Why Did America's Longest Electric Railroad Pull Down Its Own Wire in the Middle of an Oil Crisis?

There is a hole under a mountain pass in Washington state that is two and a third miles long, and about two hundred thousand people walk or ride through it every year. There is no lighting in it. You bring your own or you do not go in. It is around twenty degrees colder inside than out, water comes off the roof the whole way, and the far end is a point of daylight that stays the same size for a very long time before it starts to grow. It closes on the first of November every year and does not reopen until May, because ice forms on the ceiling and falls. IF YOU ARE GOING UP THERE As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Washington Atlas and Gazetteer (DeLorme) - the trail follows the old Milwaukee grade across the whole state, with detours wherever it crosses private land, and every road and trailhead along it is in here: https://link.amazon/B056dJ8uF WHERE IT IS The Snoqualmie Tunnel is on the Palouse to Cascades State Park Trail, under Snoqualmie Pass in Washington, alongside Interstate 90. The easiest way in is the Hyak trailhead at the east end of the tunnel, which has parking and restrooms. The tunnel is closed from November 1 to May 1, and the reopening date depends on the weather. If you want to go this year, you have until the end of October. Bring a light, a jacket and gloves even in summer. Cyclists use the tunnel too, so wear something reflective. A Discover Pass is needed to park, and a Sno-Park permit from December to March. Snoqualmie is pronounced snoh-KWAHL-mee. A NOTE ON THE IMAGES The research and the script are mine, from primary records and archives, and the sources are listed below. Where no photograph of a place survives, and for this channel that is often, the images are period material from elsewhere rather than the place itself. SOURCES Milwaukee Road Electrification Department records, 1906 to 1977 Adam T. Michalski, "Unfulfilled Promise: Electrification and the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad", University of Missouri St. Louis, 2009 Railfan and Railroad Magazine, "Milwaukee Electrics: Fifty Years Gone", 2024 Upper Musselshell Museum, Harlowton, Montana Electrified Railroad historical marker, Deer Lodge, Montana Washington State Parks, Palouse to Cascades State Park Trail Washington State Parks, trail reopening west of the Snoqualmie Tunnel, June 2026 The Seattle Times IF YOU WERE THERE If you rode the Milwaukee behind the electrics, or walked the tunnel, or your family worked in one of the substations or at Deer Lodge, I want to hear it. And if anybody kept a length of that catenary wire when it came down in 1974, or better still has a substation logbook from the last years, I would very much like to know it still exists. Comment or write to [email protected]. Old Alignment. Abandoned American roads, railroads and infrastructure. New video every other day. #milwaukeeroad #snoqualmietunnel #abandonedrailroad