Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1898-09-07
NEARING ITS | COMPLETION.
The Prescott & Eastern Railroad Will be Open For Traflc
 Next Month.
President and Mrs. E. N. Murphy Give an Excursion to "The Front Over This
 Scenic Line.

< E. railroad, with his wife. yester- day, entertained about thirty ladies
 and gentlemen by giving them an excursion over the new railroad to the end of the track. A special
 train left the depot at 9 o'clock in
 the morning, returning at f o'clock iu the afternoon, the trip being a
 most delightful one from start to
 finish.
 The new road, although only twenty-six miles in length, will rival in the beauty of its scenery, the
 main line, in proportion to its length. From the place where it leaves the s. F., P. & F., six miles from town, the road for about two miles. winds it's way among the huge mountains of Granite rocks, piled up m promiscuous profusion there. While looking from the main line, one would naturally conclude that it would be almost impossible to
 build a railroad through such
 promontories of rock, a ride over the road seems to demonstrate that nature had intended that railroad should be built through there some time. as she provided a strip just about wide enough for the right of way, where it could be consi ructed at a comparatively small cost and with an easy grade. At the same time it took an experienced engineer, such as W. A. Drake, chief engineer of the s. F., P. & P. railroad, to dis cover natures intentions in the mat ter. Any one riding over the road can not but be impressed with the
 killful engineering shown in the selection of the line, through what, to an inexperienced man, would look like sn Impossibility.
 The scenery over this two mile ride through the rocks, is simply magnificent, and the echoes of the locomotive whistle, as the sound Is thrown from rocky wall to rockier mountain side, is grand, and entities it to the name of Echo canyon. The grade is easy, and the road, where it emerges from the rocks, enters the Lonesome valley plateau. and has 6 gentle descent from there to Lynx creek, skirting the foothills on the western side of this extensive val ley.
 Near where the Jerome road crosses the railroad. a station has been located known as Yaeger, be- ing named after Yeager canyon. The railroad crosses Lynx creek about midway between J. K. Halls place and the old stage line land mark, John Mars ranch. Its course thence is along the foot hills on the western slope of the Agua Fris val ley just west of and pretty close to Uncle Dick" Thomas residence, about a half mile west of Robert residence, and running pretty close to the Hildebrandt and Bowers ranch. At the latter place, its course is changed towards Big Bug, leaving the Agua Fria valley, and running very closely to the old stage road, which it crosses several times.
 The road is completed now a dis tance of about seventeen miles from the junction at Point of Rocks, or to a point about a mile beyond the Bowers ranch.
 Comparatively easy work was en- in its construction from the place where it leaves the rocks to the present lend of the tTack," but from there, to it's Big Bug ter minus, there has been some quite heavy work. The contractors on Wednesday just completed the long est and deepest cut on the line being fifty five deep at its deepest place.
 The track layers and bridge build CTS are right on the heels" of the graders, and could complete the line within two weeks if the grade was was ready for them. The contractors expect to complete the grade within the time of their contract, by Sep tember Is, but it will probably be the first of October, or little later, before the road will be open for traffic.
 A hne view of Lonesome and Agua Fria valleys is obtained by a ride over the road, while the noun tains which hem them in, rise in majestic grandeur on either side of the valleys. Winding along the sides from Agua Fria to Mayer, the road presents a series of panoramic views of noun tain and valley. The recent rains and warm weather have caused a most lu1uriant growth of grass, both in the valleys and on the mountain sides, and one can scarcely realize, as he rides along, that he is in arid Arizona.
 While Wednesdays trip to many of Mir. Murphys guests, was their initial one to that section, among the number were several who had made frequent trips by stage along this same route, over that historical and renowned stage line, "the Black Canyon route" They had made the trip, not as one of pleasure, but as the only means of getting to or away from Prescott, and at times when the passenger who took it might expect to become the victim of a highway robbery before his Journeys end. To the latter, travelling in a comfortable car, over a we'll constructed and we'll ballasted railroad, such as this is, the trip was a marvellous revelation, and calculated to inspire many "reminiscences of former trips, when the mention of 6 railroad through that section, would have made one looked upon as a candi- date for a mad house, and the con- of which, even now, is cer- tainly a monument to the energy and enterprise of its promoter and builder.
 The road is constructed in the same substantial manner as the s. F., P. & P. railroad, and for the most part is already we'll surfaced, and the track we'll lined, the cars riding As smoothly as on an old and well settled road bed. The bridges