The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-08-30
OLD WESTERN TRAILS.
Railways Now Run over the Paths
of Early Pioneers and Explorers.
New York Tribune.)


The early explorers and pioneers of
the western part of the United States
made the paths that are now the great
railway highways of commerce. The
old trails of the plains, deserts and
mountains and the routes of the pres
ent transcontinental railways are
closely associated, as in the greater
number of cases the big western rail-
road tracks followed the course of the
wagon tracks of fifty years ago. When
the American colonies were declaring
their independence of Great Britain
the "old Spanish trail' was being laid
out by a party under the command of
Francisco Sylvester Velez Escalante, in
the interest of the Spanish missions in
| California.
This expedition left Santa Fe in
July, 1776, and after travelling over
what is known as the San Juan coun-
try, reached a spot where Grand juno
ton, Colo, an important present day
railway center, is located. From there
the party ''trailed" to Salt Lake, and
from there to Los Angeles, Cal The
new Denver & Northwestern railroad
and the Salt Lake-Los Angeles line
will closely follow much of this old
! Spanish trail
The Union Pacific railroad runs over
| the old Platte-Overland route from
Omaha to Ogden, and the Atchison,
Topeka & Santa Fe follows for many
hundreds of miles the old Santa Fe
trail. while in Arizona the same road
/ touches at many points the southern
overland trail The Santa Fe trail
runs through the Ration mountains
| Southern spurs of the Rocky noun
mountains in New Mexico), and the
I To
road found many problems solved in
| the way of mountain railway con-
struction by simply following the trail
of the Spaniards of many years ago.
There are still 10 be seen along this
trail Spanish houses that were built in
| the time when that part of the country
was within Mexican territory while
! there are also many road houses that
! fifty years ago dispensed cheer and
comfort to the weary travellers who
/ crossed the plains and mountains for
the precious yellow metal.
The Rio Grande system follows the
| trails made by Gunnison in 1852 81. The
Colorado Southern, from Fort Collins to
Trinidad, Colo. runs along the trail
between Fort Laramie and Fort Union,
and the Oregon Short Line is built
along the Oregon trail from Salt Lake
to Columbia. The Central Pacific, now
owned by the Southern Pacific, runs
from Ogden to San Francisco by a
route that many years ago was trav-
eIed by Spaniards and Indians, across
the northern end of the great American
desert, and through the beautiful Sierra
! Nevada mountains.
From the snow-capped summit of the
Sierra Nevada mountains to the green
fields around San Francisco is a mat
ter of eight hours by the fast overland
limited on the Southern Pacific, and
along this route may still be seen the
path or trail that, years ago, required
MANY days of work and danger sue
cessfully to traverse. From Denver tc
Salt Lake City the Denver & Rio
Grande railroad follows old trails, and
the Grand river along which the wan
dering Mormons plodded on their way
to the hoped-for haven of rest. Botf
the Rock Island and Union Pacific fol
low ancient trails, and the big Rocs
Island bridge, at Omaha, crosses the
Missouri river from Council Bluffs al
a point where the wealth-seekers from
the east, with their families, livestock
and prairie schooners, used to ford the
| muddy stream.