The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1877-07-21
LETTER FROM THE JUNCTION.
Northern Pacific. State Line. The
High Trestles. Knife Falls r E.
y. 2. JUNCTION, July Is, ~

1t seems SupcTIof5 destiny Is to
be last in everything. While every
town around her is advancing in
population and improvements she
remains at a stand-still, with ten
dency downward rather than up
ward. AS the scripture says "the
last ehalI be first and the first shall
be last your people may console
themselves with the reflection that
so perhaps it viii be with Superior;
that although she is last now, she
will yet be first.
Ashland has her railroad, the
Wisconsin Central, and altho' it
runs through fine country yet it is
nc tboroughfare at all-it is only a
mere tap, and will be nothing more
till the gap of eighty miles between
here and Ashland is filled, and a
connection made with the great
trans-continental artery, the North
ern Pacific railroad, that drains the
scho2e Northwest, in which is in
cluded the granary of the world
the Red River Valley, the Black
Hills, Montana, Dakota and Mani
toba. The completion OF the Cen
tral TO connection with the North
ern Pacific, is q mere question Of
time. All we require is a little
more patience. Of course the Cen
trail will pass through Superior on
its way to this point.
The questions are often asked,
care those high bridges on the rail-
road between Thomson and Fon du
lac safe, and isn't it about time they
were being rebuilt?n No one seems
able to answer, but it is the general
impression, as well as the opinion of
many engineers, that an entire new
road can be built TO the lake, on the
south side OF the ST. Louis river, for
less money than it viii take to re-
build or embank those bridges. On
the south side of the river, over the
old estate Line" surveys, the grade
between here and the lake is nearly
uniform in the entire distance, 24
miles, s,-about so feet to the mile,
nowhere exceeding SO feet, with
only two or three low, short bridges
to be built, no cuts and no fills
worth mentioning. And, by the
way, large portion--I believe .the
greater portion-of the line between
here and Superior is cleared and
graded, all ready for the ties and
iron. It seems the greatest wonder
in the world that your wealthy
land owners have not built this
road long before this, considering
that it could be built SO cheaply
and would be the very making Of
Superior. Now they have let it so
so long, that even if it is built, it
viii probably be built in the inter
est of Duluth, crossing from Con-
ner's Point to Rice's Point by a
bridge, to the docks and elevators
at Duluth. The limit oflife usually
accorded wooden bridges by engi-
neers is ten years. The bridges
between Thomson and Fon du lac
were built in 1868 and g, so that
within year or two they must be
rebuilt, embarked, or abandoned.
That the latter will be their fate
seems the most certain.
The Knife Falls Railroad, tapping
the pineries of the st. Louis, is un.
der construction, and will likely be
finished by fall. 1t strikes the St.
Louis six miles above here, at Knife
Falls, the head of the rapids, be-
yond which point there is fine navi-
CATION for logs in the river and its
tributaries for FIVE hundred miles.
One or more mills are to be erected
at Knife Falls as soon as the road
is opened, and quite a mannfactur-
ing point viii be established there.
The Northern Pacific and St.
Paul 6 Duluth railroads are doing
fine business this year in passen-
gers and freight. It is astonishing
what an amount of agricultural ma
chinery goes West. During the
entire season | have noticed car
load after car load Of tLreshers, rea-
pers, mowers, etc. etc. 1t shows
that there is big agricultural
country some ubaro ont +Lo E.o