Show thirty year dream realized as U Blandi nj water tunnel is holed thru bru BLANDING uncle walter clymans dream came true thursday afternoon december dec ember 27 17 1951 when the tunnel ahr through ough the blue mountain was completed for several days prior to this date workmen had been expecting to complete the job j ob but it took a little longer than they anticipated marvin lyman son of uncle walter C vet bradford and don smith went on snow shoes to the north entrance of the tunnel they had made a code of taps with the workmen on the south side of the tunnel to show them where to drill they first tried on the east side which proved to be wrong then they tried on the west side and when the drill had gone only thirty inches kay bradford the driller let out a war whoop immediately marvin lyman jumped to the opening and shouted in answer in a short time the break through was complete and the men all walked out the south side of the tunnel it was a dream of long standing come true for a great many blanding Dl andine people in august 1921 work on the tunnel was begun walter C lyman was in charge david black sr was th the e foreman of the first road that was buil buila J right up in the bottom of john son s on creek the last end of 0 f taft 0 O road was so extremely steep I 1 tj took a good four horse team pull one ton of supplies to t tunnel j because ot ol the lack of equip ment and the shortage of funds the work on the tunnel was discontinued at that alime in 1939 a group of the blanding citizens decided to try the project again it was re surveyed by engineer A Z richards 0 of salt lake city A road was w as built by way of camp jackson in which the forest service participated I 1 new cabins and machine shops chops were constructed at the entrance of he tunnel also a powder house and stable were built work was begun without even a compressor walter lyman did the timbering that was necessary until they got in to solid rock individuals ats put up different amounts of money and where they have the money at that atiat time they pledged themselves to secure it an and d pay later it was understood that they would be reimbursed reimburse burs ed by s shares of tunnel stock aft r the work began to lag it was to contract a d cont act ct was let to dick an andi t STess fass wal T r for feet they co feted next a ca cant fact ct was let 0 heber carrol Car carrola rolT william sh pard charlie harvey and C mie carroll N act t marvin L nan ian and vet br breslford Brej lford ord took a tract for 1000 iffet which s s completed complete d in 47 at this e funds were ex exi and pledges of a in mantal koplo were not kept e pt t I 1 bored ked like maybe the tunnel uld not be completed the Lj anding irrigation company awas as contacted to see if it could help out or take over the blanding irrigation company sent a delegation to salt lake to see the utah power and water board charles redd was a member of this board and as he was familiar with the need of the tunnel and what had been done on it he was a great help to the members of the irrigation comp company any in securing a loan of 0 0 to finish the tunnel this money was to be paid back in in a period of twenty five years and was secured by a mortgage on t he property of the irrigation company it was the judgment of all of those connected with the loan that this amount would be sufficient to complete the project however immediately after the loan was granted prices of labor and material started to increase very rapidly for this reason the completion of the tunnel has been a very heavy burden to the contractors and everyone else concerned under the new contract taken by mr lyman and mr bradford work was resumed iq in august 1947 construction continued early and late as long as weather would permit each year two different times an extension of time had to be s secured from the utah power and water board vet brafford bradford has had charge 4 ii the construction and haft en 6 w the job constantly hi thora has stayed by h J cook cooke ednd cUnd cared for the primers ers in a most admirable pahion chion M most s t e time when lp has been e n aid beard t to 0 secure his aan n boys haveluck have abuck with him on he job fore for be past two years n George eorge R roger er foster hane been X eadd elenga ble and loel work I 1 en J I 1 0 and r have hav e stayed mr bra fard rd M ivin in F clymans part has beer bee bayed well also he has had piagge je ol of the ordering and frei abing ing of materials and keep ing em on hand there have bee times imes when it was hard to get 9 e t abor or and an d materials T tunnel measures feet and according cc to mr BrAAf arcU h had w very good grade hesayo t a 11 feet of it are arc so straight chati that e boys could read small prin chat hat many feet back from the reflection of a mirror at the south entrance everyone is rejoicing over the completion of the project friday after the break through several car loads of blanding people rushed to the scene and pictures picture 3 were taken mr bradford says when I 1 g got t home thursday night and told told thora we were finally through she was so happy she started to cry |