Its very rare that one can say they walked in a railroad tunnel let alone multiple ones like we did. Its very amazing how during the day one place can look peaceful but at night that changes. I found these tunnels to be very haunted its a pretty eerie place to be once you start hiking further into the trail. I will also be posting photos of Hoover Dam which I took. The trail will take you to the dam after you enter multiple tunnels cut right into the mountain along a ridge. Along the ridge is quite a drop to the bottom its extremely even scenic at night.

The history goes as this that an old railroad bed was built in the 1930s and five tunnels had to be carved into the mountain. This railroad would haul materials and equipment used in the construction of Hoover Dam. The trains would run 24 hours a day and in 1961-1962 the tracks were dismantled. The first tunnel is over a mile from the trailhead its quite the hike.  The views of Boulder Basin are amazing even at night the dim lights on the water below is breathtaking.

If you want deeper history into this in 1931 Lewis Construction Company began the construction in this area. In 1984 this made the National Register Of Historic Places technically some of the tunnels did receive some restoration work. The length of the trail is almost 3 miles we did hike just about the full length and back. 

All the tunnels are around 300 feet in length and 25 feet in diameter. The tunnels were made very large to fit the penstock sections and large equipment being transported to the dam. This line had nine steam and four gas locomotives along with 71 railway workers operating this project. Its said that some of the rail system is underwater behind the tunnels. A section of these tunnels appeared in the motion picture called "The Gauntlet" with Clint Eastwood and Sondra Looks which they were on a motorcycle being chased by an assassin in a helicopter. 

If you want more history in detail you can read further below along with the history of Hoover Dam. This was a very good investigation in my opinion it might be one of the best so far we ever did in Vegas. The activity is very high inside and outside the tunnels. Not only was it a great exploration but also a great paranormal investigation!

Alot of people and I mean ALOT lost their lives in this area during the dams construction. It was not a pretty site men would go to work only to never see their families again. It is very history and significant to the Hoover Dam area. Also along the trail is Lake Mead a man made lake which has been known for its giant catfish, dumping of garbage and dead bodies found. 

© By

Lord Rick

Daytime Tunnel/RailBed

A journey begins!

The Long Road Ahead

Tunnels

A Journey Ends!

Hoover Dam Photos Below

The Story 

From Below : http://hikearizona.com/decoder.php?ZTN=423 for scholastic use only!
In 1931 a construction contract was let to Six Companies, Inc., a consortium of six major western firms. Together with the government, they built almost 30 miles of railroad connecting Boulder City with all the facilities needed to build Hoover Dam (eg., cement mixing plants, quarry pit, gravel sorting plant).

The Hoover Dam construction railroad system had three segments. The first, from Las Vegas to the Boulder City site, was built and operated by the Union Pacific Railroad.

The second segment was built by the U.S. Government. It ran from Boulder City down Hemenway Wash to Himix, the concrete mixing plant on the rim of the Black Canyon overlooking the dam. It provided concrete for the final 242 feet of the dam and the buildings on its crest. The airline distance from Boulder City to Himix was 6.7 miles. A drop in 1100 feet in elevation however, necessitated ten miles of winding tracks to keep the grades from being too steep.

Six Companies, Inc. built and operated the third segment of the system. The tracks branched off the U.S. Government Construction Railroad at Lawler, about a mile up Hemenway Wash from the Visitor Center. It crossed Hemenway Wash and followed the base of the River Mountains and then looped eastward to the gravel plant on the flat overlooking the Colorado River. One branch went upstream 7.3 miles from the gravel plant to the gravel beds on the Arizona side.

Isolation demanded the tons of concrete needed for the dam to be manufactured locally. An electric dragline with a five cubic yard capacity loaded gravel into railroad cars. Concrete was made by mixing sand and crushed rock, called aggregate, with portland cement and water. Over four million cubic yards of aggregate were taken from the Arizona side of the river.

The other branch followed the river downstream into Black Canyon, to Lomix, a concrete mixing plant situated at the base of Black Canyon. Lomix provided the concrete for the diversion-tunnel linings, the powerhouse foundation, and two-thirds of the dam. To prevent the concrete from drying during transportation the mixing plant was put as close to the river as possible.

