Tunnel Drive Traditional Cache
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(small)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
Tunnel Drive
In an area with so many natural wonders, it seems unreasonable that one area of beauty and curiosity was initially decidedly unnatural. Such is the case of Tunnel Drive.
It was in 1892 that the Kansas-Colorado Irrigation Company was formed to build an irrigation ditch that would carry water from the Arkansas River at the west end of town to parts east between Cañon City and Pueblo. It was a grand plan to turn those vast plains into lush orchards, hay fields and vegetable gardens. Again using the very dependable inmate labor from the Territorial Prison, it was called the State Ditch because the project was financed using state funds and approved by the state legislature. But things did not go exactly as planned.
The State Ditch project called for drawing water from a large wooden pipe set at the edge of the river at the Royal Gorge, snake it via the ditch along the north bank of the gorge through Skyline Drive, to the undeveloped north end of town, then onward to the plains. The inmates started work in 1895, using mostly hand tools and wagons to move and transport many tons of earth and rock. The ditch was to run almost three miles, and the most difficult part of the project entailed digging the three tunnels through the rock at Fremont Peak, and blasting a tunnel through Skyline Drive. The work proceeded very slowly but purposefully - until they reached Skyline Drive.
Situated on the east side of the Hogbacks lay the grounds to St. Scholastica Academy and several private homes. When the blasting crew dynamited an opening through Skyline Drive, the resulting tremor was so great that it rocked the foundation of the Academy and several homes, causing extensive damage throughout the area. Lawsuits were threatened and the state legislature became involved. Ultimately, the state settled with the claimants and the project was quietly stopped soon thereafter by Governor James H. Peabody, a resident of Cañon City. It was suggested at the time that the true reason for halting the project was because the state had failed to secure water rights. Whatever the reason for the closure, the State Ditch had thus far cost taxpayers $220,000, with nothing to show for it - save a few unnatural tunnels.
For years the State Ditch lay unfinished and unused, overgrown with weeds and strewn with rocks and debris. The city eventually took control of the ditch in 1908 and buried a thirty-inch water line that ran the three miles into the gorge area. The city also built iron bridges to carry the water lines in several unsecured spots along the way. The tunnels were enlarged to allow carriages and automobiles to pass through them, and by 1909, the road was being called Tunnel Drive.
Tunnel Drive was a highly visited area by travelers until about 1990, when the old trestle bridges were deemed unsafe and the road was closed. However, through the monumental efforts of Cañon City's Recreational District, the City of Cañon City, local firefighters and the Boy Scouts, along with some new state funding, the old bridges were rebuilt in 2000 and Tunnel Drive reopened to visitors. And to ensure that the area remains a hiker's trail, automobiles are no longer allowed to traverse the entire three mile span of Tunnel Drive.
Finally, an inmate crew from the Territorial Prison returned to put the finishing touches on a project first began by their predecessors more than one hundred years ago. Please be sure to view all the photographs in the image gallery. A special thanks goes out to mr.volkswagen for the photographs from 2008.
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)