Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1888-05-17
LELAND STANFORD
An Interesting Talk with the CAL
ifornia Senator.
BUILDING THE CENTRAL PACIFIC.

Its Wonderful Snow Sheds-The Canadian
Pacific and American Roads-The Sem
of the Road with the Government-All
Three Minute Horses ThorOughbreds.
Especial Correspondence
WASHINGTON, May 81 heard one of
the most remarkable stories of American
history last night. 1t was told me by
Senator Leland Stanford, and it was the
story of the building of the Central
Pacific railroad. l called upon Senator
Stanford at his house on Farragut square,
and we chatted together in his library.
He is tall striking looking man with a
big head, rosy face, blue eyes and brown
hair He is plain in his ways, and is
ready with an answer to any question pro-
pounded to him on almost any subject.
He is man of ideas, and he is an especi-
ally interesting talker in the line of ne
miniscence His whole life has been a
continuous romance in which hard work
and success and failure have gone hand
in hand. He was a young lawyer in a
small town in Wisconsin. making about
| 1900 year, when the fire which burned
up his office and library drove him west
ward. He went intending to make some
money and go back to Wisconsin to live,
but the problems of the Pacific coast
| threw their arms about him, and he is
graphing with them still. He was the
first Republican governor of California,
and was elected to that position in the
| fall of 1861. He was strong friend of
President Lincoln, and it was mainly
through him that California was saved to
| the Union. ***
asked him as to the building Of the
Central Pacific railroad. He said:
mo one supposed the road could be
built, and had we known the difficulties
of it's construction l doubt whether we
would have attempted it. Even in Cali
fornia no one outside of the company
would have anything to do with it. We
tried to get subscriptions to the stock in
San Francisco, but we could only sell ten
shares of 81, 900 each, and the man who
bought these shares was foreigner and
Frenchman A little stock was sub
scribed at Sacramento, but subscribers as
rule thought that they were putting
their money into hole and they doubted
whether they would ever get it out again.
We had only enough money of our own
to complete thrty-one miles of road, and
the road building Of today is nothing in
comparison. In going over the Sierra
Nevada mountains we built $50 miles Of
railroad which cost more than the build
ing of the whole line between Chicago
| and the base of the Sierras, and for three
winters we worked on the mountains
with the snow falling to depth of thirty
six and forty feet. slept many night
in the snow during those days, and had
to brush away the snow for a place to
| Law nv blanket. All of our mate
rial had to come from the east, 1900
miles by water, and we had then to haul
it up the mountains through the snow.
| To give you some idea of our work in the
Sierra Nevadas, we used on the average
500 kegs of powder each day, and the
snow sheds on these mountains cost US
about S2,OO0,OO0 We had from 0,000 to
IL, 900 men working ON these mountains,
and we had to work under the snow. We
ran tunnels into it to get at the rock to be
excavated, and we had domes under the
snow, and in these domes the masonry
was laid and the stones were lowered
through the snow drifts.
1.-TWO million dollars seems a good deal
| to pay for snow Sheds" said |.
Yes" replied Senator Stanford, sit
does, but the ordinary man has no idea of
what these snow sheds are. They are a
mass Of the heaviest timbers, braced and
cross braced in every direction. We had
| to build somo Of them strong enough to
support snow drifts of from 60 to 100 feet
deep, and some had to be built against the
| mountain sides on slope, so that the
| avalanches, with the trees and stones
which accompany them, might sweep over
the structure and not hurt the trains.
Even now the snow drifts through these
sheds and sometimes fills them, and when
it does it often takes sixteen locomotives
for a single snow plow in the work of clear
Ing them We had thirty seven miles OF
these sheds, and it might have been better
10 have tunneled under the Sierra Nevadas
below the snow belt, and think such
tunnel will sometime be built. 1t would
need to be about ten miles long and would
cost about $5,000,000
"It is hard to conceive today the cost OF
railroad building in the west in 1868. We
had to pay from 5000 to $500 per ton for
harley and oats, and hay cost US S12O per
ton. The first two locomotives we used
cost us in freight and actual value $7O,-
moo and the first ten engines we bought
cost us s191 900. 1t cost $4,000 in freight
TO carry the first locomotive around Cape
Horn to San Francisco, and our cars were
made in the east, taken to pieces, brought
around Cape Horn or across the 1sthmus,
landed at San Francisco, carried py ooat
- Sacramento, and there put together.
We had to haul much OF our water for
steam and for the use Of our graders, ana
when we came to spring we would carry
il for miles in pipes. Al9pg 5oo miles Q,
the road there was not tree that would
make board, and we had to carry nearly
all of our fuel. And then we had great
deal M of trouble with our laborers. AT the
first mining excitement they would ieave
no and at one time, Of 1.1OO men whom
we transported. 1000 went oil to the
mines and left only 100. Nearly all "a