OCR Text |
Show VIEWS OF BRAHSFORD ON THE NEW RAILROAD Chief Executive Thinks Western Pacific Pa-cific Means Much for Utah. Salt Lake, Auf. 27. Here are May. or Bransford"s views of what the opening of the Western Pacific mean. to Salt Lake City and I'tab, as expressed ex-pressed In a recent edition of the Sacramento Bee descriptive of the now road : "I do not think that Utah as yet half appreciates what the owning of the Western Pacific is to be for the state, and especially for this city. It places this city on a direct line of a transcontinental road and makes It a most Important point, for it is the only, spot within Mu miles in either direction where t no road can have a renewing station or where tired travelers trav-elers can stop off and find fine hotels, ho-tels, theaters, wonderful batblnT. churches of all denominations and in an hour's ride by automobile get to see most gigantic mining carried on and the reduction of thousands of tons of ore daily. "Then It opens up for trade on new Hues, Plumas and Lassen counties, California, and places the city within a day of the great early fruit belt of Butte county. The road opens for Salt Lake people new summer resorts, re-sorts, for American valley In Plumas county Is ahoiit the most beautiful place in summer or autumn on this or any other continent. Opens Mining Districts. "It opens, too. tbe mining districts of northern Nevada, and a branch of forty miles will secure to Salt Lake tbe mining trade 'of the Deep creel; country which has more promise than udv other In Nevada that Is as yet but partially explored. Then it opens a now road on the lowpst possible grades to the shore of the Pacific, which will draw more and more traffic traf-fic this way until the road will become be-come a river of sieel, beating countless count-less argosies of trade and commerce to and fro In endless procession forever. for-ever. "Perhaps the opening of tbe road has more significance to me than to ffie average man, for I went to Plumas Plu-mas county a boy and remained there many years. You will remember that tbe great Judah. the first engineer of tho old Central Pacific railroad, urged the 'Big Four' of Sacramento to cross the Sierras by that route, up the north fork of Feather river, explaining explain-ing to them that there would bo 1.G50 feet less altitude to overcome than by any other route. But as they were building the Donncr lake toll road at the time, tbelr Interests seemed to them to center in the route via True-kee. True-kee. and then tbelr horizons were not as broad as they became later. J First Survey Was Made. I "In the 'fins a Plumas county engineer engi-neer made the surey of the canyon on the north fork of tbe Feather and demonstrated that a feasible route could be made through it and that the steepest grade would not exceed sixty-five feet per mile, or one and one-fourth one-fourth per cent. All through my boy-hood boy-hood and early manhood the men of Plumas county hoped and prayed for the road. I went back there two months ago; those people were almost al-most all gone. They waited for tho road untJ their eyes grew dim and finally closed ln the long sleep "But the road finally came, the valley val-ley and the Incomparable mountains were there to receive It, and the children chil-dren of men who prayed for It were there to hall It as one of the splendid achievements of modern times." |