Stories from Trego tunnel deviate from historical record
Rubble is removed from the south portal during construction of the Flathead Tunnel. (Bruce Morse photo)
The diesel engine and ore cars as seen from the top level of the jumbo. (Bruce Morse photo)
Herb Morse cuts off a drill that was stuck in the wall during the construction of the Flathead Tunnel. Anyone who stuck a drill would have to buy a case of beer for the rest of the workers. (Bruce Morse photo)
Workers stand in front of the jumbo, which carried the drills used to make the holes for explosives during the construction of the Flathead Tunnel. (Bruce Morse photo)
A 19-year-old Bruce Morse operating the mucking machine to clear debris from the construction of the Flathead Tunnel. (photo provided)
A "picker" checking the ceiling for weaknesses after a round of blasting during the construction of the Flathead Tunnel. The worker was later killed by a falling rock. (Bruce Morse photo)
For the last nine months of the drilling phase of construction of the Flathead Railroad Tunnel near Trego, a then 19-year-old Bruce Morse took his camera with him as he joined his fellow workers more than three miles deep inside the Salish Mountains north of Whitefish.
Working between 1967 and 1968, Morse was a member of one of the three 20-man crews working around the clock on the tunnel’s south portal...
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