- City:
- Feather River Canyon, CA
- Site Type:
- Roads, Bridges, and Tunnels, Infrastructure and Utilities
- New Deal Agencies:
- Works Progress Administration (WPA), Work Relief Programs
- Completed:
- 1937
- Quality of Information:
- Good
- Marked:
- No
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
Elephant Butte Tunnel is one of three tunnels blasted through granite by Works Progress Administration (WPA) workers along the Feather River Highway (present highway 70) in northeast California. The tunnels were the final pieces in the construction of the Feather River highway by the State of California (1928-37).
There is a curious discrepancy in the signs on the two entrances to the tunnel: one dates it to 1936 and the other to 1937. Both are likely true, in that the tunnel was probably begun in 1936 and finished a year later.
Elephant Butte tunnel is the northern-most tunnel of the three. The tunnels were blasted through solid granite in and around Grizzly Dome. Rock from the tunnels was used for rock safety walls along the highway.
Source notes
"Feather River Scenic Byway" by Frank Brehm at: https://www.wplives.com/frc/driving_the_canyon.php
Site originally submitted by Richard A Walker on June 29, 2018.
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