Show 00 j e abe be salt sake abib mercur TRail 3 ik all LL the world knows of mercur the great gold camp of utah but it is not everyone that has heard of the marvel of a railroad that connects this prolific wealth producing ducine section with the outside world and which h has a s stimulated mining operations there to such an extent that from a little hamlet of a hundred inhabitants the place has grown into one of the most important mining centers of the west with a population of four or five thousand the town itself most of the advantages of a metropolis tro polis having its own electric lights for private and public use its telephone and telegraph systems and water works in 1894 mercur was an isolated camp with transportation facilities so poor that the future of the district was conjectural and a subject of doubt notwithstanding the fact that its mineral possibilities were something astonishing 1 ng it was in june of the year mentioned that idaho northern railroad company on the of january 1895 the ten miles of main line connecting fairfield with mercur was completed the road then being 0 ened for traffic the first passenger 7 train pulling into the camp being greeted with great enthusiasm by its people the welcome being attended with brass band accompaniment and appropriate addresses the haulin hauling of ore from the mercur mine to the compa companes comp anys nyls mill at manning situated about midway between mercur and fairfield was commenced at once while the road was from the first taxed almost to its utmost capacity in handling the freight billed in from financed the proposition but who also was manager superintendent and who attended atte nied to every little detail connected with the enterprise ter prise until it was publicly acknowledged that it was a decided success and he is ia still at the helm and is able to say that the road is and always has been a money maker and a paying proposition the distance from fairfield to mercur on an air line is about seven miles but in the building of the road on account of the contour of the country it required ten miles of track to make the desired connection the route is marked by many surprising features in the way of deep cuts high fills loops curves and twi stings FIRST LOOP BELOW SUMMIT J G jacobs became idea that a railroad line connecting the camp of mercur with the oregon short line at fairfield seven miles distant would prove a profitable enterprise and investment the idea grew on him after a careful study of its different phases and it was not long before the preliminary steps were taken taken for the formation and incorporation of the salt lake mercur railroad Eail road company which came into legal existence before the first of september of the same year immediately after which grading for the road was begun the route having been previously surveyed by nir mr D moore now chief engineer for pacific Epo ints the ore tonnage from the mercur mine averaging in the neighborhood of tons a day the building of the salt lake mercur railroad was difficult in the extreme the line being a marvel of engineering en interino skill and only equaled if at all by the line in the alps of switzerland over which tourists have raved io for r several years still in its turns loops and windings the mercur is the peer of any other other road in the known world and its building and operation is ia a standing monument to the sacra sagacity 7 eity enterprise indomitable perse derence and business ability of the father of the project mr J gr jacobs who not only J it being possible at one place on the line to lookout look out from the car window over five parallel tracks where they wind in and out in order to preserve the required grade and y yet e t make the ascent to the top of tho the mountain which is 1984 feet above the station at fairfield the grade being on an average of four p per e r cent although there is a small stretch that goes as high as four and a half per cent the sharpest curve being 42 degrees the loops thus formed adding much to the picturesque features of the road the horseshoe curve 0 loop no 2 being the especial admiration 0 tourists and travelers who have an eye for the beautiful the road upon its completion was none of the best the rails being light and the roadbed new its one onea locomotive being of only twenty ton weight on june 1st ast of the same year however the second engine weighing twenty eight tons was put on and since then the equipment has been added to until now the company can boast of four shay engines ON PAGE EIGHT the salt lake mercur railroad CONTINUED FROM PAGE FIVE in constant use and another one now on the way from thelast the east three passenger coaches eight ore cars with six new 20 ton steel ore cars soon to arrive from the manufacturers his addition of new rolling stock being ne cur and the state its building has made it possible for mercur to grow and flourish until today it is accounted as being one of the most substantial and flourishing mining camps in in this intermountain region a position it would have taken it years to attain had the camp been obliged to put up with the shipping facilities which characterized the early history of the district them the construction of X aft XV tw MIX T X 4 JIL Z OR M az LOOP NO 2 ON MERCUR RAILROAD on account of rapidly increasing business and traffic while the company has its own round roundhouse honse at manning water tanks with depots at manning and mercur one pleasing feature of the operation of the road being that within the past two years the entire line has been materially improved by the laying of 45 pound steel rails while the road has been lengthened to fourteen miles by the building of spurs to different portions of the mercur mine and mill as well as to the great golden gate mine and mill further extension even being in bontem contemplation p lation as a survey has been made to io the west dip of camp floyd district the intention being to build into that section as soon as opera operations eions there will justify such a move A As s stated above the salt lake mercur has been a paying proposition from the start and the business of the theroan road has steadily increased and in such guch proportion and at such a rate that the management is more than pleas pleased ed gains in any line of business or trade are usually illustrated by comparison and the growth of business with the mercur road is readily and most forcibly presented by the employment of this method in 1896 the road carried passengers and hauled 79 9 7 tons of ore and freight during the past year the company has accommodated passengers and has taken care of tons of ore and freight so that it will be seen that the increase in business is vory very large as well as most gratifying and the outlook for the future in the way of business and traffic is all that could be desired in more ways than one th the salt lake mercur railroad has been a blessing to mer the road has enabled the mercur company to haul its ores to its mill at manning more cheaply 2 thus helping to increase the bank account of its stockholders it has induced travel which has proven a ulous in the building up Dg of the camp while last but not least it has given the people of this continent 4 4 kl Z U all TUN an K 4 ORE TRAIN LOADING AT MERCUR MINE a chance and opportunity of riding over a marvelous mountain road the duplicate of which cannot be found short of 0 some of the old countries of europe the amalgamated copper mining company has declared the regular second quarterly dividend of lj aj per cent and an extra dividend of one percent per cent the officials of the picnic at silver city are elated over the showing in this thi mine in the workings of which it is stated nearly a foot of good ore is now showing 1 J D keifer one of the pioneers of C camp amp floyd district who now has a foothold in the zinc regions around joplin mo is back in salt lake again |