| Show AL n ta as a 11 r aai a U 0 forty billion tons of coal tons of gilsonite barrels of oil in shale vast quantities of oil bearing sands when one begins to consider resources in the great treasure house that lies between the continental divide and the Wasatch range rows of figures become so staggering that the eye grows dizzy and the mind begins to wonder whether when the almighty started smarted out to build this thia planet if re e dumped his supplies euid 9 nd mater materials law into the uintah basin j and drew on those stores for furnishing ng the remainder of the globe it if he did there was z bremen dous supply of riches left over and choh have boen beien lying there for ages waiting for a railroad had these uncounted millions and billions of treasures been stored most anywhere else they now would be tf center of great industrial and agricultural ri development but getting back to the almighty again lie ile built a gigantic wall around these riches is as if to dare men to get to them for the uintah basin is just what its name implies a walled basin and the walls are steep and high and difficult utahna have been hearing about uintah and its mineral resources its seemingly limitless hydrocarbon deposits its abundance of water its fertility of soil and many other othen reports until it has haa become perhaps something borr bom ething of a fairy story Gradually some of big business men began to make trips to the ak basin to parapha ecy they went they saw they were conquered the spell of riches enveloped them they have come back among their business and club associates they talk in millions and billions they speak of a land of milk and honey they tell the story of the uintah f lasin basin pioneers of how bow men are working their lives out over there fh ere always hoping never faltering because they believe that nowhere in the united states has nature endowed a land with greater possibilities A few days ago the basin felt another pulse from the world to which it is so securely remote by the towering peaks that surround aur gur round it it heard the whirr of the worlds most powerful motor the liberty on the wings of a great airplane a duplicate of the kind that so recently were flying over ever the german lines in france this new bird took a message it vas nas from the governor of this vast commonwealth of which they have apen a vital part of for so BO years and from which commonwealth mon wealth they are yet so alv remote another message went ment across tho the mountain tops by the aerial route from the president of the silt lake commercial club F we are building the railroad the railroad is coming it is not a dream or a prospect this time we mewl business salt lake will be linked by steel with the heart of eastern utah as fast as engineering problems can be solved and the work entailed done lacross 4 A those were the messages that went across the wasatch into the basin definite positive assurances that there is to be built into and across that basin the best one thing without which uintah is helpless a trail for the iron horse horsa of modern com merce from near and far scores of hundreds ot of pioneers and their families gathered to receive the bearer ot of that message per naps haps it was indicative and prophetic of the day not far distant ichen hen those same people and thousands of others will gather and strain their ears to hear the first puff of the first locomotive that will enter the uintah basin from salt lake simon damberger bamberger has a record of doing things As a young man when he came to utah he was poor as worlds wealth goes today he Is the possessor of a fortune and the first citizen of the state all a the result of his enterprise and his dogged determination mi to do the thing lie he sets out to do few there are who do not know something of the story of the salt lake ogden that important electrical artery which connects the two largest cities of the state how it was pushed mile after mile in III the race face of great financial difficulties until the link between the two cities had been completely forged Is a romance in itself but it also Is a monument that railroad to governor Bam bergers ability to do the thing he sets out to do the governor like others had been hearing these uintah stories for many years but in his busy life he be never had been able to go over and check them himself shortly after he became chief executive the nation w ws wes s plunged into war aar with characteristic act energy and thoroughness he set himself to the task of being a a war governor to the best ot of his ability surrounding himself with strong men he devoted himself night ind day to making for utah a war record of which the state may always be proud then just as suddenly came a cessation of hostilities following it the legislature met and kept the governor busy tor for two months or more this done the governor discovered tn n inactivity resembling the peaceful lull that follows a storm so he bet et about to find enough to keep him busy faithfully attentive to the affairs of state as usual he could not at the same time find enough to keep him busy he had always been aecus accustomed cus us to lots of work lie he felt the need ot of more to keep him in fighting trim he turned to the uintah basin where the erv still was echoing and re echoing for a railroad early in the summer he called together a score of men representing various branches of business and pro fes ional activities in salt lake and the central portion of the state 1 I want ou to go over and have a look at this uintah country with me the governor said they say aney need ft a railroad out there perhaps e can build it if the business to be dej de j will warrant its construction lets go over and see the party went headed by the governor for nearly two weeks they traveled over the basin from du besne h esne on the west to craig colo on the east they came back convinced so convinced that the governor ordered several surveying parties into the field at once the governor went to denver talked with colorado people who have leen I 1 een contemplating tem plating tor for many years the extension of the moffat road from craig to salt lake and learned that they proposed to raise the money to build the great tunnel which watch will permit the moffat trains to pass under the divide at an economical cost lie sensed the fact that if salt lake did not build into the basin before the moffat line got there the tragic would go to denver lie wanted to retain uintah basin for utah and the western slope of the within the last fortnight men representing vast mineral and oil resources in the basin came to him I 1 iney ile y wanted to know whether the governor meant business or whether it was just another bubble that might be pricked at any time we roust must have a railroad thia head of a vast coal project in the hasin basin told him it you don t build right now we are going to build from our properties to wamsutter sutter on the union pacific it will cost us something like but we e are going to do it unless you start your road if iou mean business and will start right now we will take a substantial block of whatever form of securities you issue we will back you with our share but we must insist upon immediate action representatives of the and asphaltum interests came with the same kind of statements all were unanimous in their declaration that the time had come to build a railroad across the uintah basin and all insisted that the man to whom they gave their support must brook no further delay consequently governor bamberger went to th board of governors of the commercial club telling them of what bat he had found of how thoroughly he was as converted to the necessity for a railroad and of the cold blooded business value in dollars and cents of hoving having such auch a line the result was the calling 0 of a meeting last week to which business men were invited by the board of governors of the club we are