The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1881-01-27

During the week we have gathered
from various sources. principally Oili-
cial, such information as leads us to
conclude that this is the last winter
that the freezing of the Columbia river
will shut the people of Eastern Wash
ingtOn and Oregon OF from the rest of
the world. We understand that Mr..
Willard has recently purchased 2O,500
tons of heavy steel rails, enough for
222!5 miles Of road, That part of these
rails are now on the way to Portland
and the rest will be on the way inside
OF three months. In addition to this
the .. n. & N. CO. have between
; Walla WalIa and Portland rails enough
for 100 miles of road. 1t is further re-
ported that the company have OBJ
tanned all the money, some ST., 900, 900,
necessary to pay for the speedy con
struction of their proposed system of
roads in this country. If there is no
bad luck, in one year from to-day the
o. II. & n. Co. will have i'm running
order Il broad guage railroad from
Walln Walla to Portland, 544 miles,
from Walla Walla to C0lfax via
Grange City, 1l2 miles, with branch
| to Dayton, II miles, while the road
over the Blue Mountains to Baker
| City will be well under way. and pos
sibiy great part Of it in operation.
Between Walla Walla and the Dalles,
15S miles, there is about 80 miles of
track to be laid, on bed already pre-
pared, to make through rail cOnnec-
tiOn to that point. When the connec-
tiOn is made the guage of the track be-
tween umatilla and that city will be
changed to the standard, It. 81 inche
guage. From the Dalles to Portland
there is only Sc miles of road to be
built, and 1t is so located that large
force OF men can he employed in con-
| structing each mile OF it il necessary.
There are number of short tunnels
on this route, but work can be prose-
cuted on both ends of them. The diff
ficulties of building this portion of the
road are all comparatively small.
From Walla Walla to Grange City
the grade is nearly completed, while
the work of grading the branch to
Dayton has been finished. The road
to ColfaX will start from some suita-
bic point opposite Gra age City, about
four miles below Texas Ferry. The
road over the Blue mountains will
start from Umatilla and cross the
mountains at an elevation of 4,2O0
feet. Some five miles of the road over
the Blue mountains will have a grade
of 10 feet to the mile. The distance
to Baker City from Umatilla is 10
miles. 1t is confidently predicted that
that road will be completed by July,
1882, and that Baker City will be
reached by road from Ogden in two
years from to-day. Then to go east, our
citizens can take the cars i'm this city,
and after travelling via Umatilla II dis
tance of nearly 100 miles, reach Pen
dletOn, 40 miles from home, where
they will commence to cross the Blue
mountains, and thence on through
Boise City to Ogden. So far as we are
able to ascertain, there Is no prOba-
bility Of an extension Of the road from
Blue Mountain Station towards Wes-
ton or Centervillc. When the road
over the mountains is built it will run
near Pendleton, and thus leave the
rich portion of Umatilla county lying
between that place and Blue Mount
ain Station with II railroad on each
side OF 1t. Then no part of that pros
porous region will be more than 10
or 20 miles from railroad facili-
ties. Contracts have been let to Dam
iel Chaplin to furnish 1000 and to
Mr.. Cavanaugh to furnish $4,000 ties
on the line Of the road between Una
tilla and Baker City. These ties are
to he delivered before August next ut
such points as required by the COM
pany. Take it all in all, the outlook
for 1881 Is, so far as railroad operations
are concerned, such rs make 1t pOssi-
BILE to endure, with some considerable
equanimity, the present severe win
ter weather. |Vottd IVdttd Union.