St. Paul daily globe., 1893-02-27
MOVING A MOUNTAIN,
Weird Scenes Near the Pict-
upesque Santa Cruz
Mountains.
The Work of Cutting Away
the Settling Mammoth
Mounds.
Working Night and Day on
the Collapsed Rail-
road.
A Marvellous Undertaking
Which Requires Great
Skill.

" Hull hCH OlIC0 vi O0O
Skill.
A weird scene can be witnessed in the
picturesque Santa CruS mountains just
now. 1t is nothing less than small
army of men trying to prevent huge
mountain from sliding into gulch and
destroying a large railroad tunnel. AS
described in the Chronicle several days
ago. the wooded hill at Wrights station,
on the Santa Cruz division OF the
Southern Pacific Company, is slowly
settling, as if trying to find level, and
the railroad people have been working
day and night to remove enough of the
mountain to save the tunnel. At pres
ent $50 men are toiling all day, and
about sixty more labor at night by the
bonfires made of brush that has been
removed from the mountain side, says
the San Francisco Chronicle.
The whole mountain side looks as if
there had been tremendous upheayel.
and that man was trying to overcome
the work Of angry nature. The whole
ground was formerly covered with tall.
Stately redwood giants and underbr lsh.
Now all This has been cleared OF over
the tunnel, but the edges of the sliding
mountain are still covered with their
patural verdure. On the mountain side
is the small army of labOrers working
on seven different tiers or slopes, shov-
cling the earth and carrying 1t Off IN
WheelbarroWs.
Four construction trains rupto the
mountains base to load with the Slid
ing earth and TO remove it few hun
dred yards away, so as to fill up a
guIch over which the railroad crosses
by means of trest,e. The shrill
screeching of the engines whistles.
the smoke from burning underbruSn
and the wrecked appearance of the
mountain side form a subject for a
toillng bv the red fires of underbruSh
and the smoking engines are running in
and out, the scene is Weirdly pictur-
esque. i
No parallel to this accident has ever
been known before in the history of
railroads. The mountain side. which S
full OF. springs, became so saturated at
the time Of the great storms early this
winter that it began to slide to the
gulch below, and thereby crushed in
one end of the tunnel, which is mile
and five-eighths in length. But 120
feet of the tunnel is known to have
been affected, however. Back 200
feet from the northern mouth of
the tunnel. and about $50 feet
above it, portion of the mountain side
seems to have broken abruptly from the
rest and commenced slowly to settle.
1t has continued to settle until now at
the place where the division of the hill :
side occurred there is an abrupt wall
twenty feet high, showing that tie
mountain towards Wright'S station has
settled that much. There has never
been any danger of accident, however,
as a settling mountain moves slowly.
Railway laborers noticed that the TIM
bers in the tunnel had commenced to
give way about Dec. 2l last, but trains
were run through the tunnel for q tull
week afterWard. Finally all trains had
to be abandoned, as the tlmbers bgan
! to crack, and at the present time the
tunnel is entirely closed, except for a
small opening at the mouth. The tremen
dOus crushing power Of the settling
mountain has ground the immense tim
bers. a foot square. fairly into one an
| other. They are not broken, as in the
| case of a sudden accident, but nave
| been slowly forced through each other
where the end of one has come in con-
tact with the side of another.
! The soil of the mOunt9in is peculiar.
| On the surface there is a yellow soil,
| but few feet down an odd formation Is
| found. 1t seems to be Slate-colored
i clay that is as tough as soft rock.
| When exposed to the air II dries and
crumbles into fine dust.
| The 800 or more men at work have
been using wheelbarroWs to make roads
in the mountain side, so that a dozen
horses with as many carts could be EN-
ployed. These were put at work yeSter'
day. Some of them haul the earth tC
the gulch beneath. and some carry it tC
the cars, which haul IS further away
The slide OF the mountain is in dag
onal direction from the course OF the
tunnel, and, therefore, the eastern wal
of the tunnel has been pressed against
the western side. All the large timber
ing has been crushed out of shape.
so tar the work Oh the level of the
tunnel has been to make all open cut
into the mountain side, and this has
progressed fifty feet in from where the
mouth of the old tunnel was, leaving
! seventy feet more to be cut away. es
terday the method of working was
| changed, as the men got too far into the
side of the mountain, and it became
necessary to tunnel, as the sides of the
cut were too high. The first timbers OF
the new tunnel were placed in yeStcr
day, and while the men have progressed
at the rate of nearly ten feet day fol
the past ten days, it is not expected
that over three to five feet day can be
| made from this on.
The timbering will be done carefully
and slowly, so that the tunnel will bt
safer than ever before, for when the
| stripping of the mountain is completed
there will be but twenty or thirty fee
of earth on top of the tunnel where be
fore there was an immense Sliding
mountain. The tunnel wilt also be OF
the standard broad-gauge dimensions
as it is the intention of the Southern
Pacific company to eventually make the
branch a broad-gauge road.
Superintendent L. Fillmore has beer
paying his personal attention to the
work of removing the mOuntaip. Oh the
seven tiers and at the mouth of tht
tunnel, but at night men are only
worked at the top of the mountain anC
in the tunnel. The arrangement l.
made with view to opening up th'
Icau loI tidlHC dS SOoll Us pUSSlDle. III
further stripping of the mountain will
take weeks of work afterward Mr.
Fillmore expected to haveithe road opeI
| for travel by Feb. if rain did not re
tard his work, and if he can succeed il
making the tunnel timberS stand.
While for the present the mouth o
the tunnel will be fifty feet further il
. the mountain than before, it will b,
changed. To prevent small slides ant
to have perfectly safe tunnel the tim
bers will be run out further than for
merly, so that the mouth OF the tunne
| will he nlnsa to tha cn1r no, 1.,s 70