The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1898-04-05
The Last Spike Driven Of 1880 San
day Evening.
REGULAR TRAIN sERvICEMAYi
The Republican Delegates Hsy Ride on the
first Cars lsto Astoria Oa the l3th
the Goldsa spike Viii Bs Driven

D
Astoria connection with the outside world
~ Clhtskanlr and slx miles east of Wca,.
port at 80 O'Clock sunday evening
! The point where the connection WAS madp
.s just below Mhrshlnnd. and for rryora.
mllcs on each side the road runs lhroug %
% level tract ~ land on the banks Of Tho
/ Columbia Foreman Dillon had charge
| ~ the Fang of men working from the A.
torla end ana Foreman Furlong supcrin-
| tended thr construction from the Goblc
oni NJ the line and both pushed the work
steadily for several days previous. the
nm" weather aiding their EFFORTS TO speed
the completion ~ the road
The construction train left this city
| sunday at i1.D q. M, with 30 cars ~ SAND
ballast. and Was accompanied up the une
! hy superintendent M,Guirc. Manager
| curtis Enkiuryr Jamirson, Auditor
koutnrr. ana g representative " the Az
iorlhp 10 witness ,hc driving of the last
spike The train reached wrstport shortly
before 8 o'clock in the afternoon aud the
cafs were unloadod a litilc beyond West
port The train being heavily loaded
reached lts destination late ana the onl-
Gers uf M, road were afraid the long
looked for event would D., delayed in con-
sequence They boarded a hand car ana
after "a hslf or thrrc.quaricrs Of an hour
~ hard work propelled themselves 90 the
front Foreman Dillon had expected
the arrival ~ the party but no time WAS
lost hall dozen spikes yct remaining to
De- driven crowd ~ about lJ people
men women and children. from adjacent
settlements had gathered around the
Norkmcn and IN about iiy, minutes after
the arrival NJ The officers Foreman Dll-
Ion wilh HE own hands. placed the last
spike on th, Tie and with a few strokes
from his urtwuy arms it FIRMLY hound to-
gvthvr the steel rails constituting AHto-
ria's connection with th, great CONNER
cial ccntcrs ~ the nation u was u happy
event for The officers ~ the road who have
worked s1 increasingly for ~ speedy com
plvuun. FOREMAN plllon had ordered a
feast Tor hls faithful workmen and plenty
uf everything Eo"d boz the way of both
eating lud drinking WAS on hand and ap-
prcclatNcy disposed of The Clatskani,
music iur the occasion, Providvnc, Ia
,orrd the EFFORT. ot AN concerned In sue
cysnfully completing the iob as the even
ms Ntr beautiful one
The road rs now m condition tur the
operation ~ through trains any day but
Superintendent McGulr, is anxious tp
have the four miles which remain To- be-
haliastcd completed before running rrgu-
lar passenger trains MIR Mcclure states
this viii be done In six days. Two OF the
biggest engines now In Portland viii bt
brought down To haul the cars and the
work Of hnishing these four miles viii he
rushed as fast as possible
The blind slough draw-bridgc will hc
finished In about ten days and then the
construction work Of the road viii be com
plctcd and the formall,y of driving the
golden spike win occur about the time the
delegates 10 the republican convention ar
rive.
Trains can be run with perfect safety
as soon as the last few miles built Is bal
lasted, and the republican delegates to the
convention held In this city on the l4th
will ride on the FIRST through train from
Portland into Astoria, Regular .raln ser
vice, however will not commence until
May l.
The construction of the Astoria and Coz
mmbin River Railroad was begun In Au-
gust, lS5, by Mr. Hammond and has con-
tlnucd since without interruption. In the
fall of lN6 the force employed on the road
was nearly entirely discharged, causing |
much speculation al the time as to whcth-
er the road would ever he completed |
However, regular force was employed |
In short time after and construction |
work has been steadily pushed ever since
Mr. Hammond came here In 1891 and took |
the subsidy of 5000 acres raised by the |
citizens u( Astoria and vicinity. He sub |
scQucntly purchased the Astoria and |
South Coast Railroad for $4,000, The |
right of way from Astoria to Gohle, some |
or It running through valuable property, |
was nearly all donated, money consid- |
Grafton being required only In few in |
stances for the transfer. Several railroad |
failures were made previous to Mr. Ham |
mond coming here. The first attempt to |
build from the city was In 1864, and then
came the subsequent attempts to build |
the Nehaem road by William Reid Goss
and Schohcld, II, l., Dwyer, j. c, stanton,
Edwin Brown, w. II. Remington ana |
others Many Of these spent large sums
of money to finance the project through |
but each ended In failure,