Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1866-06-01
A NEW RAILROAD ENTERPRISE.
Waterloo and Buckingham to be United
by Iron Bands.
TIE Cost Of Grading Only 5000 per Mile
BAD FOR THE IOWA CENTRAL.

BAD FOR THE IOWA CENTRAL.
One of the most happily-conceived,
far.seeing and wisely-planned enterpris-
es that ever agitated the minds of any
portion of the people of this blessed
State of ours, is just now twirling the
brains of the good people of Waterloo
and Buckingham. The grand scheme
is nothing less than the building of q
railroad to connect these two towns
The distance is only about twenty five
miles, and the grading, it is insisted,
can be done ut the astonishingly low
rate of 5000 mile! To some it may APP
pear impossible that the road can be so
cheaply built; and to substantiate this
opinion it may be urged that the Iowa
Central, now building thro' Black
Hawk and Tama counties, costs more
per mile by several hundred dollars,
and that the physical geography of the
country on the line Of the latter is GER
tainly as advantageous as on any line
that may possibly be chosen for the
Waterloo and Buckingham project
But it is not possible that the estimates
of the Waterloo and Buckingham rail-
road men are far out of the way. Possibly
the work will be gratuitously perform
ed by the hardy yeomanry of those en-
terprising towns, and the 5000 per mile
go for handbills and whisky. We shall
not attempt to present any more salts
factory explanation of the very aston
ishing smallness of the figures. We
are not particularly tenacious, either,
to have the dear public believe that the
money is to be expended in the judic-
ious manner we have limited, for we
have no hope of ever being employed to
print handbills or invited to drink
whisky in furtherance of the great
ends Of this stupendous enterprise. We
are too we'll identified with the Iowa
Central Railroad to be received into the
even, much less to be made
a sharer in the profits, of the movers
for the Waterloo and Buckingham Rail
road.
Waterloo is a good town, situated on
both banks of the Cedar River, in Black
Hawk county, Iowa, and numbers the
of two townships within its
corporate limits. 1t is large place.
The building of the Dubuque & Sioux
City Railroad about one mile and half
from the business portion Of the town,
and the building ola Court House about
a mile from the same in another direc-
ton has done much to extend its limits.
The starting point of the projected road
will probably be on the west side of the
river, as the expense of bridging the
stream, and thereby gaining connection
with the ID. & S. G. r. r. and the round
house, would be intolerable for the
present, and must be postponed until
after a new wagon bridge is built, now
sadly needed. From the starting point,
therefore, there will be clear sailing to
Buckingham, no streams of consequence
to be crossed, and no villages to be dis
turbed by being called upon to give
right of way through their quiet pre-.
cincts. All the way from Waterloo to
Buckingham
The village of Buckingham in Buck
ingham township, Tama county, is To-
Gated on, or near, Wolf Creek, branch
of Big Creek. AT present there are not
more than eight or ten houses in the
place, including the store, blacksmith
shop and SO forth. But the mere fact
of its being the terminus of the project
ed railroad will give it rapid growth
for the present; and when the great en-
terprise shall have been brought to a
successful issue land who can doubt
that it soon will be?) the now modest
and unpretending village will develop
into the metropolis of the fertile and
beautiful county of Tama. Alas, Tole-
do! Good-by, Iuka!
But the question arises, What is to
support the Waterloo and Bucking-
ham Railroad? We answer: /, the bu-
siness intercourse of Buckingham with
Waterloo and Waterloo with Bucking-
ham; and, 2, the business, passenger
and freight, of the Iowa Central, which
must be immense, will all be diverted
near Buckingham and turned into Wa
terloo! 1t cannot be at Buckingham,
simply because the Iowa Central will
not go there. This enterprise, therefore,
will injure the Iowa Central and effect
ually kill Cedar Falls, and make great
the towns of Waterloo and Bucking-
ham. Alas, poor Yorick! and alas, poor
Cedar Falls!