The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-01-23
road from Marysvale south to the Ka
bab plateau.
Feasible Route for Railroad.

Feasible Route for Railroad.
Owing to the north south trend Of
the rangesNn this intermountain region
each railroad building west from the
Missouri river must necessarily encoun-
ter high and often abrupt, divides or
make long detours in order to avoid
them, And between the Missouri river
and the Pacific there is but one direct
! route between Canada and Mexico that
offers line Of least resistance from
competing lines, and which, by reason
leys and the low divides, affords ex"
ceptional advantages in construction
and operation. And that route is the
one occupied by the Oregon Short Line
north from Ogden, and by the Denver
4 Rio Grande from Ogden south to
Marysvale.
Aside from the necessity of making
Piuto irrigation project Ga reservoir now
being constructed by the state), about
twelve miles south of Marysvale, and
at Hatch, where the state has another
reservoir, the Denver & Rio Grande
road would have ninety miles of the
easiest grades to be found west of the
Missouri river The route. would fol-
low the Sewer river from Marysvale to
the divide known as the Grim of the
Salt Lake BASIN The approach to
the divide is surprisingly easy, and the
descent from the Grim to Johnson
is equally easy. The length of the road
from Marysyale to Johnson would bo
not over 125 miles, and would be about
twelve miles southeasterly from Kanab.
Over an easy grade, through House
Rock valley to a point about SIX miles
below Lee s ferry, would be less than
seventy miles southeasterly from John.
son. The Colorado is less than 400 feet
wide and flows between solid rock walls
which furnish substantial abutments for
a suspension bridge. From the Colo
RADIO river it would be about 120 miles
over an easy grade to an intersection
with the Sarta Fe railroad. Thus. with
road, the Denver & Rio Grande would
put all of the intermountain states and
western Canada in almost direct com
munication with Mexico and interme-
diate points.
Twenty miles of road south from
Johnson would put the Denver g. Rio
Grande on the north limit Of the Kaibab
forest, and another forty miles through
the center of the magnificent timber
belt would place the pilot of the loco
motive directly over the north brink of
the Grand Canyon. And the grade is
one of the easiest on earth.
Need of Transportation.
EtBecause OF the lack of transporta-
tion facilities said a stockralscr, the
other day, ''we are compelled to market
the frames Of cattle, and thus permit
others to add the flesh and take the
profits.' II is conservative esti-
mate that $4,000 head of cattle and
100000 sheep would be shipped from
Garfield and Kane counties and from
the - ''strip' each year were there rail
rnul 4ro atipn Thprn yypn16 11SO
be million pounds of wool annually
for export, And the supply of coal,
as before stated, is practically mex
haustible.
A railroad into south-central Utah
would infuse new life into the now al
most "dead ones'' Of this locality, II
would encourage the building of the
and would bring under cultivation tens
of thousands of acres of now untitled
land in Garfield Kane and the strip
A train hauling 100000 feet of lum-
Der each twentyfour hours could be
kept busy for all time 10 come between
the Kaibab forest and Salt Lake City,
which would make of the latter place
the great lumber market of the inter
mountain region.
Nor is the Kaibab forest the only
source from which lumber can be OBJ
tanned. From Hatch, about Seventy-hve
miles south from MarYsvale, to the
"rim'' of the basin there are large
forests of yellow pine and other mcr'
chantable varieties on either side OF the
proposed line of railroad.
Ho, for the Grand Canyon.
It is estimated that $4,000 tourists
visit the Grand Canyon annually via
the Santa Fe spur from Williams to
Bright Angel The scenic grandeur of
the gorge, as viewed from the north
side, is far and away ahead of any
view within miles of the Bright Angel
hotel And the kaibab forest would
become the great playground of North
America. Tenderfoot tourists could
sport with the eighty-fve buffalo that
range on the reserve. and they could
amuse themselves with the cougars that
daily emerge from below the rim rock
of the canyon. The cowboys down here
would be glad TO teach the verdant
fasteners how to lasso and muzZle the
cougars, of which about ninety have
been thus caught within the last two
years. With the above,indlcated at
fractions a railroad to the kaibab for
est should annually carry al least T5.-
600 tourists from Salt Lake City and
points further north and east and west.
Owing TO the topographic, climatic
and industrial conditions of Kane
county and that portion of Arizona ly-
ing north of the Colorado river, desig-
mated as the Arizona strip, and the
inter-dependency Of the two sections,
their interests are identical, nor can
any artificial boundary line ever change