The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1910-03-01
WALKS 100 MILES
ACROSS A DESERT
General Manager Wells of Salt
Lake Route Has Unique
Experience.
EXAMINES FLOOD DAMAGE
WILL SOON REPORT ON PROS
PEcTs OF REsuMING TRAFFIC.

AFTER walking 100 miles across the Ne
NauA desert, and making critical observa-
tons of the obliterated portion of the
Salt Lake Route in Meadow valley wash
Generai Manager r. E. Wells of the
Clark road, has told of the unique expert
ence at Los Angeles. A report from that
city says:
The trip across the desert was under
taken by MI. Wells in order to personally
lnVesugats the damage done by the big
floods of last month and to ascertain the
Ieaslpility of building a temporary line
over the old road.
II was found that the damage to the
line was much greater than originally
stated. The investigators established the
1act that the flood waters in the Meadow
valley had been five times deeper than
on any previous inundation and that
nearly all pile bridges had been de-
stroyed. The steel bridges had remained
practically intact. In some instances 1t
was found that the water had stood six
feet deep over the top rails and had
washed away everything that was not
Careful Notes Made.
Every portion of the road was thor
oCghly investigated by the engineers.
Notes were taken regarding the time that
would be consumed on each idivdual
piece of work, calculations made as to the
amount of material necessary to rebuild
the road and every detail noted for the
the special committee, consisting of Sec
ond Vfce-President ]. Ross Clark and
First Vice. President w. H. Bancroft Mr..
Bancroft is expected in the city today.
Last night the engineers We're actively
at work putting their report into shape.
The aXact nature of the communications
to the special committee could not be
given out. but 1t was stated that the work
on the new road would take at least
three months from the time it is started.
There are about 100 different jobs on
the line said Mr.. Wells, some of which
Will take only a few days WORK while
some will require weeks of arduous labor.
Good weather will have much to do with
the prompt rebuilding of the road
Travel 100 Miles Afoot.
''Mr. Wells and his party of engineers
were compelled to travel on foot over
distance of 100 miles. Horses or wagons
could not be used on account of the in
accessibility of the grades. The travellers
did not provide themselves with tents.
They slept in the open and enjoyed the
novelty of their experience. The trip
across the desert lasted a week. They
were compensated for the heardships of
the journey by the excellence of their
Mormon cook, whose dishes were master
pieces of the culinary art.
In this fashion We Travelled from Bar
clay to Guelph said Mr.. Wells, a dis
lance of 100 miles. 1t has been stated in
some newspapers that we travelled on
ter of fact, we had to walk all the way
through the wash. 1t was a very inter-
esting experience. The nights were cold,
but we had warm blankets and made
ourselves quite comfortable on the
ground
Three Engineers In Party.
Those accompanying Mr.. Wells were
z. G. .Tilton, chief engineer of the Salt
Lake road; r. K. Brown, division engi-
neer of the Salt Lake division, and Will
liam Ashton, chief engineer of the Oregon
Short Line which owns about half of the
Salt Lake stock.
Many bridges that will be used in the
reconstruction of the road stated Mr..
Wells, especially the steel bridges, suf
fered very little. The new bridges proba-
bly, all will be of steel. Further details
as to the plans of the road cannot be
made public at the present time. but as
soon as everything is fully decided the
facts will be made known through the
press. We feel that our patrons are en-
titled to an early report of the condition
of the road and of the prospects of re-
Stunning traffic between Salt Lake City
and Los Angeles