The tunnel and the rail roadbed were constructed by the Western Pacific Railroad in 1909. This was part of the major railroad project to link California with the East, through the Feather River Canyon.

In the 1860's the United States had been linked together by the hard work of the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railroads. However, by 1890 the Union Pacific Company had become disenchanted with the railroad route over Donner Summit. The 7,200 feet elevation with its deep snows was a great obstacle to uninterrupted services.

For many years survey and construction work went ahead. By 1909 the work was completed and freight service through the Feather River Canyon began. Then in August of 1910, passenger service over the new route began. The west-facing entrance of the tunnel bears the year 1911.

Within 50 feet of where the tunnel was constructed lay the biggest mining failure of all time. Between 1892 and 1897 Major Frank McLaughlin, and his British backers, had spent $12,000,000 in constructing a dam, stone wall and flume to divert the Feather River so that gold could be mined out of the river bed. This project has the notoriety of being the first construction project where electricity was used to illuminate the work - provided personally by Thomas A. Edison!

Surprisingly, very little gold was found. However, McLaughlin made money on the deal and his British backers took the loss. He, his wife and child Aggie moved into a large estate named Golden Gate Villa in Santa Cruz.

But his wife died and exactly two years later on November 17, 1907, McLaughlin shot his daughter in the head and then drank a cocktail of strichnine and lemon juice. So maybe McLaughlin ended up paying for the fiasco after all.

Prior to his leaving the area, on November 1, 1897, McLaughlin blew up the enormous dam and wooden flume. But an equally large explosion was later to rock the walls of the adjacent hills.

The rock wall, running the length of two miles and also making that 90 degree turn to the East, is still there but it is submerged by the waters of the Thermalito Diversion Dam and cannot be seen.

A view of McLaughlins Chinese Wall, circa 1964. Just before the water inundated the wall.

Another view of the Chinese Wall. This was later in 1964 with the wall almost covered.

By the late 1950's the tunnel and roadbed were not used for their original purpose. But with the plan for the monumental construction of the Oroville Dam, it was determined that the roadbed and the tunnel would be used as a conduit for all of the rock construction material that would be used to form the enormous project.

The plan was for rock from the old dredger tailings west of Oroville to be transported by train, past Oroville, through the tunnel and on up the south side of the Feather River to be placed on the dam. The trains would dump their loads and then return down the same route to refill their cars.

The trains ran 24 hours per day, six days a week, for years. It was a very efficient method, until.........