad tunnel at Blueslide was blown through and a hole made sufficiently large to permit the passage of a man. There had been considerable discussion among the men on the job as to when the connection between the workings would be established, and many bets as to the time it would take. When the hole was made work was shut down and a general rejoicing and good time for the workmen followed.
It is anticipated that the tunnel will be completed ready for delivery to the railroad within a month. Over a million feet of timber will be used in boarding up the top and sides, the timbers being furnished by the Pend Oreille River Lumber Co., of Lenora. The tunnel is 1,100 feet long, 25 feet high and 18 feet wide.
Over 500 men have been employed on the work, two shifts enabling the contractors to push the work day and night. Work was started early in January of this year. The foremen and contractors are well pleased with the progress of the work and claim that a new record for drilling a tunnel, with hand work only, has been made.
Grant Smith Co. estimate that the construction work of the grade is now about 75 per cent completed, and that by August 20 the grade will be ready to turn over to the railroad company, with the possible exception of the big cut on the Mauzea property just north of town. The next ten-mile section north of Dalkena will be ready to turn over by July 1 and tracklaying by the railroad company will then be resumed.
About eight miles of the track are now ballasted and in fairly good condition, except where the track is laid around cuts and fills that are not completed. Fifty cars of gravel to the trainload are handled and a crew of 200 men is working on the surfacing.
General Manager K. Blackwell, of the Idaho Washington Northern Railroad, was the victim of a painful accident one day last week. Mr. Blackwell was down on the front of the construction work, when the train on which he was riding broke in two, and the sudden setting of the air brakes threw him off the car. A heavy railroad frog followed him off the car and struck him, breaking one of the bones of his right foot. He is able to get out on crutches, and although it is painful work persists in overseeing the work of construction.
A private car has been fitted up for the use of General Manager Blackwell and the other officials of the Idaho Washington Northern road, while engaged in the work of superintending the construction of the line extension. While not as luxuriously fitted up as some of the private cars of railroad magnates, it is comfortable and will be a great convenience to the officials. It was built on one of the company's flat cars by the Spirit Lake shops.
“When the hole was made work was shut down and a general rejoicing and good time for the workmen followed.”
The Blueslide tunnel was part of the Idaho & Washington Northern’s push to bind the Pend Oreille country to outside markets, and it depended on hundreds of shift workers doing dangerous hand labor. Modern Newport still lives with the infrastructure and freight corridors laid down in that era, and the story rhymes with today’s debates over rural public works, rail service and worker safety.
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