Albuquerque daily citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1895-1903, 1903-04-23
CHANGING THE MAP.
New Lines Said to Be Under Survey
by The Santa Fe,
NEW MEXICO FULL OF CUT.OFfS.

If we are to believe the rumors we
hear New Mexico will be full of Santa
Fe and Rock Island cut offs within the
next year or two, says the Topeka
State Journal.
The latest is a story published in a
Denver paper, to the effect that the
Santa Fe cut off from Syracuse, Kan.
is not the one which comes through
Belen but will make bee line for AL
buquerque. This is good news indeed
and there Is no harm in believing It,
until the long suffering officials are
obliged to make their usual little
speech denying the rumor. The story
runs as follows:
Baca county, the county that occu-
pies the extreme southeastern corner
of Colorado, will have a railroad with.
in the next two years. 1t will be tho
Santa Fe.
Santa Fe surveying parties went
into the field last week to survey the
cut off from Syracuse, i>an., to point
near Albuquerque to avoid the noun
tains as well as to shorten the Chi
cago-San Francisco line.
Baca county is without railroad
and is only sparsely settled. Its south
ern boundaries are New Mexico and
Oklahoma and its eastern boundary,
Kansas. It's isolated position, far from
railroad, makes it one of the inter
esting counties in Colorado. 1t belongs
to Las Animas and Powers counties
In representation in the state legisla-
ture. It is devoted almost wholly to
cattle.
The cut off promised by the Santa
Fe and which parties are now survey,
ing, commences at Syracuse, Kan,
just over the Colorado line. The road
will probably enter Baca county 80 as
to cut through the southeastern cor!
ner, and then across a corner of Okla
homa and thence into New Mexico to
Albuquerque. Only forty miles OF the
road will be in Baca county and about
the same mileage in Oklahoma, ac-
oording to the estimate of the en-
gineers.
While the mileage will be slight, 1t
will give Baca county its railroad and
will be of immense benefit to that cor
ner of Colorado. The cutoff traverses
a country now devoid of railroads and
it Is the belief that business originat-
ing along the line will in few years
pay for its construction, although It If
to be built solely to save crossing the
mountains.
At present the Santa Fe has heavy
mountain grades to contend with in
southern Colorado and particularly in
northern New Mexico. The road ira
verses the mountains and two engines
are needed on every passenger train,
while freight trains must be cut In two
to make the crossing In addition
there is one place where washouts
occur three and four times a year,
sometimes tying up the road for three
or four days. In winter rotaries must
be kept almost constantly at work to
avoid blockades.
This cut off, aside from shortening
the Chieago-San Francisco mileage,
will avoid the mountains. 1t will be
an easy grade and there are no en-
gineering obstacles to overcome. Tho
country to be traversed is fiat and
open.
The engineers surveying the line are
now said to be almost within Baca
county, working now in Beaver coun'
ty, Okla. 1t is believed that the entire
route can be surveyed this summer
and 1t is said construction will begin
early in the fall.