The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1906-02-09
GREAT RAILROAD PROJECT.
THE KANSAS CITY, MEXICO AND
ORIENT.
SHORTEST LINE TO THE SEA

| Traverses Splendid Country and
Reaches Deep Water Five Hundred
Miles Shorter Than Any Transeon-
tinentaI Line In Existence.
The Kansas City, Mexico and Orient
railway, with whose promoters the
writer recently made a trip through
the republic of Mexico to the City of
Mexico is a line projected from Kan
sas City, Mo-, to Topolobampo bay, in
the state of Sinaloa, Mexico, on the
Gulf of California. When completed
the line will be 1000 miles long, 500
miles shorter than any other transcon-
tinental road connecting the middle
west with the Pacific seaboard. This
project has been under way for the
last six years, and already practically
one half of the road has been built and
is in operation, a section In Kansas
and Oklahoma, a section in Texas and
two section in Mexico. Unlike other
transcontinental lines at the time of
their construction, which were obliged
to cross great Improbable deserts to
reach their destination, the Orient
road Is passing through a country that
is practically all in good state of de-
velopment and only needs the oncom-
ing of the road to yield rich local
business From Kansas City to Wichi-
ia the distance by this road is twenty
seven miles shorter than any other
line, and it traverses the richest sec
ton of Kansas, while south of Wichita
to the Rio Grande it passes through
the great cotton growing section of
Oklahoma and northern Texas and the
cattle and mineral country of the
southern part of the latter state. From
IGl ORC, where the road crosses the
Rio Grande, to Chihuahua, a distance
of $50 miles, the road strikes mineral
and grazing districts of northern Mex
leo, while west of Chihuahua over the
mountains and down to the coast the
road passes successfully some of the
richest silver and gold mines in the
world, large deposits of anthracite coal
and vast timber belt near the coast.
In this section also are grown sugar,
coffee, cotton, tobacco and fruits. With
the amount of local traffic in sight, to-
gether with the fact that oriental busi-
ness can be handled on a haul 500
miles shorter than any other line,
there is no doubt but that the road will
do large business from the time it is
completed.
Oklahoma.
Oklahoma shows wonderful state
of development when it is considered
that it has been open for settlement
but a comparatively few years. The
towns passed have a decidedly wide
lawake appearance, and some of them,
as Guthrie, Oklahoma City, Ell Reno
and Enid have already become cities
of 1900 to $4,000 people, carrying on
a good wholesale as well as retail busi-
ness. The statement is made that the
whole of Oklahoma averages three
farmers to every section of land, and
from the well settled appearance of
the country, it's fine farm houses, build
ings and fences, the statement is not
difficult to believe. 1t has every ap-
pearance of a long-settled country,
with the possible exception that the
improvements shine with fresh paint
and show that in reality they are new.
The Magnitude of Texas.
While it is known that Texas is the
largest state in the union, yet to the
average mind that statement does not
convey an intelligent meaning of the
magnitude of that commonwealth.
From El Paso on the west to Texar-
kama on the east the distance is prac-
tically 900 miles, while the distance
from the extreme northern portion of
the Panhandle to Brownsville on the
southeast coast is farther than it is
from Chicago to New Orleans. The
census Of 1900 showed more lands
farmed in Texas than in any other
state, with only one-fifth of the area
then under plow. A statistician says
that Texas has more prairie land than
Kansas, more pine timber than Mich
igan, more oak than West Virginia,
more iron than Alabama, more marble
than Vermont, more granite than New
Hampshire, more corn land than Hi
nois, more wheat land than the Da.
kotas, more rice land than the Caro-
linas, more fruit land than California,
more tobacco land than Virginia, more
sugar cane land than Louisiana, and
it is the first state in the union in the
amount of railway mileage The east
ern part of the state is we'll settled,
but the western part of the state has
been given over practically to ranch
men hitherto. In all the vast region
Of western Texas the Kansas City,
Mexico and Orient road is the only
railroad extending through the state
north and south, one third of the state
lying west of the line of the road. 1t
is known that much of the land is good
for the raising of crops and the ranch
es are being cut into smaller tracts
and sold to farmers and cotton plant
ers. With this kind of a territory to
traverse there can be no question but