Cricket and Crest Tunnels

Cricket and Crest Tunnels are two parallel railroad passages carved through bedrock in Boone County, running beneath different highways in the northern part of the state. The two tunnels connect the same rail line and represent a substantial feat of excavation through solid rock formation.

Workers for the Missouri Pacific Railroad excavated these passages between 1903 and 1905 to maintain a continuous rail line through rocky hills. The construction accomplished what earlier engineers thought impossible and established a new standard for railroad development in the region.

These passages represent how the railroad transformed the region by making transport connections possible through difficult terrain that had previously isolated communities.

These tunnels are located near Omaha in Boone County and can be viewed from nearby roads that pass over them. Since the passages run underground, finding vantage points from the surface above provides the best way to appreciate their scale and construction.

The Crest Tunnel takes a curved path underground, making it the only tunnel of its kind in the entire state with this distinctive feature. Engineers chose this unusual curve to navigate around geological obstacles that prevented a straight passage through the rock.