Locomotives hauled tons of gravel to a screening plant on the other side of the river 24-hours a day. A round trip took slightly over two hours. The foundations of the plant are now about 150 feet below the water level of Lake Mead.

The Six Companies, Inc. Railroad was, of course, abandoned after the completion of Hoover Dam in 1935. The U.S. Government Construction Railroad section was sporadically used until 1961, when the last generator was hauled over its rails and installed at the power plant.

The tracks were dismantled in 1962 and sold as scrap to Lucia Brothers. The tunnels and trail were nominated in 1984 to the National Register of Historic Places.

Today you can walk or bicycle along the elevated railroad bed used to haul supplies and materials for the construction of Hoover Dam. Enjoy the spectacular views of Lake Mead and the surrounding desert landscape.

Walking Tour 

Look for desert bighorn sheep, ravens' and owls' nests, lizards, and antelope ground squirrels. You may also see rattlesnakes and scorpions during the summer.

Along the trail you will see a section of rough, rocky road on the south side of the railroad bed that is believed to be the first section of pioneer trail or road for the construction of Hoover Dam. Approaching tunnel 1, on the right, look down the ravine to see concrete plugs taken out of Hoover Dam to install the turbines.

Tunnel 1 has eight sections of vertical supports, five of which have horizontal planks to prevent the fall of loose rock on to the tracks so there would be few delays during the 24-hour dam building schedule. Weight from the rock has damaged the outermost, eastern arch.

Tunnel 2 burned in an arson fire in 1990. You can see it looks different from the other tunnels. It was sprayed with shot Crete to fortify the now looser rock.

Between tunnels 2 and 3, another pioneer road is visible. Rocks excavated from the tunnels were undoubtedly used for the fills you are walking on now.

The outermost east arch was deformed by pressure of the rock in tunnel 3.

Tunnel 5 was burned in 1978 and was then sealed. The tunnel was restored and reopened in July, 2001. The trail now ends on the other side of tunnel 5. The Historic Railroad Trail will continue to Hoover Dam after the final phase of construction in 2002.

All tunnels are 25 feet in diameter. They were oversized to fit huge penstock sections and large equipment being transported to Hoover Dam.

Nine steam and four gas locomotives and 71 people were used to operate the system. It was a standard-gauge, 90-pound rail construction that used Oregon fir ties.

Construction History of Hoover Dam

A Brief Overview of Hoover Dam Construction

“Hoover Dam” or “Boulder Dam”. Few know that Hoover Dam was originally named Boulder Dam. That’s because the initial planned site was at Boulder Canyon about 10 miles north upriver from where it is now located at Black Canyon. An engineering reassessment moved the location from Boulder Canyon to its present location. The Herbert Hoover administration changed the name from Boulder Dam to Hoover Dam in 1930 as a political move. In 1933, the Franklin Roosevelt administration changed it back to Boulder Dam, and under Harry Truman, the permanent name of Hoover Dam was restored.

Awarding of the Hoover Dam Contract. Six construction firms created a consortium call Six Company, Inc. to submit a competitive proposal to build Hoover Dam. As the lowest qualified bidder at $48,890,955, Six Company was awarded the contract. It was given incentive bonuses and would be fined for each day construction overran the assigned schedule. Thus began a furious pace of around the clock construction, which would result in completion of Hoover Dam almost two years ahead of schedule.

The Great Depression led to massive migration of the unemployed to Las Vegas in hopes of landing jobs building Hoover Dam. Men came from around the country, many bringing families and life’s possessions hoping for employment. Living conditions were difficult and became substantially much worse when construction began, creating the shantytown known as Ragtown. Read more about the Men, Women and Children of Hoover Dam where life became a living hell. Life was particularly difficult for the few blacks that were hired as token to government mandate.

The Colorado River had to be diverted before construction could begin. The riverbed had to be dredged clear of deep silt and sediment to expose a bedrock foundation for the building of Hoover Dam. It was a tedious process of digging four diversion tunnels through canyon walls that would divert river flow around the dam site to join the Colorado River farther downstream. Click here to read more about the Hoover Dam Diversion Tunnels.

