The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1912-05-10
URGE DAN PATCH ROAD
| into MANKAT0; PLANS
aribauIt EIated Over Agreement
With Great Western.
From Thursdays Daily.

From Thursdays Daily.
The Free Press is reliably inform
ed that the Dan Patch people have
obtained a five-year option on the
Great Western road and that in case
the owners of the electric line avail
themselves of this option, the Great
Western will abandon its trains be-
tween Mankato and Randolph and
the traffic will be cared for by the
electric company. 1t is expected the
Dan Patch will be running cars into
Mankato within a few months.
The Dan Patch people have
abandoned the grades already made
between Mortified and FaribauIt a.
result of the lease with the Great
Western. 1t is proposed to handle
all classes of freight as we'll as pas
sengers. They expect to be running
cars down town in Minneapolis on
their own tracks within eighteen
months. They are securing the
right of way between FarbauIt and
OWatonna. The line will probably
be built into Owatonna by January
I, 1918. They will not build from
Owatonna to Rochester inside of
two years.
Minneapolis business interests Of
fer no inducements to the promoters
although the line taps the best ter
ritory in the state which has always
been tributary to St. Paul by reason
of the railway lines entering that
city first or more direct.
Since the official announcement
was made last week that the Dan
Patch line would use the Great
Mortified and had already abandon
ed the work on their right-of-way. be-
tween there and Mortified, there
has been a great deal of speculation
locally as to what the move really
means, says The Faribault Repub-
lican.
Without doubt it means one
thing sure, and that is, that the
line will reach OwatOnna much
sooner than they had anticipated, as
all the grading crews and equip
ment will be put to work on the
line to carry it on south. The fact
is now also we'll established that the
cars will be running here in few
weeks.
Coming Into Mankato.
There are a large number of peo-
pie locally who Believe that the
lease just entered into with the
Great Western is only the first step.
and that i'm a short time the Dan
Patch company will lease the re-
mainder of the Great Western road
from here to MankatO, and will be
running cars through here from the
southwest, as well as pushing the
completion of their line on toward
Owatonna. The plan seems a feas-
ible one indeed. In the event that
such an agreement were made 1t
would mean that the Dan Patch
would virtually take over
the business of the Great Western
on the branch line running through
here to Mankato.
Running Into Faribaut.
When the announcement was made
some months ago through
the papers that the cars would come
into this city over the Great West
ern, it was pretty well conceded
that this was about correct, as every
thing locally indicated such. How
ever. it was not thought that the
Dan Patch company would use the
tracks exclusively between here and
Mortified and abandon their grading
work, on which a large amount OF
money has been spent. 1t was
that they would use the
line Just to enter the city, striking
it few miles out.
Into Mankato in Six Months.
A local man who keeps in pretty
close touch with matters generally
said regarding the probable lease OF
he line from here to Mankato:
You can say for me that within
six months we will have trolley
inc in from the west, and this will
,e the Dan Patch cars running over
he Great Western between here and
Nankato. | make this prediction
low and see how far | am wrong
II a few months"
Aside from the statement of this
me man. there seems to be a large
lumber of business men here who
re firmly of the opinion that the
ext move of the traction company
viii be to make an effort to COM
lete a traffic agreement with the
treat Western to Mankato, and it
nay be that such an agreement has
lready been made but not an
nunCed