, 1875-05-29
CoIoradO Railroads.

In a letter to the New l ork Lean.
qelist, q Colorado correspondent gives
an interesting account of whet rail-
roads have done and are doing for
the growth and development Of the
embryo State. Washington is vastly
ghead of Colorado in mineral and ag.
ricultural weslth-latent to q great
extent though this wealth is-and We
can confidently count upon similar ex.
periences of wonderful progress, in-
crease of people and property, when
once the magic influences Of railroad
building and operation are felt within
our borders. We quote from the cor
respondent named:
Although the first railroad crossed
the desert and reached Colorado bat a
little over three years ago, it is posi-
bic to point already to demonstrated
results, which 90 far to confirm all
our theories abont the inevitable and
rapid growth Of this section.
The expected emigration at once
set m. Al the beginning of 1871 the
population of Colorado did not exceed
10000. Before the c'osg of 1873 it
had reached 100, 900. The population
of its capital, Denver, has increased
in the same time from 5000 to 20, 900.
That town has become the point Of
arrival and departure for the trains Of
SIX railways.
Along the 156 completed miles Of
one of these lines, the Denver & Rio
Grande Railway, extending from Den.
yer toward New Mexico, the five
counties traYersed by it have trebled
or quadrupIed their wealth and popu-
lation, and the taxable appraisment Of
the whole Territory, which las it does
not include the mines and cattle) is
perhaps less than half the real wealth,
has increased from si6,015,5 ,52l in the
year 1870, to s35, ,669,03O iu 1878.
The town of Colorado Springs, of
which the site was only selected just
before the Denver and Rio Grande
railway was finished to it, in the au-
tumn of 1871, has become in two
years a thriving place of over 2OO0
souls, and promises to double in an
other year.
At the commencement of the Den
yer and Rio Grande railway, in 1871 3,
Pueblo contained about 500 people !;
it now counts over 1000.
The farming population, miners and
other classes, have increased proper
tionateIy in Colorado
The effect of the completion of lis
miles of the main line OF the road has
been in an average of less than , years
to add 10000 people to the population
along and supplied by it.
The effect has EXTENDED for 100
miles south of the present terminus of
this railway so that We find the town
of Trinidad, on the border of New
Mexico which before had but few
hundred people, now numbering over
1900. while 40 miles southwest of
Pueblo, on the Rio Grande (where
the writer forded the river in the au-
tumn of 1871, without seeing soul or
house, there is now town popula-
ton on the opposite sides of that
Stream (Del Norte and Lema) of
nearly 2000.
1t must be remembered that all of
these places which are simply indices
to the rapid colonization which is go
ing on throughout Colorado, are con-
tinuing to increase very rapidly.
Such facts as these, derived from
the survey of an absolutely vast, but
relatively limited region, only indicate
the character of that progress which
is going forward over hundreds OF
thousands of square miles along the
western border OF our American civ
ilizati0n.