Hoover Dam required over 3,250,000 cubic yards of concrete plus another million for the power plant, intake towers and other support structures. Two batch plants onsite were created to produce the concrete that was transported on railcars in large four and eight cubic yard buckets. An overhead cableway system lifted the buckets and lowered them to the forms. At peak production, one bucket was delivered about every 78 seconds. See more information and statistics on our Hoover Dam home web page.

The base of Hoover Dam alone required 230 individual gigantic blocks of concrete. Five-foot tall blocks of varying width, ranging from 25 square feet on the downstream face to 60 square feet on the upstream face. Columns were linked together like a giant Lego set with a system of alternating vertical and horizontal schemes.

It is interesting to note that it would have taken about 100 years for the concrete to cool and properly cure without engineering intervention. The chemical heat generated by concrete setting was dissipated by imbedding over 582 miles of one-inch steel pipe through the interconnecting concrete blocks that circulated ice water. Its own ammonia refrigeration plant that cooled the water was capable of creating a gigantic 1000 pound ice block every day.

The cooling pipes were subsequently back-filled with concrete to create added strength. As an arch-gravity dam, the massive water pressure of up to 45,000 pounds per square foot at the base of Hoover Dam, is held back by gravity. The arch-curved structure against the lake reservoir dissipates that pressure into the canyon walls equally on the Arizona and Nevada side.

It was the job of High Scalers to hang dangerously by rope above the canyon to blast and remove weakened and loose rocks from the face of the Black Canyon cliffs where the ends of Hoover Dam would join. Read more about these High Scalers that risked their lives not only performing their jobs, but also entertaining workers below with thrill-seeking and death-defying stunts along the cliff walls.

Welcome to Lake Mead

Lake Mead was created by the building of Hoover Dam which has a storied history of sacrifices made by the men, women and families that were involved with the dam's construction. Read more about Hoover Dam which at one time was called Boulder Dam is located on the northwest border of Arizona and southeast Nevada.

Lake Mead is the second largest man-made reservoir lake in the United States behind Lake Powell on Arizona's northern border. Lake Mead extends over 110 miles from the dam to the western edges of the Grand Canyon. The lake stores over 28.5 million acre-feet of water fed by the Colorado River. The lake extends into both Arizona and Nevada and holds 9.2 trillion gallons of water which is the equivalent of two-years of flow through the Colorado River. The lake features over 550 miles of shoreline and varies in depth.

Where Ancient Peoples Once Roamed.

Ten thousand years before the dam was built in 1935, the area along the river was home to ancient Native American cultures whose artifacts, pottery and hunting implements continue to be discovered today. Evidence indicates prehistoric peoples hunted game and practiced farming. In a cave near the present day Lake Mead, archaeologists have discovered remains of ancient animals with notches on the bones giving evidence of preparation and consumption by humans thousands of years previous.

Fishing At Lake Mead.

Anglers will find Striped Bass, Largemouth Bass, Crappie and Catfish throughout the lake. Both Arizona and Nevada require a state fishing license for those 14 years or older when fishing portions of the lake located within each particular state. A "use stamp" issued in either state will permit fishing in either state's Lake Mead waters.

Lake Mead Recreation.

The Lake Mead National Recreation Area also includes Lake Mohave, south of Lake Mead along the Colorado River. Combined, the area is larger than the state of Rhode Island. Lake Mead by itself is a massive water recreation playground that entices millions of annual visitors to its startling blue waters. The picturesque landscape is a mixture of desert outcroppings, lushly vegetated banks and high canyon walls that draws scenic photographers to its visual charm.

Lake Mead is a vast lake of major proportions with several marinas and campgrounds. It is a water-wonderland that caters to fisherman, house boaters, jet-skiers, water-skiers, power boaters, swimmers, sunbathers and those that love to see the sights. The lake features hiking trails of various levels of difficulty and it's a great place to observe native wildlife including Kit Fox, Bobcats, Ringtail Cats, Mule Deer, the rare Bighorn Sheep and a variety of typical desert creatures including Gila Monsters, Rattlesnakes and the mystifying Chuckawalla Lizards.