10/25/2026
Sutro story of the day:
Damage Report? Ask Again When the Legislature Goes Home
Early 1909: fire is raging inside the Sutro Tunnel, and the mining company men are sweating over what it's costing them. So Consulting Engineer Douglass fires off a telegram to Jim Kinkead: "Wire damage done Sutro Tunnel."
Kinkead thinks it over for a moment, then wires back an all-time Nevada zinger: it's no more possible to estimate the damage done to the tunnel, "as the fire is still in progress, than it is to estimate the damage done to Nevada, as the legislature is still in session."
The Carson News printed the exchange, and Elko's Daily Independent passed it along on Feb. 10, 1909. The tunnel survived the fire, and 117 years later the burn still lands.
Read the original page: https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84020355/1909-02-10/ed-1/?sp=3
The Sutro Tunnel has outlasted fires, floods, and a century of neglect. Help us keep restoring it, and keep the dream of reopening it all the way to Virginia City alive: https://thesutrotunnel.org/donate
