Arizona republican., 1908-07-27

Before there was a transcontinental
railroad anywhere and while explora-
tions were going on across Arizona to
see if it were feasible to build rail-
road to the coast, there were strong
partisans both for a line west from
Albuquerque and one across southern
Arizona. Championing the latter was
Lieutenant Mowry, a graduate of West
Point, later the owner of the Mowry
mine in southern Arizona, and the
first man to operate that famous
property In the sixties Lieutenant
Mowry wrote book which was then
considered an authority on Arizona,
and which in many respects is still
more reliable reference volume than
anything since published. 1t was well
illustrated with old fashioned and ex-
pensive wood cuts and has in recent
years been reprinted by the owners of
the Mowry mine. The old original vol
ume however is today a rare and a
valuable work and is found in but
few libraries.
But in handling the railroad ques-
ton in his book Lieutenant Mowry
published some things that in the light
of modern development seem rather
odd and even humorous. In support
ing the movement for a southern route
he presented much data showing the
impractioability of the northern Ari-
IONA route. Among other things he
| quoted from a speech in the senate by
jefferson Davis in 1859, the senator
in turn quoting from a report made
by Albert II. Campbell a civil engineer
who had been engaged in railroad
surveys. Campbell said. I'm regard to
the climate of winter on the Albuquer-
que route / am satisfied that it will
be found too cold to work a railroad
successfully for at least three if not
four months of the year"
Lieutenant Mowry also called at
tention to the scarcity of water along
portions of the route and then added.
THE imagination can readily picture
the terrible calamity which would in
evitably befall a trainload of passen-
gers en- route for the Pacific if an ac-
cident should stop their progress mid
way. upon one of those desolate ar
temisia districts between the Ole de
Gallo and the Little Colorado, and be-
tween the valley of the Big Sandy
Fork and the sink of the Mohave.
where no human habitation can EVER
exist between the permanent water
stations"
Those words penned only forty
years ago. and that too by one who
was considered an authority on Ari-
iona, read strangely to people of the
present day who travel through the
Albuquerque route by hundreds every
day in the year. And as for the des-
erts spoken of Lieutenant Mowry had
no idea that before his own book was
out of print, people would be crossing
them on overland palace car trains
with dining car service barber shops,
easy chairs, libraries and in fact all
the comforts of city life to say nothing
OF an abundant water supply and ice
water at that. II did not occur to him
that if there was no water there white
man knew how to take it there and if
there was no ice, white man would
make it. He could not conceive that
before his book reached the second
edition probably ten millions of people
would have crossed over that very
route in greater comfort than the peo-
pie of his day Travelled from New York
to Boston. Either that, or the climate
has changed appreeiably Anyhow
terday and none reported at Albu-
querque. Arizona has both railroads
and still needs more.