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Show IFFAIlLISn IAT1MI1 ii Colorado Voted for Amendment to Finance This Road Through the Rocky Mountains. This Road Will Open Up a Vast Empire to the World and Furnish a Market for Millions of Dollars Worth of Products Heretofore Far Remote From the Markets of the World. Governor Bamberger's Road From Springville Will Perhaps Be Rushed as a Result. There is every indication that the amendment for the construction of the Moffat railroad tunnel through Jame3 Peak for which the people of Colorado Colo-rado and Utah have been clamoring for years, as well as the building of two other tunnels, was carried by the ' voters in the election Tuesday in Colorado. With 19 3out of 211 pre- cincts in Denver counted, the tunnel amendment providing for the simultaneous simul-taneous construction of the Moffat, Monarch and San Juan tunnels, is leading by 40,326 to 13,803. If this average is maintained for the remaining remain-ing eighteen precincts, the Denver majority for the measure will be approximately ap-proximately 28,000. Unofficial returns, re-turns, from El Paso and Huerfano counties, where opposition to the tunnel has been strongest, indicate that the amendment has lost by 9,000 votes in El Paso and 7,000 votes in Huerfano county. On the other hand, the northwestern part of the state, including Moffat and Routt counties, has given the amendment a majority, , ot-over 6,000, according to unofficial" " , information in Denver. " Will Open Uintah Basin. The adoption of the Three Tunnel Amendment by Colorado brings one step nearer the realization of a railroad rail-road into the Uintah basin in Utah, and the opening to the markets of the world of perhaps the largest and most resourceful storehouse of nature remaining re-maining untapped. Utah is especially interested in the Moffat tunnel, for this reason. Something of the wealth of the basin country has long been known, and it has been realized that sooner or later a railroad would be built there. The Union Pacific, pioneer railroad into IllP west waR lnrirelv In. flueneed by considerations of coal supply in chosing its present, route t through Wyoming. The Denver & Rio Grande followed its present route for much the same reason. The Uintah basin was shut off from the former by the high Uintah mountains, impassable im-passable many months in the year, and a large area of mountainous territory, terri-tory, which would probably hz unproductive un-productive of traffic for year::, separated sep-arated the basin from the Bio Crande. , Many surveys have been niado by various interests into the Uintah ba..2a, but EutU I.InI.'ui. of Denver was the first to actually f tart construction con-struction of a railroad that ultimately was to reach from Denver to Salt Lake. As his line ran, it would be a few miles shorter than the present Tnic:i Pacific line, and much shorter then the T?,r n-pi-'n - The survey culled for a tunnel under James Peak, in the backbone of the Rockies. Funds were not available avail-able for this great engineering feat and the r"l'r:T.:l !'"3 v.as built on a temporayr basis by a series of switjh-baeks switjh-baeks and curves over the pass. In winter snow blocks the line for weeks at a time, and the interruptions of traffic deterred development of the resources of the basin, which ."till remains re-mains largely a stock-raising country in Colorado, and an agricultural country coun-try in Utah. Present Railroad Insufficient. v Tho Uintah railway from Mack, Colo., to Wasatch, Utah, was built primarily pri-marily to bring to market the product? prod-uct? of the gilsonite mines in the vicinity of Watson. It is now used for some traffic to the baMn, but is a narrow-guasn Hue, villi extreme gradients and curves. It. was built by the owners of the gilsonite properties, and does not r'aoh the nrrlcn'tural . . and populated portion of the basin, though many products, when outside price.fi are sufficiently high, are hauled from forty miles upwards to Watson for transshipment, finally reaching standard gauge railroad transportation at Mack. Governor Bamberger has announced the Intention to promote a project for constructing a railroad from near Provo, where it will have connections con-nections with th Rio Grande and the Salt Lake Route, over the W'Rsatch mountains, and traversing the length of the basin to Craig, Colo., the present pres-ent terminus of the. Denver & Salt I nke as the Moffat line Is now called. The governor's survey and rights of ; way are already completed over a ; large portion of the proposed route, and the passage of the Colorado ! amendment is expected to have a powerful effect in making the finances available for the actual construction of the railroad. |