Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1881-07-07
ANOTHER RAILROAD PROJECT.


It seems that Willard and his pool
meu have formed another CO npany,
the general purposes Of which are set
forth in the Orrgoninn Of the :9th
and which We republish to-day. This
scheme seems to be gigantic Que, il
represented as tn" great absorbent OF
oil the railroad husinrss Of the north,
west. with starting capital of ESQ.,
100000. Whether or not this pro
grammc is merely made public to 'lutf
other men from inaugura,ing any rail.
road project in the northwest. or for
it, hen~tit, because the whole Geld had
Leen absorbed Ivy his new organization,
or whether the proj-c was b ma f'ie
and that they did actually intend to
absorb the whole field ny actually con,
structing the roads named in their
programme. Be that as it may, there
are other projects on foot 10y other men
which are Of the greatest importance
to the country, and as We have been
told. capital ready to la invested to
carry them out. One is the construc
ton If railaoad letwrcn the mouth
at Snake river directly over mos,
practicable route east ward via. Lewis
ton, Csn.as Prairie Clearwater pass Of
the Bitter Root, Big Hole pass Of the
Rockies to intersrct tn. Utah North
ern, and either tap the Northern Paci
fic somewhere on the Yellowstone or
the Union Pacific somewhere cast Of
Ogden. Many of these parties have
become satisfied that this route is
shorter by 100 miles, between the
points named, than any other prcirc ed
road and passes through much better
country for local support as well as for
construction. The Northern Pacific
had their attention called 20 this route
about two months ciore they deter.
mined to take the Pen d'Orille TO" te,
and sent al engineer to learn the
height of the pass Of the Clearwater.
H. was under orders to make quick
trip and report before the meeting of
the board in August at New York
He went but was led hy his guides,
who knew no hing where the lowest
pass was of the Bitter Root, 60 miles
south of said pass and he did not find
It and returned and # course reported
adversely. The company did not give
him the time to fully inve,tig. tie. and
he started iuto timbored mountains in
the wrong direction anil when h. found
that he was off the track he had not
time to explore sufficiently northward
to reach the ! NV pass, The f,cts are
that several men who had influence
with tn company were seriously press
ing the i'oardto take the Pen dOrille
when they had n: knowledge Of the
Clearwater route east Of Lewiston, and
they discouraged every attempt at u
thoI ough examination. Roberts. the
chief of the engineers stood firm
agains, the Clearwater route as H. ing
imprscticahle. Although he personal.
y knew nothing shout it. II, once
said that u railroad across the Cas-
cades was financially impracticalls.
and published his opinion. But after
wards he wcs compelled to take it hack
when he surveyors found the Co~l'tz
pass, and since that time. by careful
search for months, subsequent ens;n
GERS have found no less than three
passes that are lower than even the
Cowlitz. and no one now claims that
railroad across .hc Cascade mountains
is I'm ncially impracticalle or imprac.
tical in other respec 8, (unless it was
Willard and the Oregonjan when they
wanted to prevent road going over
the mountains so as to make every.
thing 50 via Portland,) Tho North,
ern Pacific has made tia election and
we suppose are satisfied with their
choice. Now we suggest to Jay Gould
and all other capitalists who ar, build
ing roads that they cause q full
and thorough search along the crss. Of
the Bitter Root range in the vicinity
of the 46' of north latitude, and they
will find pass over the summit of the
Bitter Roo. mountains whose height
above the level Of the sea will not tx
coed $50 feet with good approaches