(The Associated Press distributed the following article on November 19.)
ASHLAND, Ore. — A fire has collapsed part of an historic Siskiyou Mountain railroad tunnel built in the late 1880s.
The fire, which was discovered Monday morning, continued to smolder Tuesday evening at the north end of the 3,107-foot-long tunnel. Train officials said Tunnel 13 would be closed indefinitely.
“We?ve yet to get the fire under control,” said Mark Wohlers, administrative affairs manager for the Central Oregon and Pacific Railroad Co. “Once we?ve done that, we?ll assess the damage, then go from there. It?s going to be awhile.”
Several engineers ventured about 1,000 feet inside the tunnel Tuesday evening, using a large fan to clear smoke. They found that the tunnel was partially blocked about 100 feet from the north end, said Dex McCullouch, director of railroad services for Shannon & Wilson Inc., a Seattle-based tunnel engineering firm.
His firm has been hired to restore the tunnel.
Debris falling from the walls and ceiling have made entering the north end impossible, officials said.
The fire is believed to have been sparked by transients or trespassers.
“We?re still concerned about the smoke and the potential for a collapse,” said Wohlers, whose company is now handling the fire. The tunnel is supported by foot-thick wooden joists set about two feet apart. The supports were coated with creosote, creating fuel for the fire, he said.
Central Oregon and Pacific Railroad is a “shortline” railroad operating on about 450 miles of track in southern Oregon and Northern California.
The railway will reroute its southern traffic, usually two trains a day, through its Weed, Calif., interchange with Union Pacific, Wohlers said. Trains north of the tunnel will be routed through Eugene.
Although still a working route, the tunnel is best known in southern Oregon as the site of one of the last great train robberies in the West.
On Oct. 11, 1923, 23-year-old twins Ray and Roy DeAutremont and their teenage brother Hugh robbed Southern Pacific?s “Gold Special” train in hopes of collecting the $500,000 in gold rumored to be on board.
They dynamited the train in the area where Monday?s fire was burning. The blast killed the mail clerk, and the DeAutremonts shot and killed the brakeman, engineer and fireman before fleeing empty-handed.
The brothers said they chose the 3,107-foot Tunnel No. 13 because they thought they could hop aboard the train as it made its way up the mountains.
The brothers escaped a massive manhunt until Hugh DeAutremont was arrested overseas while in the military in 1927 after a comrade recognized his picture and turned him in for the reward. Days later, the twins were arrested in Ohio.
All three were sentenced to life in prison after a highly publicized trial in Jacksonville in the old Jackson County Courthouse, now a city museum.
Roy died in a mental hospital in Salem. Hugh died of cancer in 1958 shortly after his parole.
Ray, who masterminded the robbery, had his sentence commuted by then-Gov. Tom McCall in 1972 and died in 1984.