The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-11-02
IN RAILWAY CIRCLES.
IMPORTANCE OF THE NEW LINE Tt
BILLINGS.
The New Special Put on BY the Chi
cago & NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. in
the Rio Grande Western Time
Table.

| The people of Montana nave reason
to rejoice over the opening of the new
Burlington line to. Billings inasmuch
as 1T gives them direct communication
with Missouri river points and means
better mail, freight and passenger IA
cilities.
The building of this line is of incalcu-
liable benefit to Omaha, Kansas City,
| st. Louis Chicago, bringing a. territory
of some 1,500 miles in extent almost to
the doors of these cities. 1t is the short
| line between Omaha and Helena by 295
miles, Omaha and Butte by 225 miles,
Omaha and Spokane by 1856 miles, Ona-
ha and Seattle by fifty miles, Omaha
and Tacoma by ffty-five miles, Kansas
City and Helena by 1856 miles, Kansas
City and Butte by 315 miles, Kansas
City and Spokane by 474 miles, the
mileage to these points being equally
shortened from st, Louis.
The country to the northwest has
been almost a sealed book to the whole
sale and jobbing interests of the big
cities along the Missouri, as well as Il
linois and the more remote east. st.
Paul and Minneapolis have enjoyed a
monopoly of this territory now for the
first time brought into civilizations rim
by the progressive pioneer methods of
the Burlington system of rails, which
now covers quite 1000 miles.
Whether or not Salt Lake jobbers
will be affected remain to be seen, the
adjustment Of freight rates having
much to do with this question.
The road travels the entire length of
the Crow reservation and permission
Of the United States government had
to be obtained as well as the consent
of the Crow chiefs before the work Of
he
more interested lot of people could be
found than the Crows were during the
progress of grading and laying the
track. and when this first train rushes
through the Crow country the red man
will wake up to realize that the time
| is not far distant when the white man
will be asking Congress to throw open
the Crow reservation to white settle
ment, and ship the present possessors
of this historic soil, upon which Gener-
! al Custer died, as we'll as his brave
boys in blue, to their brethren in the
Indian territory. The New Short Line
opens for settlement hundreds Of thou
sands of acres of land which need only
water to make them prolific Already
irrigation bitches have been put in in
anticipation of the coming of farmers
and planters, and a scheme is now
ready for the irrigation of a much
greater body of land, which will add
to the tillable land of the United States
enough farming property to start a
new empire in the northwest. The road
runs through country rich in ccal
and other minerals and through the
greatest cattle grazing section OF the
! United States Hundreds of thousands
of head of cattle grow fat on the blue
stem grass, which grows in album
dance on the plains and in the valley.
The line passes through the valleys of
the Little and Big Goose creeks, the
Tongue river, the Little Big Horn.
where Custer made his stand against
the Sioux, across and down the Big
Horn to the valley of the Yellowstone
which is brought almost into the back
yard of the Missouri river towns on ac-
count of shortening UP the distance.
The new line, which is to Become a
large factor in the Commerce of the
Missouri and Mississippi valleys was
lnaugurated without any flourish of
trumpets, but in that quiet, conserva-
tive manner that has characterized the
Burlington management in the past.