| Show sanpete valley railroad purchased for the road to be extended into our coal fields to complete the Ex the long hoped for railroad that is to open up and assist in developing the re sources of magnificent castle valley within the great empire of emery coun ty is almost within sight the purchase of the sanpete valley railroad last friday by fetzger aid the chicago capitalist attorney W D john Y smith the lehi banker and F R coates formerly clief engineer of the great western railroad for a consideration of 1 was the first decisive step toward th castle valley road the sanpete road runs from manti to nephi with a six mile branch line from manti to ster ling actual control of the road passed into the hands of the purchasers on monday last with F R coates dent and mr fitzgerald vice president this deal has been kept under cover for several months but was broadly hinted at for the fist time in the pro grass two months ago the matter hav ing come to bur ears in confidence first and of the greatest importance to emery county is the announced in of the new owners of the road to start work this year on a mile extension to the coal fields to the east of manti and thence into the ferron coal fields of emery county these coal beds are known to be the richest in the state and at the present they are being worked on a very small scale their possibilities are unlimited and with the situation in regard to utah s coal supply as uncertain as it is at present the opening of these great fields and their development is of the greatest possible moment to the entire state already mr living ston james crawford and edmund crawford of the emery county bank of Cast ledale and several of the manti bank people have located several quarter sections of coal land in ferron canyon As was stated in the progress last fall three preliminary surveys were run east of sterling the most favored one being up six mile creek into twelve mile creek it was found that the sum mit of the range could be reached from the west on a 2 per cent grade with the aid of a tunnel on the emery county side the grade will be somewhat steeper it will cost 5 to complete the extensions we have in mind said mr fitzgerald I 1 cannot give any de tails of what we propose to do in the way of new branches and extensions however beyond a definite statement that we have completed all arrange merits for building the mile line to the and ferron coal fields this year that other branches are to be built cannot be questioned ane sanpete road taps one of the most fertile and one of the richest sections of utah and there is every inducement for tensions with his pencil on the map yesterday mr fitzgerald traced a faint line from the ferron coal fields down the valley of the san rafael past green river and over pueblo way then he started at nephi on the salt lake route and the head of the san pete railroad and ran a line into salt lake lake city it will take time but sooner or later we 11 get to pueblo and to get to salt lake city via the sanpete line was his comment in fact several corps of engineers and surveyors are now in the fiell in the vicinity of the san rafael valley sur a line through that section of the state to a point below green river by putting a line through this valley the sanpete road would get a 1 per cent better grade than the rio grande has attained railroad men yesterday had little hesitancy in declaring that it is entirely probable that the sanpete line will in time be extended to pueblo and denver readers of the progress will recal frequent items appearing in this paper in february and march concerning the surveying operations on the san rafael river in the vicinity of the mexican bend and the old halverson ranch this survey was made for mr fitzgerald and associates and was spent in the work should the road be extended into colorado it may be that it will cross green river below the town of that name it is intended however to build a line from ferron as far north as hun and also a line south to touch emery some hint is heard that the rio grande road 13 backing the project and in that event the main line will un take the most direct course from ferron to the san rafael and tap the roam rio grande line at green river town the sanpete valley road was built about 15 years ago by charles 53 pullman st london england it runs from nephi on the salt lake route 43 miles in a southeasterly diorec tion to manti on the denver rio grande line it has cost mr continued on page 4 railroad for emery county cont aued from page 1 about 1 the latter is the third richest man in england and has an income of about 15 a year he is 94 berrs old and for the past few years had paid but little attention to the welfare or development of the san pete line he is the president of the company owning the line and john william young nowhere representing him is vice president of the company mr fitzgerald has been out in the san rafael valley district with the sur and engineers for several weeks four weeks ago he rode 60 miles on horseback up the san rafael valley and declares the road can be run east ward through that section of the coun try with the greatest ease i touching as it does one of the richest agricultural section of the state the transfer of the sanpete road is of the utmost importance the country through which it passes the proposition to touch the coal fields makes it more im if possible for utah needs coal and heretofore the richest beds of the state have lain practically indevel aped mr fitzgerald refused to divulge the names of the eastern and chicago capi associated with him in the pur chase of the line two gentlemen left new york last night for salt lake city and mr fitzgerald s brother will arrive here from chicago early next week week we ve got the money to operate develop and extend the road to the inn it of its possibilities and we are going to do just that is the way mr fitz gerald briefly puts the schemes of the new company the S lit lake telegram of the ath dinst takes a flyer at the railroad situa ion here by saying that from the gen eral offices of the denver rio grande railway system in denver orders have been issued for the immediate surveying and construction of the sahna cut off from green river As predicted some months ago this scheme was sure to follow the shortening of the southern pacific from the pacific coast to ogden by the luca cut off and the opening of the salt lake line to the coast sharp competition with the hamman and clark lines in this territory has made de it is said the contemplated cut off on rio grande |
