Busk-Ivanhoe Tunnel East Portal, Colorado

The 9,300 foot long Busk-Ivanhoe Tunnel emerges at a remote site, after carrying water from one side of the Continental Divide to the other, underneath Hagerman Pass. It was built in 1893, as a railway tunnel by the Colorado Midland Railroad, replacing the nearby Hagerman Tunnel a 2,150-foot long railroad tunnel constructed in 1887, to serve local mining towns. In 1922 the Busk-Ivanhoe Tunnel was turned into an automobile tunnel, and renamed the Carlton Tunnel, with State Highway 104 using it and the old railroad grade, until 1942, when the road was abandoned. The tunnel is now used to carry water over the Divide, in a concrete tube, from the Ivanhoe Reservoir, on the western slope, to Busk Creek, outside the tunnel’s east portal. From there it flows into Turquoise Lake, and is allocated for use by the cities of Pueblo and Aurora, Colorado.