Lyle, Washington — Railroad Tunnel Became a Wine Cellar

Lyle has developed an unusual habit of finding second careers for transportation infrastructure.

The community sits where the Klickitat River reaches the Columbia, a junction used for fishing and travel long before railroads followed the Gorge. Engineers cut tracks and tunnels into basalt where cliffs left little room beside the river.

As transportation changed, pieces of that infrastructure remained useful in unexpected ways. A former railroad corridor became the Klickitat Trail, while an old rock tunnel found use for wine storage as vineyards and wineries expanded nearby.

Tracks became trails. A tunnel stores wine. Apparently basalt ages well.