The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1896-08-01
THE RAILROAD
GRADE WORK
Work on First Ten Miles Nearing
Completion Between the City
and Burnside.
BEST PIECE OF WORK IN WEST
Large rarly oi Railroad Men and Visitors
Make Trip Up the Grade All
Well Pleased With the
kofk Done.

To take advantage of the beautiful
weather yesterday afternoon. the Ho-
tel Fldycl people determined 10 pay a
visit TO the railroad grade now nearly
completed between the city and Burn.
side point distance of something
over ten miles Tho steamer Queen
Was engaged. and az o'clock the par.
~ started up river just IN time to en-
Joy the most delightful portion of the
day Shortly before the Queen pulled
out, the Gatzort arrived from Portland
aud among her passengers was Mr. Il.
Koehlcr. the well known general man
agcr of the Southern Pacific railroad
lines In oregon, who II on his way 10
spend a few days AT Clatsop Beach
and North Beach In order TO get away
from the smoke and heat OF the me-
tropolls. Mr. Kochler was Immediate
~ invited 10 join the party going up
river. which he ala, ~ II was impossi-
blc TO reach Clatsop before morning.
Among those making the trip TO Burn
side We're A. u Hammond. l.. y. See
ley. $. II Brown. Jr.. J, NJ. Turney.
y. scclcy. Walter L, Robb. T. II. Cur
It's. Walter G Smith, Col John Adalr.
and Il Koehler
As the boat passed the Scow bay
depot site. II was seen that the tres
tie east ~ where the depot In 10 be To-
Gated is rapidly nearing completion.
The Tongue Point sawmnl site was
pointed out 70 the visitor and just as
the boat rounded into Cathlamet bay
Mt Smith remarked that he might
have 20 call Mr. Curtis 10 account for
sllcing on so much of the end of
Tongue Point The workmcn have al
most finished the heavy cut through
the Tongue and the grade from there
on Is In most excellent shape The rip
rappng has stood a thorough test and
there Is little doubt but this heavy
piece ot work along the face OF the
entire grade on this section win re-
main substantially as built At Sven
sons Landing the heavy cut is nearly
completed and from there on the work
is being rapidly pushed by Corey Bros,
and Contractor Parker A large camp
is situated at this point, and as II was
just supper time all the men. headed
by Superintendent Watts and Mr..
Parker were out on the dock and wav-
ed their hats in greeting TO the visit
ors. burnside Point was reached at
u few minutes after G. and after ex-
amining the fine piece OF work here.
the boat was headed for home.
In conversation with an Astorlan
representative. Manager Koehler said
that business In Oregon this season
Is comparatively light, The fruit crop
In the Willamette valley Is small and
while the hops are Of good quality
this year. the quantity produced has
not been very great. When asked what
he thought about the new Astoria
road. Mr.. koehler said that from what
he could see Il was one OF the best
pieces Of railroad construction ON the
Pacific coast. Astoria and Portland,
he thought, should hereafter work to-
gether most harmoniously, as they
would be more closely bound together.
What do you think of the future
prospects OF oregon and the West?"
II see no reason for us to feel par
ticularly blue aRd while crops In the
Willamette valley and some other por-
tlons Of the state, are not what they
might be this season, yet we are bet
ter on than many other sections Of
the country where times are really
hard. II the election goes of this fall
all right, as It will. we can certainly
look for an immediate return Of good
times"
on the return trip in the light of the
setting sun, the heavy smoke from the
forest fires in the Nehalem valley was
plainly dlscernible, and apparently
large fires were burning In all direc-
tlons on both sides OF the river, The
city was reached about 1880 and 1t was
decided that the party would accom-
pany Mr.. Koehler part way on his trip
4 N,t Ina