4061 ft Stevens Pass on US HWY 2 is named for the railroad pathfinder across the Rocky Mountains and chief engineer of the Panama Canal. It is also the site of the largest avalanche disaster in US history ( although a more lethal ‘lanche occurred just a few weeks later just over the border in BC ). Only a stone’s throw away from the modern ski resort lies the ghost town of Wellington, WA where nearly 100 souls perished on Mar. 1, 1910 at 2AM.

https://yesterdaysamerica.com/terror-in-the-cascades-the-1910-wellington-disaster/

While the Wellington story is truly a gripping tale of grit, determination and heartbreak, our interest lines not on the still deadly slopes of Windy mountain; but rather, deep inside the 3 mile long high Cascade Tunnel that connects the towns of Wellington to Cascade Portal, which the Chicago Times once deemed the most wicked town west of the Rocky Mountains. That tunnel was abandon in 1929 when President Roosevelt, a continent away, pushed a button in the White House which automatically opened the new 8 mile long tunnel doors and officially opened the Cascade Low Tunnel for commerce.

The High Tunnel sat abandon for over 50 years until in the 1980s. It was then that Washington State University caught the General Relativity bug and decided that the High Tunnel would be an excellent venue for a proto-LIGO. I was ignorant of this fact until around 2010, while commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Wellington Avalanche, A couple of chums and I decided to explore the tunnel. The west portal had been blocked by a cave in since 2006. But we resolved to enter on the east side and go as far back in the tunnel as possible…