The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-09-23
FORTY MILES OF SALT.
Western Pacific Railroad Laying Its
Tracks On Solid Mass of Crystals. r.

| Scientists, biologists and tourists
alike will be interested in the huge
salt beds recently discovered by the
engineers who are building the West
ern Pacific railroad from Salt Lake
| City to San Francisco. Eight miles
wide and 40 miles long, this enormous
saline deposit presents much the same
appearance as a polar ice foe, the ef-
feet of the glittering crystals stretching
away to the horizon in lines OF un-
broken white, being one which cannot
be obtained anywhere else in the world
except in the zones of eternal ice
So closely are the salt crystals pack
ed together that the ties for the rail-
road are laid on the surface and the
$50, 900 pound engines pass over them
without making any impression on it.
In placing the telegraph poles along the
line of the road it was found necessary
to blast out the salt with dynamite, its
rock-like hardness making it impossi-
BILE to dig down the eight feet required
to give secure support to the poles.
Eight feet is the DEEPEST bore which has
been made into the deposit, and its true
depth remains unknown IS yet
The commercial value of this salt de-
posit. said to be SO per cent pure, is
something enormous.
Engineers who have studied the topo-
graphy of this part of the country are
inclined to the belief that large body
of water underlies this enormous salt
bed, and that herein lies the explana-
ton for the well known saline quality
of Great Salt Lake. The salt body is
situated q feet higher than the lake
at the Mormon capital, and the slope
of the land near the deposit is such
that if water existed there it would
flow in the direction of the lake. With
this as a basis for their deductions the
engineers who laid out the road have
evolved the interesting theory that
some large subterranean body of water
is gradually dissolving the great salt
-
away in solution through underground
chan nels which lead to the Great Salt
Lake
In view of the curious geological
composition of the country, in which
rivers are frequently known to dis
appear completely from the surface
and reappear miles away with greatly
increased volume, the hypothesis is
plausible al least, and will doubtless
be investigated upon a scientific basis
as soon as the Western Pacific is in
position to handle passenger traffic.
Boring through the salt, while similar
N difficulty to boring through solid
rock, should determine in large meas
ure the formation of the salt beneath
the surface and should settle the
question as to whether or not a body
or stream OF water is eating away the
salt body on its lower side.
Government officials from the
weather bureau are at present in the
SaIton Basin studying evaporation,
and may take up the study of the salt
deposits when their present investiga-
items are concluded.
Leaving Salt Lake City. the Western
Pacific skirts the south end of the
lake, crossing it at one point for a dis
lance Of six miles. where the water
lies on both sides OF the track, and at
mile post No 80 enters the Great
American Desert Here. for nearly
forty miles the trains cross a vast sea
of white alkali, cleaning in dry daz-
cling whfteness in all directions.
Looked upon with dread in the days
when the prairie schooner was the
best means of transportation, the des-
ert will now become simply an object
of curiosity to be viewed in the same
light as any of the other scenic won
ders that are to be enjoyed from vest