Bisbee daily review., 1905-09-05
NEW RAILROAD
 WILL OPEN A
 tRiAT Ct UNTRY
lrzOna and California Line
 Now Building

nix railroad, mas ndu leuuenCg to at | tract much interest toward the latter | road, which is now under course of construction, says the Los Angeles | Herald. Railroad men in the past l have been inclined to view the build | ing of the Arizona & California rail ! road merely as an auxiliary Of the Santa Fe, for the purpose of making possible another great transcontinent- al line to the Pacific coast, but they are now awakening to the fact that this new road means vastly more to California and Arizona in the way of mineral development than it does from the standpoint of transcontinental traffic. stephen Bowers, of Los An geles, a well known geologist, says of the opening of a new mineral zone:
 "A casual review of the mineral zone that the new Arizona & California ra.l- road traverses easily confirms the opinion that this rev road will event ually become one of the most import ant in the way of gold and copper de- velopment of any road of like mileage ever built in the State of California. In recent years Arizona has been mak- ing phenomenal strides in the produc llOu Ol COpES4s Oul II NAAO aANh PAOSPS(So along the California side of the new road, which have long remained unde- veloped on account of the absence of freight transportation, turns out as well as able experts have represented them, there is no reason why California should not eventually divide with Ari- zona the honor of being the premier copper producer of the United States.
 "The new road commences at Wick enburg Junction, Ariz., on the main line of the Santa Fe, Prescott & Phoenix railroad, and proceeds almost due west to Bengal, Cal, where a con nection is made with the main line of the Santa Fe railroad. The total mile age of the new road Is about 114 miles. and the only difficult tunneling of the entire road is at Granite Wash, east Cf the Colorado river, where an 8000-foot tunnel has just been completed, as stated by President Murphy.
 "The new road will pass through the Indian reservation in western Arizona, and enter California in the pass be- tween the Riverside and Chemeheuvls mountains in San Bernardino county. There are several rich copper pros poets and mines all around the ranges for several miles on either side of the Colorado river where the road enters California, and for years they have only awaited the coming of railroad to make them prominent producers. For example, in the Chemeheuvis there are copper outcrops extending for a distance of three miles, from which ores have been shipped which carry from S45 to $60 in value, yet not enough to transport them overland to the Santa Fe, but will pay well when they can be dropped down the stream a short distance to the railroad.
 There is already a fairly estab- lished assurance that a seventy-five- ton smelter will be built on the Color. ado river at Empire flats, where the railroad will cross. The new smeiter, il is understood, will be an amalgama- tion of the Colorado River Gold & Copper company, Copper Basin Mining company, Mount Whipple Mining com pany and the White Eagle Mining com pany, and the ores from these various properties will be the original source of ore supply for the new shelter.
 "On the Arizona side of the river the new road will directly benefit large portion of what is known as the the Bill Williams River country, where several copper mines, as the Osborne, Blanchard and Dome mines, have oper- ated for several years in the noun tain ranges, notwithstanding the diff- culties of transportation
 Several old established mines along the aHrcuryer and Harque Halla mountains, such as the Socorro, Gold en Eagle, Harque-Halla, Desert, Tel low Bird and others, will be directly benefited by the new road. While il would be difficult within a restricted space to emphasize all of the buttes and mineral ranges where good claims are now located that this road will en able the development of in California it may be safely predicted that Cheme heuvis, Riverside, Turtle and Iro- mountains will be found to be the mosi important. Many of those ranges have been but scantily explored, and ever the abandoned prospects with proper development may prove to be import ant producers.
 No one but the old experienced min CT knows the difficulty of working { prospect forty or fifty miles away frcr Anc DdSS OA SuPpilSS. A CIty MAls upon macadamized streets is but { narrow psace, but upon the desert with it's ever shifting sands. it's distan springs, it's burning heat, it is far oth erwise. Besides the gold and silvel properties whose development will b. the result of this new road, other min erals, such as magnesite, marble praghite, etc, that has long beer known to exist in several of the ranges will be given a commercial value.
 Perhaps the most important minera property. outside of gold and copper that viii be assisted by the new roaC is what is known as Danby dry lake which occupies the valley betweeI Turtle and Old Woman's mountains This lake contains vast deposits Q rock salt, carbonate of soda, gypsum etc. The deposits have always al ways attracted a great deal of scien tihc attention, and their developmen will be watched with unusual interest The Arizona & California railroad be gan construction work in July, 1901