Tonopah bonanza. [volume] (Butler City [i.e. Butler], Nev.) 1901-1909, 1903-05-16
FROM SALT LAKE
TO Los ANGELES
CIark's Railroad Makes Things Look
Good for Middle Nevada.

SAT- LAKE, llcl alui "i''i'e ''NA ~
Springs, contributes the following
interesting facts:
Already the effect of the early |
building of the San Pedro, Los An
geles & Salt Lake road is being felt
in this locality, and the first symp-
toms of great mining activity are
visible. Men who know the region
regard it as having bright future,
although it has been held back for
many years by the lack of transpor
tation. This place is situated on the
line of the Salt Lake route, l6l miles
west of the Calientes, and less than
200 miles east OF Los Angeles. The
railroad will run within seven miles
of here. 1t is forty miles west of
Colorado canyon and fifty miles east
Of Death valley, and nine miles from
the California state line. This rail
road called by everyone in this part
of the country is Senator Clark s
road" 1t is doubtful if the impor-
lance of this railroad is fully under
stood, even by the residents of Salt
Lake or Los Angeles, the two points
most directly interested in its con
struction. AS for the outside world,
with the exception of the tinanciers,
who always know good thing when
visible, it knows but little about it
and cares less, until it is completed
and open for business, when it will
patronize the road largely because
it will be the shortest route by sew
eral hundred miles to the Pacific
coast. 1t is a safe prediction to
make that it will get most of the
tourist travel across the continent,
and its Importance to the fruit ship
pers of southern California will be so
evident, both in point Of time and re-
duction in freight rates, that 1T will
entirely outclass its rivals in this re-
spect From present appearances
the public will not have long TO wait
for its completion. The surveying
parties LOW in the field are all west
of here, working as rapidly as they
can. and it is said their work will be
completed by the middle of June.
Leaving Calientes, the present
terminus of the Oregon Short Line,
the road viii pass down the Meadow
valley wash, the old road used by the
Mormons in the early sos in going to
and coming from California. If the
tourist, comfortably seated in an OBJ
servation car, will look closely in
coming down this picturesque can
yon, be will see an inscription painted
in large letters on an immense rock,
placed there by some weary and
worn out traveller. threads; 'This
is the longest, the driest and the
d-dest wash on earth, y This is as
terse, to the point and as descriptive
ae anyone could put it, Coming
further down the canyon, high up on
the walls the tourists eye will see
quaint Indian drawings of animals
and birds and hieroglyphics which
have never been deciphered.
The road will cross the Muddy
rivera misnomer, because the
water is as clear as crystal,
and one of the tributaries of the
Virgin river. 1t is called the Moapa
on the maps, after the Indians of that
name, of whom there are less than
300 left on the reservation. They
are an Industrious tribe, and Uncle
Sam is aiding them now and has es-
tablished "a school there. Twenty
one miles west of Moab is another
point of unusual interest, known as
the Desert Well" which is situated
at the end of an immense dry lake.
The well was sunk by freighters for
the purpose of watering their stock
and is 200 feet deep. The water is
impregnated with gypsum and other
minerals, and occasionally dead rat
is brought up Horses drink the
water with disgust, and il is unfit
for even cooking purposes,
Twenty-six miles west of this well