The White Pine news. [volume] (Ely, Nev.) 1906-1910, 1909-11-26
SOME HISTORY
Of INTEREST

y. u. gives SOule early west
ern Pacific r. R. history hal is ex-
~ceedingly interesting as follows:
About $3.50 years ago-the
people at Dutch Flat, California, rails
ed a purse and gave it to the great
engineer judah to make some pre-
liminary surveys i've the Sierras to
see if it was possible to build a rail-
road. 1t was the first practical work
of the kind that had been done, al
though tolk of the road had been in
cessant for years. judah spent the
Summer running two or three lines.
He came back and reported hat the
building of the road was entirely
practical-the only question vas one
of money.
At that time the old Central Pa
cific Railroad Company-that is, the
members of it, Stanford, Huntington,
Hopkins and the two Crockers-were
building a wagon road from Dutch
Flat to Bonner lake ON the Sierras.
They knew Judah-he had built the
road from Sacramento to Folsom
and he laid the results of his surveys
before them. He told them the raod
by Bonner Lake was feasible, but
that the road should be built up the
Feather river, as that would save
lifting every train up 1850 feet from
the Sacramento valley east.
One of the five of the old company
remarked that that would cause the
road to debouch lear Maryville, and
that would greatly enhance the value
of Marysville property, while their
property in Sacramento would not be
increased in value at all. At which
the great engineer said: Gentlemen,
can you not see that this road means
a thousand Marysvilles and Sacra-
mentos?"
Thereupon one of the company
probably Mark Hopkins, because he
was a man of details and shrewd in
final conclusions above all the rest
said: "If we can get a subsidy from
San Francisco, from Sacramento,
from Placer county and Eldorado,
and some help from the government,
we may be able to build a railroad
from Sacramento to Dutch Flat.
Then, if the Comstock mines, which
promise we'll now, hold up for two
or three years, that road, in con-
~nection with our wagon road, will en-
able us to make 5000, 900 or $780,
OOO."
That was as broad as was the Wis
ion of those five men at that time.
Judah was the only man that saw
clearly.
Senator Sargent got a bill through
congress giving to the company the
right-of-way, alternate section of
land on either side of the track 20
miles wide, and a money loan of
$4,000 per mile on level ground
and $4,000 a mile in the hills. Then
the late George Gorham went to
w ashington, and by that genius of
his which never failed, succeeded in
moving the foothills down to within
~ miles of Sacramento, where the
double subsidy began, and the COM
pany began building it's road. In the
meantime it had received 100000
from San Francisco, %$250,000 from
Sacramento, and, if we remember cor
rectly, %$250,000 from either Placer
or Eldorado county.
When their first mile of railroad
was finished they found that it had
not cost them anything above what
had been given and loaned them, but
that, really, they were several thous-
and dollars ahead. With every mile
completed an addition to their wealth
was made, SO that the inner company,
the corporation within the corpora
ton which had the contract for build
ing the road-that is, Stanford,
Huntington, Hopkins and the Crock
ers, composing the Central Pacific
Railroad company-gave a contract
to Crocker, Huntington, Hopkins and
, Stanford, under the name, if we re-
member rightly, of the Contract and
. Finance company, to build the road;
and when they reached Promontory,
Huntington, Hopkins, Stanford and
the Crockers were not out a cent. The
road had been built for nothing, e
cept what had been given them, while
Stanford, Huntington, Hopkins and
the Crockers, under the name of the
contract and Finance company, had
al grown rich.
But they made a mistake in not
following the advice of the great en-
gineer. 1t would have saved the lift
ing up of every freight train and ev
!, cry passenger train Thai has come
= over the Sierras since the road was
finished, in 1869, 1850 feet. 1t would
have saved them miles of snowsheds,
saved the immense wear and tear on
rollng stock; it would have enabled
III iOCoulOIlNC W Nv "hot IN 49,
Sierras it has required two or three
to do; and there was no difficulty
building the road up the Feather riv-
err except about rs miles of heavy
rock blasting. But it was good rock
to blast and the Feather liver be-
low supplied plenty of dumping room
for the waste.
And now the Western Pacific has
built hat road over the very line
that the first engineer who made a
preliminary survey declared ought to
be the route, and the hrst train is
over the road.
1t ought to have a great welcome,
because it opens another artery
across the continent-we believe it
is the sixth transcontinental road.
1t opens a road through new terri
tory, and people who want next sum-
mer to find about the loveliest noun
tain retreats and to spend a few
weeks where it is cool, need but to
take a train over that road and go
to Quincy in Plumas county, and
there find a valley about three miles
across, with magnificent mountains
oil aroupd IL which in GUNNER 10