Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1889-05-22
A GREAT SCHEME.
The Colorado River to be ParalIeled by
the Worlds Scenic Reute.

DENVER, May 22.-The Denver, Cali
fornia, Canon 4 Pacific railroad company,
recently incorporated, will send out an
Green River Junction, on the Denver &
Rio Grande Western, for the purpose of
surveying the Colorado river country with
the intention OF running the line down
that stream from Grand Junction to tide
water. The management Of the company
have already six boats and supplies await
ing the expedition at Grand Junction.
They have two corps of surveyors and
photographer to accompany the party.
The fact that the company has COM
pleted survey to the mouth OF the Grand
river, q distance OF l60 miles, over which
an average grade of about seven feet to
the mile has been secured, is important
information to railroad men. The en-
gineer reports no canon work, only one
bridge across the Grand and one tunnel
a half mile long through sandstone.
The government surveys show that the
average grade down the Colorado river
does not exceed five feet to the mile.
The projectors claim that this line will
have advantages of an easy grade over
other lines crossing the continent, the
other grades being in excess Of 100 feet to
the mile. The success of the enterprise
depends upon the feasibility Of the road,
and if the present survey proves satisfac-
tory it will then be question OF the busi-
ness which the road will do.
The line starts in one of the largest coal
fields in Colorado and terminates III q
market where coal is higher than in any
other market in the world The road will
run through the greatest scenic country
in the world, with canons $500 feet deep
and rich i'll minerals.
Major Powell states that if formations
mean anything it will be the greatest
silver producing country of the world.
Valuable mineral has within the last
few years been discovered in southern
Nevada, southern Utah and southern
Arizona in the canons and contiguous to
the canon of the Colorado. Rich and ap-
parently inexhaustible deposits on the
Colorado river, between the mouth of the
San Juan and the head of the Colorado,
have been discovered. Major Dutton re-
ports all varieties Of marbles, ganites and
states in the canon, and Philadel phia
capitalists have recently purchased ex-
tensive salt mines, 300 to 400 feet thick,
near the mouth of the Virginia on the
Colorado.
The country lying contiguous to the
Colorado or the higher mesas is well tim
bered and the valleys susceptible of high
cultivation. Cotton, tobacco and figs are
being raised successfully through this
whole country.
The road will cross and connect with
the Atlantic & Pacific at the Needles, and
with the Southern Pacific at Yuma, which
lines, in connection with the Denver &
Rio Grande and Midland, will form a
through line from ocean to ocean over the
lowest grade across the continent.
Chief Engineer Robert B. Stanton has
charge of the survey on the Colorado, and
Frank G. kendrick had charge of the sur
vey on the Graud river. President f. NJ.
Brown OF the company will personally
oversee the work on the Colorado river
and accompany the expedition,
The prevalence OF scrofulous taint in
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