July 9 Tuesday – Mack in Nevada, a history of the state on Adolph H. Sutro’s completion of the tunnel, which took nearly thirteen years:

“A few years later [after the initial drilling] he obtained $2,100,000 from subscriptions in the United States and in Europe. The work on the tunnel was then pushed with all possible speed. In 1878 Sutro’s dream was nearing realization—the men working in the tunnel could hear the miners at work with their drills in the Savage mine, the shaft nearest the tunnel. Finally, on July 8, 1878, a round of powder broke the last remaining wall between the tunnel and the shaft. Sutro himself was there when the last shot was fired. He was the first to crawl through the opening. It was said the rush of air from the shaft into the tunnel was so great that it sucked Sutro through the hole with such a terrific force that he was hurled to the other side of the shaft. He was picked up bruised, bleeding, and almost unconscious. Although he was almost overcome with excitement and with the extreme heat of the tunnel he was able to shout for joy. The main tunnel measured 20,480 feet in length and cost $2,096,556.41, exclusive of the expenses incurred by Sutro in the carrying out of his plan” [448-9]. Note: In 1871 Sam sought information from Sutro, a friend of John Henry Riley’s, about mining conditions for Roughing It.