Show proposed railroad into kaibab forest congressman Cong J W arvin of hiving having introduced a bill in eq providing for the construction b the federal govern malit of a rail railroad road roid tapping the kaibab national forest and the laign of the salt lake commercial club having been begun to promote the project the following excerpt from congressman Congress min bryana bryans address before the house on the forest and the adai advisability ability of building a road I 1 to it will be found both timely and interesting the addre address s nas delivered on sept 14 on the day the bill was introduced the kaibab national forest cm em arices over acres ares in coconino county anz ariz just north of the grand canyon of the colorado nver river which forms the south boundary daryol of the forest the main timber portion of the forest arx i confined to the kaibab plateau or buckskin mountain which is 13 a high mesa ranging batu between een and feet elevation the topography is 13 level and rolling this region lying in the northwestern corner of the state cut off from the remainder of the state by the grand canyon of the colorado mer river one of the grandest scenic wonders of the world geographically the kaibab forest contributes to the northward in utah and directly to salt like lake city all development of the region has been and will continue to be from the nort northward hiNard the moat most practice able route to the forest is f from rom marys vale utah the present terminus of the sanpete branch of tho the denver A rio grande jail la ilnay vay from this point the louto follows the sevier nver river to panguitch and hatchtown Hitch Hatch town and then drops oer over a low divide onto the headquarters of the rio virgin river and thence to kanab either by kanab creek or johnson creek from kanab to the kaibab plateau is approximately 30 miles across a level stretch of sagebrush land from marysvale Mary Marys avale vale to panguitch is 0 03 53 miles from panguitch to ka nab via johnson creek is 76 miles this is the route followed during the pact past summer by a salt lake automobile which established an automobile route between salt lake city and the grand canyon of the colorado river according to tho the route followed by this pirty party the distance from Mais alai vale to bright angel point is approximately miles tulles this distance ho however never would be considerably reduced by a railroad the kaibab forest is estimated to contain approximately 2000 feet of merchantable timber this estimate is based on an field cruise made by the forest service only trees over 12 indies inches in diameter 4 feet from the ground ivere ere included in the estimate which is known to bo be conservative checks made on the original cruise e show the estimate est imite to be 15 to 25 percent low loin over 80 percent per cent of the timber is we wt tern yellow pine the other species are douglas fir blue spruce and white fir the feet of timber chich the forest service has placed on sale embraces that naturally most accas aible of this amount it is estimated approximately b in m is yellow bellow pine feet b m is douglas fir I 1 feet b in is blue spruce spruced and engelmann spruce and OW feet b in is white fir in the yellow pine type the number of trees per acre and the average diameter of the tress trees at a point ay 4 Z feet from the ground will run about as follows the timber of the kaibab forest can be made accessible for marketing only by the construction of a railroad rail roid which ii will ill ser serve e as a transportation por tation outlet for the manufactured lumber himber it will remain inaccessible until such a railroad is built the construction of a railroad rail roid and the exposition of the timber have been considered interdependent and the business point of vien taken ahat the practicability of the project is determined by the return which may be expected upon the total investment required in railroad construction and in iii lumbering operations in working out tins problem the construction of a railroad not only to handle the timber but to serve also as a common carrier to the southern utah country his bl 9 been figured upon the idea has been to mike make available an amount of t timber which together with other local traffic which the region now offers will ambure a profitable return on the entire investment nece A railroad connecting the grand canyon of the Co color lorido ido and southern ou thern utah u with ith S silt dt lake cita cit ba m iny local indi cements aside froin from timber to jut julif if its consider tion such a road ill tap i a region of acres exceedingly rich in natural re resources burces but entirely lacking rail to id transportation over acres of tins this region have been appropriated and acres just I 1 lecent lv entered under the enlarged homestead hoine act the principal industries and natural resources of the region are sheep and cattle raising Aing farming coil coal copper iron timber oil extensive eten sire agricultural lands and alti nite one of the largest coil coal fields in the state is found in iron Wak washington hington kane and garfield counties it would be directly tapped by a r to the kaibab forest another feature of the region tint mil furnish a railroad much traffic is the grand C binyon anyon of the colorado river which will draw thousands of tourists cah each year the scenic beauty of the grand canyon is 13 admittedly unsurpassed while the approach to the cana cannon on through the kaibab forest v w bich is called the most inott beautiful natural forest in the world offers unexcelled opportunities for one of the mo moot 4 nond wonderful erful tourist resorts in the country with a direct railroad route between salt lake and the grind grand canyon the assured to tourist urit traffic would be a large item of revenue there are several practical railroad routes to the grand canyon from the north the one used as a aisis by the forest service in determining ter mining the feasibility of marketing the kaibab timber is from marysvale Mary Marys vale the present terminus of the denver rio grande railway via junction panguitch hatchtown Hatch town ranch minch johnson creek and einab the total distance figured upon f from rom Miry sale to bright angel point is miles with 25 miles addition for logging spurs this route involves no difficult engineering problems and for much of the distance construction costs will be exceedingly low it is estimated that the total cost of the road apropo proposed ed will approximate this Thi esti mate is low as applied to a modern equipped standard gauge roid road the estimate however is based on constructing ting a road which will be capable of handling the timber and a all ail able local traffic efficiently with nith the idea of improving it as the traffic and carrying capacity increases many of the paying roads in the country have been built in this minner manner an estimate as nearly accurate as possible of the costs coata 4 of construe construction of a railroad and a mill including clouding logging equipment and the total annual returns from the toad road and the mill through all kinds of shipping that would be done over the line place that figures at 1 and respectively the returns representing a net profit of 12 45 4 5 per cent on the total investment the timber from the kaibab forest will contribute directly to the large and rapidly increasing lumber markets of utah western colorado and wyoming this market can easily consume all of the annual cut of the lumber manufactured from the forest although an operator would desire to ship cast a large per cent of the upper grades for which fancy prices can be obtained at the present time eastern oregon are shipping upper grades of ii western estern yellow pine as far east as new york and boston salt lake city is the logical distributing point for a large timber operation open tion on the kaibab forest the city is situated in the center of the moat most fertile and densely populate d portion of the region and is well ell equipped i with ith railroads radiating in all directions at the rate of present development the future possibilities bili ties of the utah market seem un the current isue of the railroad review discusses dit cusses at length the pro posed railroad among other information the article contains the tile report of H S graves chief forester on the project it was chii report chat that led to the introduction in tho tile house of the railroad bill by congressman bryan the report follows from the stand standpoint point of commercial returns to the goern government ment logical business busine s arrangements may be advanced for railroad construction under such conditions assuming alvi allays alii that it is to be the public police to develop thebe areas immediately rather than wait for more development from private initiative it was neceA necessary sary in appraising the kaibab timber to allow aggregate profits to the operator for railroad transportation of logs and lumber of 62 2 45 per 1000 board feet this Is 13 aside from the cost of operating the roid road and from ana ail depreciation or sinking fund and f charges to recover the initial investment if the government itself built the railroad the greater part of this amount could be added to the sale value of the timber the kaibab national forest contains all told some feet of stumps stumpy age unquestionably the construction of a railroad would increase its average value at ae leist 82 2 der 1000 feet the total increase would lius approximate or considerably more than the estimated cot of the rail road this amount might of cour course coure e bo be created separately to railroad earnings instead of to increased cre iced value of the timber aside bo however weNer from opening up the national forest such railroads would greatly benefit many adjacent sections which are now shut off from markets and stimulate the development and use of much public land which now I 1 comparatively idle the kaibab railroad for example would traverse a rich agricultural grazing and mineral district in southern utah and northern arizona whose development would be greatly hastened by go government ern of the road |