| Show RAILROAD FOR SOUTHERN UTAH special correspondence washington january 5 secretary of agriculture houston has offered for sale one billion feet of western yellow pine timber on the kaibab national forest in northwestern arizona just north of the grand canyon of the colorado this sale is the largest yet proposed by the government and was recommended by forester henry S graves after a per bonal examination supplemented by a careful investigation on the part of the logging engineers of the forest service they reported that this amount of timber not only could be cut in accordance with forest principles but that it would be necessary to offer at least a billion feet as a sufficient inducement to warrant the building of a railroad and other facilities to develop the timber and other resources of the region bids will be received for this timber up to june 15 1914 and the minimum initial prices which the government will accept for stumpage are 2 a thousand feet for yellow pine and a thousand for fir and spruce these rates will be adjusted at the end of every 5 year period the readjustments being based on the current market price at the end of such period r three I 1 years will be allowed for th the e haul ing of the railroad and 25 years forthe cutting of the timber by the end of the contract period the forest officers say the young trees left on the areas first cut over will be ready for cutting so that by the system of lumbering required by the forest service operations may continue permanently manent ly the annual cut will be not less than forty million feet most of which will be sold in the consuming lumber markets of central utah and western colorado because of a lack of railroad facilities this immense body of timber has been considered inaccessible it will be impossible however to log this area except by means of a railroad approximately miles long the only practicable routes are from the north the area having long been isolated from the south by the grand canyon which forms its southern boundary heretofore the grand canyon could be reached by tourists only from the south with a railroad from the north however tourist trade can be developed and the northern rim of the grand canyon the scenic wonderland of america will be accessible access able at the present time aime the region immediately to the north is practically al y in an undeveloped state owing to the absence of railroad facilities it is nevertheless rich in resources of agricultural land cattle and sheep range and extensive deposits of coal and copper in addition to the thousands of acres of fine timber land for several years the building of a railroad in southern utah and in this northwestern corner of arizona has been under consideration by various capitalists but since there was no assurance of immediate traffic the investment did not seem to be justified it is now pointed out that a contract for a billion feet of timber will overcome this difficulty by providing an mediate immediate in commodity for transportation which together with tourist and local traffic will place the project on a paying basis practically from the start it is estimated that the investment required for the railroad and the logging and mill facilities cili ties will be about three million dollars |
