Needles Eye Tunnel Along Needles Highway, Custer State Park
Taken July 2019
The Needles Eye Tunnel carries South Dakota Highway 87 through a granite spire along the Needles Highway in Custer State Park. Governor Peter Norbeck laid out the highway's route on foot in the early 1920s, insisting the road be cut directly through the rock rather than routed around it. Engineer Scovel Johnson completed the tunnel in 1922, cutting it just eight feet nine inches wide to match the width of a car of the era. The tunnel takes its name from a needle-like granite formation nearby. Custer State Park, established in 1919, encompasses more than 71,000 acres of the Black Hills.
Taken July 2019
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