going to start building the uintah basin railroad from salt lake to craig right here in this room tonight declared P F C schramm opening the meeting lie he called upon the governor to tell them what the prospects were vere in the way of business for these were nere hardheaded business men to whom he was talking and of the feasibility of the road but before he started in he took about sixty seconds to effectively bur a rumor that had scampered up and down main street and across into the basin and even as far as denver it had been whispered about boldly by some hesitatingly by others that the governor was bluffing that he was using the railroad propaganda to further his own political ambitions and that he did not actually intend to build the railroad I 1 I 1 am through with politics I 1 said the governor it if nominated tor for any office after my present term expires I 1 will not accept this railroad Is all business I 1 want it definitely understood that I 1 am out ot politics the governor then proceeded to tell something of the marvelous story j of the uintah basin ot of its vast min mini i oral eral treasures of its attractive agricultural ri possibilities of the need of putting a railroad into the basin at once or in his own picturesque eti et 1 i e language of kissing uintah basin good by ilia earnestness impressed the men assembled and as he unfolded hta his plan for the tion of the enterprise everyone listened with deep interest capital for the building ot of tho road at a cost roughly estimated at can be had the gover nor said ile he declared there were nere nien men in the east who alio had the means and the inclination to back such a sound enterprise dut but primarily he be said they must be convinced that the people most directly concerned the people of salt luke lake and utah in other words are behind the project land and stand ready to give it their unlimited support for that reason it was proposed to form a sort of holding corporation to secure options and leases and rights of way and town sites tea all of the thousand and one things that mast be had to make the building of the road a physical and financial success ile he asked fifty business men heading the list himself to invest 1000 each for the purpose of forming this corporation to be known as the uintah improvement corporation A list of prominent business men was named to form the organization the response was immediate and the work Is on surveying parties already are in tho the field compiling accurate and careful data to be used in laying outi out the right of way preliminary re ports made to the governor po vernor assured him that there is a feasible and practical route offering a 2 per cent grade and a maximum of 10 degrees of curvature this waa mas necessary the governor said because railroading experience had proved the impracticability of steeper grades or greater curvature As now contemplated the road will r really e ally start at provo connecting there with any of the three lines into salt lake the denver rio grande the salt lake route and the orem electric uintah railroad trains will run over one of these three lines to Spring springville ville where they will turn off of upon their own right of way froan Spring springville ville the toad road as proposed will run up through hobble creek canyon across the wasatch into strawberry valley around south of the reservoir and along aloft the strawberry river to duchesne the first important town to come on the right of way prom from there it will take a course across the basin which Is still undetermined in and will finally connet with the moffat road at its present western terminus craig colo the length of the road as contemplated will be about miles so that with sidings possibly short feeders and the like there mil total probably 4 00 miles of railroad to build yet the magnitude of the task is apparent I 1 from the fact that something like seventy miles must be built from provo before the first stop of importance will be reached duchesne from there on it seela seems certain that no matter what course the road follows the tracks will be dotted with communities some already established perhaps and others which will spring up with the coming of the I 1 first locomotive because the road la Is to be built by business men as a business proposition primarily and above all to pro ilde railroad facilities for the min oral eral products of the region it will not run helter through the basin touching all the towns now existing it will go where there la Is tho the most moat business the greater tonnage because tonnage is ia what turns the red figures on thel the railroad auditors books to black ones and while thero there will be agricultural produce in no inconsiderable quantities they in themselves would be insufficient to support the road they are secondary of importance minerals COMO come filet the passenger business too Is a minor matter except as a future possibility lity it denver succeeds in financing the construction of the moffat tunnel there will be established the best and shortest route between denyer denver and salt lake a road about miles long comfortable comtoi table and scenically magnificent between denver and provo with fifty miles more to bo be added to bring it to salt lake through passenger bu business alness might then develop in volume worthy of consideration but as the governor has said the first few years are likely to see nothing but mixed trains mostly freight and gondola cars winding over the now new railroad the accompanying map shows roughly the proposed road connecting salt lake with craig colo it Is the old moffat road survey revised as far as Is possible at present to meet the probable route of the road projected by governor bamberger however in its course through the uintah country particularly final surveys are apt to alter it considerably on the western estern A end it shows the proposed route from froal Spring springville ville through hobble creek canyon across the strawberry valley and into the basin this much or of it la is more than likely to be followed when actual construction begins the governor and bis bia engineers have definitely abandoned the old moffat survey through daniels canyon above heber city the grades there are too steep and construction too costly to make inake it feasible it is ie interesting to note however that in spite of ther their regret that heber will not be on the route the people of wasatch county are enthusiastically supporting the project because they are intimately acquainted with the basin and as aa good citizens they want it linked to the heart of the state richard jones of heber CRY city a member of the state land board and wealthy stockman was one of the first signers of the agreement for the formation of the uintah improvement corporation the map gives a terse graphic description crip tion of the larger resources of the basin and their principal locations it shows where preliminary developments have been cabled on where experts lia have e proved that oil and coal and gilsonite and asphaltum and other prod products acts of value lie in commercially profitable quantities coal oil asphaltum and gilsonite undoubtedly are four ot of the principal sources of revenue for a railroad into that section of the country the users of coal are well nell known to all and it ft III be sufficient to say here that experts have pronounced the coal of the basin to be the best bituminous product to be found in america there will be a market tor for every ton of it and the governor has declared that he would be willing to guarantee an output of tons per day within twelve months after a tall rail road tapped the coal fields the possible output has been estimated as high as long ions per day oil both in shale sands and wells Is being developed especially in the langely rangely Ila neely field where here the standard company la Is now driving deeper in an effort to produce bushers gushers gu |
