Moffat Tunnel
B. Travis Wright, MPS is a published historian of works about the historic Moffat Tunnel, located in the Southern Rocky Mountains of north-central Colorado.
With a substantial archive of historic photographs, first-edition volumes, engineering reports, survey plats, correspondence, maps, and original construction drawings, B. Travis Wright serves as a trusted multi-county resource on the Moffat Tunnel. His work does more than recount dates and milestones; it situates the tunnel within the broader arc of Colorado’s transportation history, water infrastructure, and regional economic development. Whether on camera, in immersive public presentations, or through published scholarship, he translates technical and historical complexity into clear, evidence-based interpretation—grounded in primary sources and careful field verification rather than myth or nostalgia.
Equally important, Travis frames the tunnel not as an isolated engineering feat, but as part of a larger, layered landscape that includes Rollins Pass—the earlier high-altitude rail corridor whose alignment, timber trestles, and alpine grade cuts tell the prelude to the bore beneath the Continental Divide. His ongoing preservation efforts extend to the East Portal Camp Cabins in Gilpin County, where he works to document, stabilize, and interpret structures that embody the human dimension of this undertaking.
Across these efforts, he integrates archival research, on-the-ground documentation, regulatory literacy, and collaborative engagement with historians, engineers, land managers, and public officials. The result is disciplined advocacy: ensuring that decisions affecting this fragile corridor are informed by accurate history, technical context, and a clear understanding of what would be lost if its remaining historic fabric were treated as expendable.
B. Travis Wright, MPS advocates on regionally broadcast television for historic preservation in January 2021 at the West Portal of the Moffat Tunnel, located in Grand County, Colorado.
