Sometimes we come across little tidbits of our the bicycle’s place in the history of the North State that are too good not to share. We recently came across this photo and article from the December 20, 1961 Redding Record-Searchlight:

LEWISTON— It was one of the strangest bicycle rides in the world.

Marvin Higday and Bob Day were clipping along on their lightweight bicycles thousands of feet inside the $36 million Clear Creek tunnel.

Higday and Day were just part of the crews that were winding up the big tunnel job last week. They work for Continental Drilling company, which is drilling test cores from the tunnel’s concrete lining for the U.S. bureau of reclamation.”

The 11-mile long, 17 1/2-foot diameter tunnel would have been quite an interesting bicycle commute, especially without today’s high-lumen bicycle headlights!