Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1910-05-08
Irrigation Doing Valleys Wyoming

as high as 900 cubic yards in volume. The
entire roadbed for the twelve miles through
the canyon will be made of solid rock
At present, all work in the canyon IS
by hand as it is impossible to get any
kind of machinery into that rugged couh-
try. Supplies are carried in on mule packs.
The rock in the lower end Of the canyon
in limestone. In the upper end Of the
south it is granite and black dyrite'
The south two miles Of the canyon Is
what is known as Box canyon, the walls
going straight down to the river. There
are four tunnels on the upper mile OF the
canyon; opposite the Boysen dam, at the
upper end there is $50 foot tunnel. Here
the dyrite is hard that it is almost
impossible to drill by hand Air drills
are used. Work is going on day and night
The rock is so hard that 1t takes THIRTY
hours to drill a round" and only eight
feet OF tunnel IS broken in one shot. ~
100 feet a month, is the progress.
Two miles south Of the dam, and after
leaving the canyon, the railroad crosses
the Wind river, upon a bridge Of concrete
piers, that are already completed. There
is one span 176 feet and two short span.S
All together the stretch of railroad -
tween Thermopos and the south end OK
this famous canyon, is about as expensive
and difficult, as any twelve mile piece
Of railroad track In the United States Dut
this canyon has long been known to rum
ish the location of a low water grace
railroad, that will open up the splendid
resources Of central Wyoming and connect
that locality with the Missouri Valley ana
the map shows how we'll such rai'roa"
fits into the general structure OF tue
road would have dared to spend the uloney
to get through that rugged canyon
On coming out to the south OF tle C@nSon
the line leaves the Big Horn river he-l
bonneville. and follows down a branch OK
tha pouder river; It will be extended
toward the southeast as fast as LABOR ana
material can be assembled although 10
facuitata nrogres and the movement OF the
1ors,, volume Of coal, il Is expected tenn
,,o,ar,y +rackage arrangement will be en-
ta,,ad into between the Burlington and the
n-,,th,yastern road. All the land adjacent
=, enc rad Water has been taken up, on
account Of the water for sheep; that region
10 a permanent sheep range. AT present
tbere is no permanent habitation between
tho mouth OF Alkali creek and Powder
river. a distance Of forty miles, but the
rauoard will bring in its wake a certain
local town development TO meet the neces-
sities OF that live stock region. 1t is eN--
pected that on the sXty-one mile stretch
east Of Bonneville there viii be, MAY j,
go teams, /, 600 men and four steam shdNels
at work upon the grade. Alkali sum
nit which is the divide between the Big
Horn and the Powder river sections, there
Is a tunnel and east OF this divide the line
Will follow the water grade OF the North
Platte river into Nebraska West OF that
divide, II follows the water grade Of tho
Big Horn river, II is known that the Bur
lington has a line surveyed and located alohs
the Platte river between Bridgeport an"
North Platte and following east as far as
the Kearney branch near Lowell, In central
Nebraska II is also planned TO connect
up Colorado with the new Wyoming mal''
line by line from Denver ~ Greece"
and Guernsney. thus forming me mHci-
dreamed Of low grade line between the gun
and the northwest