Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-09-02
New Line to the Pacific
From Salt Lake City.
OPENS MINING COUNTRY
RISE OF THE THRIVING PORT OF
SAN PEDRO.
Fight With the Southern Pacific for
the Congressional Appropriation
Wealth of Los Angeles.
BY WILLIAM f. CURTIS.

BY WILLIAM f. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence OF The Star and the Chicago
Record Herald.
LOS ANGELES August q. 1905.
Having more money than he knew what
| to do with, Senator w. A. Clark of Mon
! tana built railroad from Salt Lake City,
! through southwestern Utah and southeast
| ern Nevada, to Los Angeles and the Pa
cif1c coast. The new and thriving port of
| San Pedro is the actual terminus at this
end of the line and bears an important part
in the comprehensive plans which Mr..
| Clark has in mind in connection with this
enterprise.
Without doubt Senator Clark has larger
personal business interests than any man
in the United States, If not In the world.
While he does not own this railroad OF $50
miles exclusively. he controls it. He holds
a majority of the stock. Ex-senator
kearns Of Salt Lake City. Richard C..
kerens of St. Louis and several other cap
italists have an interest with him: but Mr.
Clark furnished the larger part of the money
to pay for construction and 1t is much
of a personal enterprise on his part as It
would be If he owned every share of the
stock. He will not go into any business
that he cannot control. He will not buy
a majority interest He told me once that
he had seventy-seven enterprises which he
not only controlled, but directed. Each has
| its manager and board of directors, or both
but he individually supervises the manage
ment of all of them and has detailed re-
ports laid upon his table every week and
! IN some cases every day.
MIR. Clark has very large interests down
here. He has a big beet sugar factory at
Las Alamitos, and his real estate holdings
in Los Angeles and in this neighborhood
amount to hundreds of thousands Of dol
lars, which shows his confidence in the fu-
ture of this city, because he is a prudent
man and makes no investments that he
does not expect TO pay him profit.
Rich Mining Country Opened.
The railroad to Salt Lake, which runs
through the desert, opens up rich min
ing country and will bring a great deal of
trade to Los Angeles, Is the most import
ant contribution to the future prosperity
of that city since the Santa Fe road came
In There is abundance Of gold In the Ne
vada desert: there enormous coal de-
posts In southwestern Utah, and betwixt
and between are vast cattle ranges and
fertile valleys that are subject to irriga-
ton. Mr.. Clarks road makes all these
new sources of wealth accessible 1t has
stimulated prospecting and mining devel-
opment: and although the coal has not yet
been touched the right people know where
1t is and will go after 1t whenever it is
needed. An enormous trade might be built
up with Japan in that line because they
need coal over there, and undoubtedly Sem
ator Clark has considered that prosposi-
ton.
The San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt
Lake railroad as 1t is called. was opened
to traffic last spring. although 1t has not
yet been entirely completed. Portions OF
the track still await ballast; many of the
station buildings are temporary and will
be replaced by better ones; grades are to be
reduced; curves are to be Strengthened, and
other improvements which require time.
but are not urgent will be made soon
as possible At present there is only one
through train each way every day, with
five local trains between San Bernardino
(where the desert commences) and Los
Angeles, and three Of four between Salt
Lake City and neighboring towns. At the
southern end the road passes through Pasa-
dina, Riverside, Pomona. Ontario and other
orange towns and winter resorts. Beyond
San Bernardino it enters the Mohave desert
and crosses the Santa Fee line at Daggett.
The metropolis of the Mohave desert t3
Las Vegas New. from which automobile
lines run to GoldfieldS Q94 miles,, Bull
frog (124 miles,, Rhyolite 119 miles) and
other towns of the new mining district. The
road then passes northward through the
mountains of Nevada and crosses the Great
Divide at town called Boulter, 1910 Ieet
the road about eighty miles from Salt
Lake.
ciflc nv which both handle Its freight and
Exchange business. Senator Clark intends
to make improvements here and there as
may be advisable. to attract tourists, as
the line furnishes cutoff from the yell
iowstone National Prak and the Colorado
mountains to southern California without
going around to San Francisco or santa
Fe and Albuquerque. a..
hands of J. Ross Clark, who has had I'M
mediate charge of his brothers interests IN
this vicinity for many years. MI. Ross
clark is one of the most prominent ana
progressive citizens of Los Angeles ana mas
been active in charitable and religious work
ps well as in business analrs. he IS d
leading member Of the First Congregavloin,aii
Church. is deeply interested in the Y M.
C. A. work, and takes conspicuous part All
all evangelical proceedings.
San Pedro Harbor which, as have told
you, is the actual terminus or the lark
road. is twenty-seven miles from Los An.
eeles the trains passing through seVerai
ocean resorts and connecting with boats
for Santa Catalina Island. which Is ad-
yertised as 1.-The Magic Isle OF the PACING
PeonIe go over there to fish for tuna.
which Is the tarpon or TINS coast. anu
whoever is fortunate enough to eaten one
becomes immortal. Santa Catalina is the
Mace where they row you around in boats
with glass bottoms You put black cot
ton cloth over your head. SO as to shut out
the light. as If you were going to take a
photograph. and leaning over a railing.
look through that novel window upon one
of the most curious sights that can be seen
anywhere. Down here the ocean is filled
with extraordinary freaks Of animal and
vegetable life, and for half a dollar paid
to the boatman. you can obtain a glimpse
Of what Captain Memo, Jules Verne's hero.
saw when he was sailing twenty thousand
leagues under the sea.
San Pedro's Harbor.
San Pedro is the harbor of Los Angeles,
and was the object of a long and bitter
fight between the people OF this city and
the late C. P. Huntington. The original
and natural harbor was at Santa Monica.
where for fifty years the ocean commerce
of Los Angeles had centered. There was
really no harbor there. 1t was only an
open roadstead, but the Southern Pacific
railway built a long breakwater. and thus
furnished all the shelter that was needed
under ordinary circumstances. But the
commercial interest felt the necessity of a
more extended harbor. with permanent
safety, and the national government was
asked to build one. A long. earnest fight
ensued In Congress. Mr.. Huntington in
sisted that the harbor should be built at
Santa Monica, which was the terminus of
the Southern Pacific railroad. and the gen.
eral public and several syndicates of prop
erty owners and spectators declared in
l-- (Nav~nN .oia R,c