Jenson Tunnel
Jenson Railroad Tunnel is the first and only railroad tunnel in the present state of Oklahoma. It was constructed through Backbone Mountain during 1885–86, by the Fort Smith & Southern Railway. and has remained in service until the present. At the time it was built, the tunnel was located in the Choctaw Nation in Indian Territory. Since Oklahoma became a state in 1907, the tunnel site has been part of Le Flore County, Oklahoma. It is now primarily used by the Canadian Pacific Kansas City, previously the Kansas City Southern Railroad, and has sometimes been referred to as the KCS - Jenson Tunnel.
History
Jenson Tunnel is located on private property northeast of Rock Island and is the only known railroad tunnel in Oklahoma. It was built by a predecessor of the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway in 1885–86. The tunnel was created through Backbone Mountain in what is now Le Flore County, Oklahoma.One blogger reported that the tunnel was built on the east side of the Arkansas-Indian Territory border, but that a subsequent realignment of the border put it entirely inside the present state of Oklahoma.