This is an interesting photograph in more ways than one. Alexander Howell, was a photographer. For a brief time in the 1880s, his brother Oscar Howell, was a one-time renter of Papoose Meadows at Eagle Lake.
In 1979, I obtained a copy of the above print from Alexander Howell’s granddaughter. She thought it was tunnel at Eagle Lake. Well, it is obvious that indeed it is a tunnel, just not the original tunnel at Eagle Lake. It is actually, the tunnel entrance of the Golden Eagle Mine at Hayden Hill, the largest and most productive mine there. In the 1990s, Lassen Gold Mining revived operations at Hayden Hill, which most of the place was obliterated. However, as a Lassen County Planning Commissioner, I made an inspection of Hayden Hill, as part of the reclamation process. What caught my attention, probably no one else is aware, amazingly the tunnel entrance is still intact.
There will be a feature article on Hayden Hill in the Northern California Traveler March/April issue.
Back in the 80’s my parents manned the fire lookout at Hayden Hill for a year or two. I think there were still a few small building standing back then.