The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-05-19
OVERLAND TO
LOS ANGELES
Railroad Representatives Drive
400 Miles to See Country.
WATER. MINES AND FARMS
ASSURANCES OF EARLY WORK
AT THIS END RENEWED.
WATER, MINES AND FARMS

NTH a large fund Of valuable in
Wv formation about the undeveloped
resources along the route of the
projected San Pedro, Los Angeles &
Salt Lake railroad, c. o. Whittemore,
general attorney for the railroad COM
pany returned home last evening, &C
companied by A. A. Glasier and Simon
Davis of Boston, who made the over
land journey with him. These three,
with William McDermott, tire we'll
known Butte mining engineer, who Is
closely associated with Senator Clark,
started out with wagons from Cali
entes, the southern terminus Of the
Oregon Short Lines Los Angeles ex-
tension, on April Is, and at the end Of
the eighth day arrived at Marvel, the
first railroad station in California be-
yOnd the desert. The return journey
was made by rail via Sacramento. Mr..
McDermOtt, however, remained in the
wilderness to inspect mining property
which was not visited by the others.
One of the first stops was made at
the Key West mine, near Bunkerville,
| New. which Messrs. Whittemore and
! Glasier and Davis are developing. Here
they found a very favorable showing
for a big mine, the veins running from
l twenty to ninety feet in width. The
| ore possesses the popularity of carry
I ing only copper. nickel and platinum.
/ With the Salt Lake route completed to
/ the coast. a branch line viii be built
/ to the mines and TO connect with a
| smelter TO be built on the Virgin river.
Traffic For New Road.
1
a few of those which are expected to
| furnish the new railroad large traf-
/ fic. The districts of Sandy, Good
/ Springs and Searchlight and many
/ others are now alive with prospectOrs,
/ and hundreds of old claims known to
be valuable are being relocated. Then
the sulphur and salt deposits near st.
! Thomas will be depended upon to pro-
vide a still larger tonnage, Mr.. White
: more stated.
The valley of Las Vegas, which is
( about midway between Salt Lake and
Los Angeles, impressed Mr.. White
more as a place which will assume
great Importance as soon as the rail-
road passes through it. All but two
sections in this valley have been taken
! up, and the thousands of acres viii
/ make a great agricultural and fruit
| growing section. Without developing
artesian wells there is enough water
now to irrigate about 10000 acres. All
kinds of fruit are grown here and the
seasons are midway between the Cali
fornia and the Utah seasons.
Plenty of Water.
One of the matters to engage Mr..
! Whittemore's attention was that OF
I water SUNNY and his rapOrts will nut
al. rest some of the doubts as to where
and how this requisite can be obtained
He learned that the Oregon Short Line
had bought the Vegas valley ranches
for water supply and other railroad
purposes. In many places artesiaT
wells can be driven successfully, he be-
lieves.
At the Los Angeles end construction
of the railroad toward Salt Lake is
going on at a satisfactory rate, Mr.
Whittemore reports, and with all OF
the preliminaFies out Of the way more
rapid progress will be made from Thu
time on. The roadbed and equipment
are the best Of any railway in tht
United States, in the opinion Of experts
he stated.
Mr.. Whittemore renews the assur-
/ ances that the Los Angeles road viii
be built and hurried TO completion a.
the earliest practicable date, TO be op-
! Grated as an Independent line He eX
pects that J. Ross Clark and Mr.. Glib
bon will be in Salt Lake the latter par
of this month to make final arrange
ments for selecting the route through
Utah and to call for bids for grading
from this city sOuthwesterly and a
intermediate points.