Show Kansas Kans Pacific Wanted anted the James James' 1 Peak beak Tunnel runnel Fifty Years ego Ago Ago I The James Peak tunnel now certain certaro cerI I ta taro tain in of construction was a dream of or t the be pioneers more than halt half a jer 1 el iury tiry ago A friend of the Steamboat Pilot Gordon Kimball of f Ouray Colo sends bends a clipping from the I Rocky Mountain News of af 1912 9 enor gu en n. n e 11 h f C rf il tor or ory o oi o. tine great Brea proC t that that was even then taking form ronn in ill the the of or the pioneers i is what Mr Ir Kimball said jAs j I As the proposition to construct the thc cal so-cal called so-called ed Moffat looms large arge on Denver's western western horizon it I harks me back bacle over forty Corty years ears to toan an incident directly with that enterprise 1 In the late hite summer of 1369 there came to Central City F Filley 1 i I of St. St Louis a member of oC the board i t o of directors of the old Kansas Pacific Pacific Pacific Paci Paci- fic which was then poking its nose noso into the territory of ot Colorado While there he suggested a desire to ma matte mane mattea manea e I a trip to James peak I secured a livery rig and we drove out over a awood awood awood wood road which led through the timber Umber which skirted the base of the mountain and then made our way wayon wayon wayon on foot to the summit When Filley stood on on the mountain mountain moun moun- tain kiln top lop in that rare atmosphere ana and beheld Middle park and the Frazier seemingly so near and yet so 50 far sloping slowly to the west while to the east his eye ere rested on South Boulders Boulder's mammoth gulch that had eaten Its way war into the very base of the mountain suggested a possible gateway for his road or that the thc idea was preconceived I cannot answer an an- But on his return to Denver he wrote requesting me me e t to secure c ct t 1 l I u l. l It c t nary survey survey made with a profile map showing the approximate tc length of tunneling dependent on pa practical roadbed d ap ap- I a surveyor by bythe bythe bythe the name naDle of Major Hill Hill many many 0 of the timers old-timers will remember him him- him and he he- made the survey and uru urn urn- the profile map which I sent seuL to Filley That was four forty-four y years us ago The Queen City of the Plains Plains' was as it were in her rompers h having on only a permanent population o of something like but I t have little little little lit lit- lit lit- tle doubt that if If the pro proposition had been put to her wIt with proper guarantees she would have exploited exploit exploit- ed it for all there was In it ct Denver Demer had some men with big i Teas seas ai aid d there was a heap big railroad oai talk taUt in those days so much so O 1 remember remember remember ber that it excited the ridicule of the Pueblo paper which displayed a cartoon on its front page representing represent ing Denver as a tarantula the legs serving as proposed railroad lines seeking and clamoring for terminal rights in the cit city little dreaming that his sarcastic prophecy would come true |