The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-13
RAILROADS ACTIVE
 IN BALDWIN COUNTY
Prospect Of Panama Canal Causes Southern Roads to Look For Gulf Terminals Around
 Bay Minettf.

| Magnolia Springs a distance of slight lv over thirty-seven miles south of Bay IMinette. The construction Of the south half of the line has not yet been start ed. The owners of the road are going
 slow in building the road into Fort
 Morgan. They have first some busi-
 Less to transact with Congress and
 with the National Government. Fort
 Morgan is Government property and the Government owns considerable lands
 whereabouts. Moreover. the railroad
 people want to build docks and ships
 and they want to build breakwater in
 Mobile Bay.
 They have some concessions and pos
 sibly some favors to ask of the Fed
 eral authorities. Building million
 dollar dock is no small business. The people who are doing it will have to go slow. If their business is satisfac- | torily transacted with Congress the | road will be pushed on to Fort Morgan
 and the construction of the immense
 terminal facilities undertaken. | To get to Fort Morgan from their present terminus the railroad builders
 will have to construct thirty-one miles
 of railroad. l A glance at the map of Mobile Bay
 shows that the eastern shore. near the | gulf. curves around like a crooked fin- l ger. On the tip of this crooked fn-
 ger sits Fort Morgan. The Bay Mi
 nette and Fort Morgan Railroad goes
 due south until 1t nearly reaches the
 Gulf. Then it turns west and runs
 along the crooked finger to Fort Mor-
 gan. The dock and terminal station will be on the bay side of this narrow
 strip of land. They will face inward
 towards Mobile and not outward to-
 wards the Gulf.
 | West of Navy Cove and near the big | fort 1t is proposed to build a big mod | ern dock with slips for vessels to como
 in and get their cargoes and with a
 big breakwater similar to those at | Portland and Seattle, to assure safety | to the vessels loading within. Here ii l is hoped to construct a big coaling sta | ton for the vessels of the United States 1 navy. a coaling station that will be convenient to the squadron of war ves- | sells that the United States. since the | Spanish American war, must always
 keep in Southern waters.
 The general office of the Bay Minette 1 and Fort Morgan Railroad is located in the Baldwin County Bank at Bay Ml- nette. T. P. Hamm, the energetic Northerner who has made money in Baldwin County, and who has assisted in bringing prosperity to the County Is President of both the bank and the railroad.
 Mir. Hamm is now in Chicago with Attorney Frank S. Stone looking after some of the business affairs of the road.
 W. W. Olney Is Vice-President and Secretary of the road. MT. Olney is an old experienced railroad builder and operator. He Is lately from South Da- knt ha toA it, Io h,,;l ios of road. He Is the chief engineer of the road.
 c. A. Denham, another experienced railroad builder, is assisting in the en- ginecring and construction work. 4 few years ago he was in Alaska con- structing the road from Yukon to
 The chief dntractorsfor the work i. W. J. Oliver. Other contractors who l are doing the grading are Lester. Fin. ney and Stewart, G. w. FutrelI and Killebrew Bros. The road is being l easily built. There are no engineering problems to be solved, not bridge to be built in the thirty-seven miles lw being graded. A place filled with hills | about three miles wide gives the onls | construction trouble. In the main only two or three feet of embankment have to be thrown up on the flat table
 landA of Baldwin County and there are
 no large cuts. The grading of tho first thirtyseven miles. it is estimated
 can be done we'll within sI50,0O0 | The road follows the top of a ridge
 from Bay Minette to it's present termi.
 nus. On the east is the slope of Per.
 dido River and Perdido Bay and on tn,
 west the slope of Mobile Bay. It runs
 right through the heart of the ricf
 country that is being built up b,
 Northern emigrapts.
 And today in the pine woods of Bald.
 win there Is q string of workmen thir- ty-seven miles long, hardly out of sight
 of each other, shaping cross ties. haul.
 ing and throwing up dirt and shaping
 the track for the reception of the rails In January.