Tunnel Mountain

Tunnel Mountain is a mountain located in the Bow River Valley of Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. The mountain is nearly completely encircled by the town of Banff and the Banff Springs Hotel grounds.

History

The Stoney people had long called the mountain "Sleeping Buffalo", as it resembles a sleeping buffalo when viewed from the north and east. In 1858, James Hector named the small peak "The Hill", likely in reference to its status as the smallest peak adjacent to the Banff townsite.

In 1882, a team of surveyors led by Major A.B. Rogers, of Rogers Pass fame, was surveying for the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Rogers, likely in a hurry, assumed the easiest path for the railway to take would be to simply follow the Bow River. On account of the difficulties that would be faced with river crossings and the steepness of the cliffs between the northwestern edge of Mount Rundle and Tunnel Mountain, Rogers' team suggested the construction of a 275 m (902 ft) tunnel through the tiny mountain. CPR General Manager William Cornelius Van Horne was furious at the suggestion, exclaiming "Are we going to hold up this railway for a year and a half while they build their damned tunnel? Take it out!" An alternative route north of the mountain was found, which incidentally shortened the railway by a mile, and avoided two long hills, saving the CPR millions of dollars. Surveyor Charles Shaw described the idea as "the most extraordinary blunder I have ever known in the way of engineering." The idea of a tunnel was scrapped altogether, but the mountain is still called Tunnel Mountain to this day.