Tonopah bonanza. [volume] (Butler City [i.e. Butler], Nev.) 1901-1909, 1903-11-28
The Ogden-Lucin Cutoff Is
Finished
Impressive Ceremony At Dedication.
President Hartman and
Others Present.


which has been constructed across
Salt Lake. This was the formal
ceremony which marked the compile
ton of the great engineering feat.
The spike was of gold and was i'm
mediately withdrawn and engraved
as a souvenir of the event. An enor-
nous crowd Witnessed the dedica ton,
which proved most impressive.
Trains will soon be regularly run
over the new tracks and the world
will see full speed made over the
widest strip Of water covered by any
road in the world There will be no
slow down on the Lucin cutoff, as it
is called The locomotive will take
Decline for Lucin, and arrive after u
tifty-mile dash over swamp and water
and forty-mile dash over the desert
without encountering a single curve
of any moment. In the near future
great hotel will be constructed in
the middle of the lake, five miles of
Promontory point, which will be as
unique in its way as the hanging gar
dens of Babylon
Great Salt Lake, it will be remem-
bered, is shaped roughly like a V.
with its arms extending toward the
north. The right arm Of this V,
as one looks at! the map, Is filed with
shallow water and marsh land. A
temporary structure four miles long
was thrown across this, and gravel
trains run over it until solid EN-
bankment rose from the surface,
strong enough to bear the weight
and jar of the heaviest express going
at full speed. A number of pile
stations, or groups of huge tree
trunks, driven by scow driven
firmly into the mud, were first con-
structed Then top drivers were
erected on the top of the stations
and moved along over line of piles
of their own driving, till a continuous
line, three abreast and about ten feet
apart, reached out to Promontorv
point, four miles from the shore, and
to a point five miles farther yet to-
ward the west. 1t is at the termina
ton of this work that the great hotel
will some day be built. Caps, heavy
pieces of timber twelve inches wide
and twelve inches thick, were fast
ened across the tops of the triple
line, and huge stringers laid over the
caps. The ordinary cross ties and
rails were put into requisition and
the gravel train gangs set to work
close upon the heels of the top driv-
ers. A precarious trestle was thus
turned into solid roadbed.
A bad sink, or crevice, in the
earth's crust filled with loose mate
rails, was encountered some distance
from shore, and cubic mile of earth
had to be dumped into it before the
embankment' at that point would
bear the weight of the gravel train
This delayed the work and the greater
part of six months was consumed in
stopping this almost bottomless pit.
But finally the filling took hold, "
and now this part of the route is as
firm as any other.
The completed structure has cost
at least $4,000, 900, but the railroad
considers it a good business invest.
ment, owing to the time it will save.
Some of its piles are 125 feet long
and the whole furnishes as safe
roadbed as could be built on dry land
In connection with this recent en-
cheering work, it is interesting to
note that the present Great Salt
Lake is only ANAL remnant of its
former self In recent geological
times it covered most of western
Utah, was 1000 feet deep and had
an outlet through Red Rock Gap into
the great Columbia River. The wa
ter was then fresh This lake, now
known to scientists as Lake Bonnie
vile, was $4,000 square miles in ex-
tent. The outlet river gradually
wore away its limestone bed, the
drainage reducing this {
magnificent lake greatly in area. I
This brought about great climatic :
changes which gradually created an
rid country. Finally the lake dried