Seven tunnels, including a horseshoe tunnel more than a quarter mile long, were blasted in this canyon so a railroad could be completed to Grangeville in 1908. Building a railroad up this canyon was exceptionally difficult and expensive. Although they competed in Lewiston, Union Pacific and Northern Pacific officials organized a separate company in which each had an equal interest to complete a Camas Prairie line, because otherwise neither would have had enough traffic to operate profitably.