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Show LINE TO VERNAL FROM SALT LAKE Construction of a railroad from the Great Salt Lake valley to Vernal and beyond is part of the gigantic scheme for the irrigation of 400,000 acres in Uintah county, involving millions, for which much preliminary work already has been done, according to announcements announce-ments made last Friday. Building of the new line in connection with a great dam and power plant in the Green river below Split mountain and reclamation of an area one-half as large as the entire en-tire irrigated acreage of the state are virtually assured, it is said, by pledges from responsiable capitalists who are signed to back the enterprise to the extent ex-tent of $30,000,000 if needed. It is expected ex-pected it can be completed for about two-thirds of that amount. With assurance that sufficient capital will be available, preliminary work now in paogress will give way to active construction. con-struction. Two companies have been organized. Construction of the dam and power plant will be begun and right of way for the proposed railroad connection will be filed upon immediately. immedi-ately. It is estimated that the reclamation recla-mation of the great arid oil tracts in eastern Uintah county will add at the most conservative estimate $100,000,000 to the value of land in the state and 250,000 industrious citizens to Utah's census. Those interested in the venture ven-ture maintain that, with irrigation, land in Uintah county east of the Green river will become as wonderfully productive pro-ductive as the Grand valley fruit and vegetable district, not far across the Colorado line. Two companies to carry on tms worK are the Split Mountain Power company and the Split Mountain Irrigation company, com-pany, both of which are headed by John T. Pope of Ogden, formerly of Vernal. Mr. Pope and his brother, Rock M. Pope of Vernal, are the only persons who so far appear in ihe proposition. Identity of the capitalists who are backing them has not been revealed. Activities of the Pope brothers in Uintah county have been known for some time. For several years they have been working on plans for the irrigation of a large section of Uintah county by harnessing the Green river; survey parties have gone over the tracts and small crews of men up to tho present time have been engaged in preliminary work. Water rights were long ago secured. Ten thousand second-feet were filed upon up-on two years ago and a head of 350 feet is expected at the plant. The dam and power plant will be capable of develop-ing300,000 develop-ing300,000 horsepower. The dam and reservoir res-ervoir will cover an area twenty miles long and from one-half to five miles wide and it is asserted that the water supply thus afforded will be unlimited for the development of the country trib-1 utary. All these plans, however, had been of a tentative nature and it remained for negotiations completed last week to enable en-able the promoters to make definite announcements. With $30,000,000 back of them, the promoters can now proceed pro-ceed with their irrigaton plans and those for the newer project of building the railroad which is to link the sections with the capital and metropolis of the state. (To be continued next week) |