In 1871, Hayden Hill postmaster, A.W. Blair was the first person to conceive the idea to tap Eagle Lake to irrigate the sagebrush lands of Honey Lake Valley.  Nearly fifty years later, it was Leon Bly, who finally succeeded in building a tunnel where others had failed. In 1923, the mile and a half long tunnel, costing $975,000 was completed as far as Bly and the contractors were concerned. However, the contractor only put in a cut of three feet below the surface at the intake, instead of eight feet. From that time on the tunnel was plagued with problems. In 1973, the Bureau of Land Management revoked the right-of-way for the tunnel and deemed it a safety hazard. Using tailings from the tunnel construction, they put a temporary plug to the tunnel. Finally, on November 26, 1986 the BLM hired Western Roads, Inc., to place a permanent concrete plug at the tunnel’s inlet.

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