The Needle’s Eye Tunnel has had a bloody history. As reported in the Steamboat Pilot, a road contractor “once saw 60 Swedes carried out in baskets, killed when a charge of powder exploded prematurely in boring this tunnel.” Almost 13 unlucky years later, a freight derailment occurred inside Needle’s Eye Tunnel as reported by the Oak Creek Times. When visiting the tunnel, history can still be seen—soot-stained rocks bear silent witness to David Moffat’s pioneering strategy of running rails at historic altitudes.