ASHTON — A fire continues to burn inside the historic Bear Gulch Railroad Tunnel near Ashton.

The U.S. Forest Service reported the burn on Monday and has personnel keeping an eye on the burn. There have been no injuries and no damage to property as the fire is well contained. The train tunnel is adjacent to the Bear Gulch parking lot, said Forest Service official Jared Fisher.

Timbers that support the inside of the tunnel are on fire, he said.

“We can’t safely take action on it where it’s at this time,” Fisher said. “We have resources. We’re looking at it and accessing the situation. It’s not going to go anywhere. There’s snow all around it. There’s a low spread potential.”

Forest Service personnel visited the tunnel on Sunday and Monday.

At times, the American Dog Derby has been held at Bear Gulch and has set up at the parking lot there.

“You can go from the parking lot and go underneath the road to the east,” Fisher said. “There’s a trail there. It goes down, ends at the Warm River Campground. It’s a long way from where we have the Warm River cabin.”

Fisher said Google Earth shows how the trail comes off the south and east side and splits.

“It’s not a big tunnel. A hundred yards of it goes through the mountain,” he said.

About 10 years ago, a section of the tunnel collapsed, Fisher said.

“The motorized trail goes around the tunnel,” he said.

Fisher didn’t know what caused the fire and wouldn’t confirm if people had started it.

“You can put two and two together,” he said. “Nothing that’s been shared with me says ‘Yes, it’s been human caused.’ There’s an open investigation. We’re still working on that.”

On Sunday, a Fremont County resident saw smoke coming from the tunnel and alerted dispatch which in turn contacted Fish and Game.

The train tunnel was a huge part of Fremont County’s beginnings during the late 19th century. At one time, it transported tourists to Yellowstone National Park, stated Henry’s Fork Museum on its webpage. The museum added that residents often relied on the train’s whistles and “woke up and went to sleep by train time.”

“Tourists, agriculture, freight and local traffic kept trains busy. Ashton was booming,” it said. “The Oregon Short Line ran a train to Ashton for the dog derby. The dog derby became famous throughout the land.”

It wasn’t clear when the railroad shuttered the old train tunnel but there are no long train tracks inside the tunnel. Despite it being off limits to visitors for decades, people have made their way into the old tunnel to get warm while possibly out cross-country skiing or snowmobiling.

Fish and Game will continue to investigate the fire, Fisher said.

“We are asking people to stay away from the area,” he said. “We’re issuing a closure order for that tunnel area right now because it’s a safety concern. We don’t know how much ash has burned inside. We’re asking people to try and avoid the area.”