OCR Text |
Show UTAH WESTERN RAIL WAT. It is Now Open to the Pcbiic A few 3"ears ago a person's sanity would have been questioned had he earnestly and honestly asserted and believed that in 1S74 the sage bru?h plain, 'Vn the other side of Jordan" would bf er.viccd by a riiilro:id ili.i: the iron-horn-' wou'.d steam over thai prairie in front of a train of cars; yot it is done. On Sunday the Utah Western railway (narrow guage) was formally opened to the point of the nv-unti-ni - i:!f-ven miles :rom thi city j party of l.vdies and gentlemen on the ii'V.u ti n of tho officials, passing ovi-: t .' road to the termnnc'. Ycste:-. another party of excursionL-; including in-cluding several ol the oitiv. : of tne Utah Southern aud Ut.th Central roads aud prominent citiaens made a similar trip. Both parties enjoyed themselves and were well pleased not only with t'ie the opening of the road, but wiiii the substantial manner iu which it was con.-'ructed. 0:Jya short distance on the east 1 end of the line has bcuu ballasted, but the whole of that work will be i completed within a few days as the i track is now near to a bank ol exoel-' exoel-' lent material from wich the ballast is to be taken. From the southwest corner of the U. C. depot block th a the track extends west on South Temple street, crossing tho Jordan on a trestle bridge; when it turns southerly south-erly to the Brighton fie'ds, and hence on a tangent for about nine miles to the Oquirrh range of mountains, to which point the iron is laid. It then runs around the mountain between be-tween the bluff and Great Salt Lake, passing Black rock the favorite bathing resort for S.ilt Lakers and into Tooele county, to Clinton's lauding laud-ing on the shores of the lake, twenty miles from the city and the present end of the grade. We understand i the rails to reach that place ha.e all arrived from the east, and will be laid by the end of the first week in January. It was last spring that the naw president of the company, Mr. i John W. Young, actively took hold of the almost defunct enterprise of constructing a railroad from this city through Tooele, and some of the southern-rnu ntifiR. fchfi nhipnl.Iun mint. being as yet indefinite. The superintendent, super-intendent, Mr. H. P. Kimball, and others, had graded the line for a distanoe of about twenty miles, under the old 8. L. S. V. & P. R. R. Co., but after tho grade ' was completed that organization discovered that it was a clear case of " so far and no larther." The road wasatastandstill, owing to tho lack-of money and the absence of a proper amount of credit. It was then that Mr. Young interested inter-ested himself in the road, and in company with Mr. Kimball went east to perfect arrangements for the successful suc-cessful accomplishment of so important import-ant a work; and it is chiefly due to the energy and perseverance of these two gentlemen that our neighboring county of Tooele is brought in steam communication with this ftity, and that Utah has in successful operation its sixth narrow gauge railroad. After me negotiations lor giron anu rolling stock were well nigh closed, Mr. Kimball returned to this city(-and on the arrival of the first shipment of rails about twenty days ago rcom-menced rcom-menced tracklaying; while Mr. Young still remains in the east, iu the interest inter-est of the company which owes so much to him. The importance of this road, and the benefits which will result Irom it, can not bo fully spoken of in a biief notice like the present. Tooelo county, as a whole, stands near the head of ore-producing districts of the territory. ft has Dry Canon, East Cafion, Camp Floyd, and the three or four smaller mining districts farther west than those named. All of these are Bending out Bilver and lead in vast quantities, and the out put of 'those minerals will be greatly increased in-creased when cheap railroad transportation tran-sportation is secured. The agriculture agricul-ture of Tooele is something immerise, while as a stock range it is not ox-celled ox-celled in the territory; and both of tbpse industries will aid in supporting the railroad. The slate ledges of Aotelope island will be opened and thousands of tens of that much-needed article he brought to this city over the Utah Western. Another im portant item in tne company s resources re-sources is the passenger traffic between be-tween here and Great Sait Lake. Black rock, which has for years been numerously visited by our citizens and tourists, is destined to become a famous fam-ous watering place, and whero in the past one has gone there for pleasure or bight seeing, thousands will go in the future. No one has doubted that the Utah Western would pay, i but we have merely indicated a little of the ceitain trallic of tho road to show that it will prove an excellent investment for the owners, a great accommodation ac-commodation to the residents of one of the territory's most prosperous and thriving counties, and an invaluable developer of the resources re-sources of a large section of country. Wo have not beon advised aa to whether th-j road will be continued con-tinued bcyund Clinton's landing this winter, but it is the intention and it doubtless will be carried into effect to run the cars into Stockton, on the shores of Rush lake, next summer. Yesterday the road was opened to the public, the first regular train leaving the depot at 7:30 a.m. and connecting con-necting with the Ophir coach at the point of the mountain. The day's traffic is summed up as follows: Twenty-three passengers, the United Stales mail, Wells, Fargo k Co.'s express, ex-press, and two car loads of ore. The number of passengers which will go over the road daily until it reaches reach-es Clinton's will be from thirty to forty, and the freight traffic will run from forty to fifty tons a day. The enterprise and energy of President Pre-sident J. W. Young, Superintendent H. P. Kimball and the other officers oi the company are deserving of grea credit. Tiie gratitude of a Lirge ant growing community of Tooele, thei already have, and a monetary remuneration remun-eration fur their ouiUy and labors if as certain as is the fact that the Utah Western r.iiiiray is no longer a plat on paper aiid a railroad in the windy wortls of men, but an actual railroad, with a well built bed, substantial track, handsome little engines, beautiful beau-tiful and convenient passenger cars, height ti neks, and all the paraDOer-nelia paraDOer-nelia which are required to successfully success-fully operate such a road. |