Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1902-04-19
MAXWELL CITY
TO EMBUD0.
An Account Of Railroad Survey Made Over a
Feasible Route in the
Year 1888.
F. A. JONES THE SURVEYOR
Line Up the Moreno Valley and Across the Taos Pass
Via Taos 10 the Rio Grande That Would Not Be
Difficult 10 Construct and That Would
Tap a Good Country.

Nj In view of the fact that the Maxwell
!" City. Cimarron, Elizabethtown ant
\ Taos Valley Railway Company was re-
4 Gently incorporated to build railroad
\ from Maxwell City to Taos by way OF
\ Elizabethtown and that a railway pro-
/ ject to build from Fort Garland, Colo
. rado, to Santa Fe by way of Embudo
. and Taos is being discussed the fol-
lowing account of survey over the
proposed route, made in 1898, by Pro-
fessor F.. A. Jones, at present director
of the New Mexico School of Mines at
Socorro, will be of great interest:
Perhaps no route in New Mexico Of
fers such scenic charms or more enrap-
lures the admirer of nature, than
4 does the trail leading from Maxwell
City westward up the Cimarron canon
to Elizabethtown, over the giddy
heights of the Taos pass, through the
ancient pueblos of Taos and thence to
the valley of the Rio Grande.
1T was on the 18th day of September,
1893, that the writer with sturdy
corps of engineers, turned the object
glass of his transit westward and gave
the peremptory order to advance. The
blue outline of mountains about 70
miles distant, marked the greatest ele-
walton of the Rockies in New Mexico.
| "In the center of grandeur, old
Baldy' lifted his head to the clouds at
the towering height of 14,176 feet. From
Maxwell City to the quiet town of
Cimarron stretches a vast plain,
through which flows the Veremejo and
wends it's tortuous way toward the
town of Springer. This plain is also
traversed by bitches, being improve
ments of the Maxwell Land Grant
Company The ranges in this section
of the country are the best for grazing
that can be found in New Mexico.
Farther west toward the town of Cim-
arron two other streams flow toward
the southeast; they are the Ceresose
and the Ponil, not so large as the. Ver-
mejo.
"About three miles east of the little
town of Cimarron our line of survey
crossed the famous Santa Fe trail, rum
ming from the Ration pass to Fort
Union. On the line of this historic
trail, there still remeained In evidence,
broken pieces of wagons, the old rut
now worn to a deep gully, disinte-
grated jaw bone of some faithful OK.
all of which reminded us of the hard
ships of the past.
'Tn setting up my transit by this re-
nowned trail, I was almost overcome
with emotion, when thought of my
father who had made the survey of this
trail a. quarter of a century before,
from Fort Leavenworth to Fort Union,
for the purpose of checking the dis
tance of freight hauled for the gov
ernment.
"The town of Cimarron Is situated
| just below the mouth Of the canon
which gave it it's name. This point is
regarded as a very favorable place for
the location of a smelter. To the west
and northwest are virgin. beds Of coal
untouched by the hand Of commerce.
Also the coal fields of Blossburg and
Dawson are near at hand, which would
furnish fuel for smelling purposes at
nominal price. Cimarron is the only
gateway through which the wealth OF
western Colfax county in it's timber
and mining production can pass.
"With railway tapping the vast
resources of mineral from the mines in
the adjacent camps of Badly, Eliza
bethtown, Moreno, and Red River,
Cimarron would soon take rank with
the largest cities of the territory. In
passing up the Cimarron canon one Is
awed with the grandeur of nature.
Here tall trees, rushing water and pal
isades of columnar basalt, rising per-
pendicularly over a thousand feet,
greet the appreciative eye.
"About ten miles up from the mouth
of the canon the country opens out in
what is known as Ponil Park. This is
truly delightful spot of growing grass
and waving pines. Should railroad
ever be built through this section,
which there will be before many years,
Ponil Park will be an important point
in the shipping Of ore and lumber. All
of the wealth from the mines on the
east side Of Baldy mountain will be
loaded here.
"On this side Of the mountain is the
famous Aztec mine which has produced
in free gold upward Of three millions
of dollars.
"The canon at Ponil Park turns
somewhat more to the southwest,
though the grade is lighter and the
valley broader.
"In entering the Moreno valley the
pass is very narrow, with perpendicu-
lar walls of porphyry hundreds of feet
in height.
"This is by far the best place to build
a dam for the storage Of water Of any
place in the west. The Moreno valley
at one time was a vast lake. about 20
miles north and south, by five miles
east and west.
Through the lapse Of ages the water
has worn through the porphyry and
granite at this narrow entrance and
drained the lake.
rIn this valley are, perhaps, the
richest and most extensive deposits Of
placer gold In the United States. The
floor Of the entire valley is literally