Gilpin observer., 1909-08-19
HIGH TRIBUTE TO
DAVID H. M0FFAT
cOLORADO'S GREAT RAILROAD
BUILDER DESCRIBED IN THE
BANKERS MAGAZINE.
HIS WONDERFUL WORK
BEGINNING WITH DENVER-PA.
ClFIC AND ILLUMINATING IN
FAMOUS MoFFAT ROAD.

Denver-A high tribute is that paid
by William Weston, M. l. M. M, COL
western & Pacific Railroad, to David
H. Moffat, builder and head of the
road, and president of the First Ma
tional Bank of Denver, in the current
or August number of the Bankers
Magazine OF Boston, New York and
Chicago.
"Since railways to be worked by To-
comotives were first constructed, over
200 years ago." says Mr.. Weston's ar
ticle, among the most wonderful in
stances of individual engineering and
financial pluck are the oversee Flor
Ida Keys railroad, built by Mr.. Flag
Ter, and its antithesis, the over-moun-
tain and inter-valley railway, now be-
ing constructed by David H. Moffat,
banker, of Denver, Colo.
THE main objects of the Denver,
Northwestern & Pacific railway, the
popular abbreviation of which is the
Moffat road" are to shorten the dis.
tance by existing lines from Denver
to Salt Lake City by about $50 miles,
having its course along the fortieth
parallel; to make available to the peo
pie OF Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado,
Utah, Nevada and California, and the
steamships plying between Pacific
coast points and the Orient. the an.
thracite and bituminous Goals con.
tanned in the 1900 square miles of the
undeveloped Yampa field, through the
center OF which the line is being built,
and to give transportation facilities to
strip of country approximately 300
miles in length by $50 miles wide,
hitherto devoid Of the same.
Surely this was an Herculean task
for one man to undertake. But now,
at the cost of upward of S10,000,000 OF
k:s private fortune, Mr.. Moffat has al.
ready built from Denver elevation
5000 feeD over the great divide be-
tween the Atlantic and Pacific oceans,
crossing the summit at an elevation
of II, 600 feet above tide water, thence
down the Western Slope, blasting out
q roadbed for miles in the rocky sides
of gorges and chasms which are in
places 2 900 feet deep, boring fifty
five tunnels through solid granite, and
completing 214 miles to the coal fields
Springs. and already gets a remunera.
tive traffic from the country tributary
to his operated line, and also from
that of his projected line ahead.
Mr.. Moffat has always had the
faculty of selecting able managers and
officers, to whom he could give free
hand and trust to carry out his care.
fully laid plans and yet devote his per-
sonal attention to the great institution
over which he still presides, the First
National Bank Of Denver. And here
lies the secret of the quiet, unostenta-
tious way in which he has won such
great commercial victories and proved
himself above all other men, the gen
eral of industry who has made Colo.
RADIO and Denver what they are today.
The First National Bank of Denver
was organized in 1865, and in 1867
David II. Moffat was made cashier,
and president in 1880, which position
ne still occupies, the bank now having
a deposit account of $23,0OO,000.
I'm 1869 Mr.. Moffat, with his friend,
the late Hon. John Evans, territorial
governor of Colorado, 1929, organ
1zed a syndicate to build the Denver
Pacific railway to connection of the
main line of the Union Pacific at Chey
enne. LOG miles. He was treasurer OF
the road, and sold S2.500,000 worth OF
the bonds, and afterward built the line
under contract.
"As soon as the big silver and gold
mines of the San Juan, Leadville and
Gilpin county began to turn out their
millions, Mr.. Moffat realized that what
was eventually to make Colorado a
great state and Denver the chief city
..ft 1NN al a, a.
velopment Of the stores of the noble
and baser metals contained in the
Rocky mountains, and the Goals of the
valleys, and he set his master mind
and his able lieutenants to work to
effect this. lie and his associates
built the Denver & South Park rail.
road up the Platte canon 150 miles to
Leadville, which camp up to date has
produced upward of $200,00O,000, and
the profits of this line were immense.
when the Boulder Valley railroad
was constructed, he built a line from
Boulder to the coal banks of Marshall.
Later he became president OF the
Denver & Rio Grande railroad, which
he broad-gauged west Of Canon City,
built branch lines to the mines OF the
San Juan region at Ouray, Telluride
and Rico, brought the road from out
the hands Of receiver into paying
condition. and resigned in 1891.
Then when the phenomenal camp
of Cripple Creek, which has since pro
duced $125, 100000 In gold, was discov.
cred, he built the Florence & Cripple
Creek road to these mines"
The deficit in the treasury Of the
Children's Hospital Association al
Denver, caused by the defalcations Of
Mrs. Electra Beard. formerly treasurer
Of the association, has, by the sale Of