Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1891-10-30
$500 PER YEAR.
A Railroad on camas Prairie.

The most important subject under
consideration of the people of Camas
Prairie just now, and will be until their
object is attained, is railroad to open
up their productive country and provide
an outlet for the Immense amount of
produce which 1t is capable of raising,
and the ways and means by which such
railroad can be brought in the short
est space of time and with the least sac
rfce on the part Of the people. No one
denies the well-nigh absolute necessity
Of railroad to the country and the
enormous possibilities that are opened
up to it when railroad communication
is established and the only question is:
How can such communication be pro-
cured?' Inaccessible and out of the way
though it is, Oamas Prairie already has
some little notoriety in the outside
world as grain producing and stock
raising country; but such favorable
opinion as a general thing comes from
the reports of travellers who, from some
cause or other, have had occasion to
visit the country, and does very little
towards inducing emigration or increas-
ing the population. for the day has gone
by when farmers and others will pene-
trate far from railroads in search of land
or business openings. With a railroad,
so that people could get in here and
send their surplus products to the mar
kets of the world, instead of 10000 acres
of patented land there would be hund-
reds of thousands, and-insead of here
and there a field of wheat for the local
mill or home consumption. the whole
country would be one waving grain
teld, doing its share towards filling the
granaries Of the world. Take this year,
for instance, with every country in Eu-
rope wondering where its'winter's bread
is coming from. with Il shortage every
where except In America which in
every part of the country has magnifi-
cent crops and is obtaining good prices
for them, does any one suppose that
Camas Prairie, were it in touch with
the outside world and with the enor-
nous yields it could command. would
not make in one years time more SUBJ
stantial progress and greater material
wealth than it has in the last ten?
And while on the question of getting
railroad there is one aid which per-
haps the people generally do not appre-
ciate, but which to an outsider is very
apparent, and that is the opening up of
the Elk City mining district, which
mining men believe will in the near fu-
ture be to the mining world what Camas
Prairie ought to be to the agricultural.
Thirty years ago Elk City was famous
placer mining camp and with the abun-
dance OF rich mineral which it undoubt-
edly has, to-day it ought to have been /.
to Idaho what Butte is to Montana, or
Leadville is to Colorado; but the same
thing that has retarded Camas Prairie
has reduced Elk City to only name,
lack of communication.
1t is singular fact that Elk City,
which might be made one of the great
est mining camps in the country, and
Camas Prairie, which ought to be one
of the greatest agricultural districts, lie
side by side. What affects the one af-
fects the other, and the one should be
of the greatest possible benefit to the
other, and yet the one has never done
tap towards helping the other along, and
consequently both have lain dormant
for twenty-five years. Now mining
district Is consumer always and never
producer; therefore what better mar
ket for a beginning does Camas Prairie
or any other producing district want
than few hundred men at Elk City,
every pound of supplies for whom must
come from the outside. Again, nearly
all the Elk City ores are smelling ores,
and must be shipped to a smelter either
as native product or concentrates, and
this In a single year to railroad would
mean an enormous traffic which would
be ever on the increase; then there
would be incoming supplies, including
machinery, oils, etc., and the thousand
and one things necessary to a mining
camp, which would also be very con.
siderable freight bill in the course of a
year. The first consideration of a rail-
road in coming to any particular section
is: can it get traffic to pay ?" and when
1t can be answered in the affirmative it
does not take very long to bring it, and
therefore if Camas Prairie could show
to any railroad company that from the
Elk City district alone it could get hum
dreds and thousands of tons of ore every
week, besides all ithe other freight that
must follow as a matter of course, would
it not be the strongest kind of an argu-
ment to induce that railroad to come, or
would they need any inducement at all?
Would they not be glad to come if they
saw 1t was a paying proposition?
The County commissioners of Idaho
county deserve the thanks of every
lover OF his district for appointing at
their last meeting viewers to view the
Elk City road this fall, for this at last is
a step in the right direction, and it il
hoped that when the time comes they
will 60 on in the good work and order
the road built, for there is no one thing
that promises so much to Camas Prai-
rie and such far-reaching results as the
opening up of the Elk City mining dist
rict. AN INTERESTED VIsIroR.