The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1913-03-22
IDAHO CITIZENS
Want ". n. ROAD

III Lnt DuliuiHR OI the Nlnnemucca
Northern railroad. The first is frmo
Governor John II. Haines, the other
from c. X. Shaw, president of one of
the largest Wholesale lumber concerns
on the coast:
Colonel Z. X. Place, Winnemueca New.
My Dear Colonel: My attention for
some time past has been called to your
project of the construction of rail
way from Boise to Winnemucca, and
fully hoped to briefly address you be-
fore now, but my whole time has been
strenuously engaged with official duty
and our legislature that just ad-
journed.
l desire to say that / have examin-
ed the list of Boise business men who
have become identified and associated
with you in this project, and / beg to
state at this time that you could no.
have obtained more representative
body of men, both in a financial and
moral way. They are the best We have
in Idaho.
The merit and Importance of the en-
terprise itself needs no comment on
my part, further than to say that the
entrance into Idaho of such a com
peting line of railroad would be well
coined by our people with open arms.
| have been intensely interested in
your proposition since the day you
launched it, and | wish to offer and as
sure you that you have my very best
wishes and cordial support and en-
eouragement in every possible way to
a successful termination and compile
tion of that which in my opinion is
not only an exceptionally feasible and
meritorious enterprise but real
necessity in the development of that
great and rich inland empire. 1t is
the best and richest railway PROPOSE
tion and opportunity in the country
today.
If I can be of service I am yours to
command, and wishing you full sue
Truly and sincerely,
JOHN NJ. HAINES.
Col f. r. Place, Winnemueca, New.
Dear Sir: Your request asking me
to write you a letter stating what |
know about the needs of a railroad
connecting Boise and southern Idaho
with San Francisco, via Winnemucca,
Nevada, is at hand, and in reply will
say that | have lived in Idaho for
thirty years, all of the time in and
around Boise.
came to Idaho thirty years ago as
terminal agent for the Oregon Short
Line railroad. which was being con
structed at that time from Granger,
Wyoming, to Huntington, Oregon.
When | came to the road it was
completed, and in operation, to within
twenty miles of Caldwell, or rather to
within twenty miles of where Caldwell
is now located.
When ! travelled for the first time
over the line from Granger, Wyoming.
to Kuna, Idaho, fifteen miles from
Boise, where I was TO be located, |
thought, as | looked out of the car
window and gazed upon the desert
through which we were passing, that
the road would never be permanently
operated; as the road did not actually
pass through single settlement of
any kind with the exception of Poca-
tello, where the road crossed what was
then known as the Utah Northern
Narrow Gauge. The road did not pass
through one acre of cultivated land
from one end of the line to the 9th
er; il certainly looked to me, fresh
rum tut tuitlNdtfu Htlhs VI ioNAt, "'
though the road was being construct
ed in order to give some chance to
make some money out of the construc-
tion.
Certainly il was generally under
stood that the road was being built
TO make connection with the old Ore
gon Railway anf Navigation com
pany's line, thus giving the Union Pa
atHo aLo 20 parflauH
Oregon, evidently without much
thought or hope of local business
The promoters were certainly build
irg better than they knew; the coun-
try along the entire line of the Ore
gon Short Line from Granger to
Huntington has developed beyond the
widest dream of the most optimistic
ilroad builder and today it would be
difficult to look out of the Pullman
cor window at any point along the
line without seeing cultivated fields
either under irrigation or dry farming.
There is no donbt but that the
greatest development in the way OF
irrigation in the entire world has
been along the Oregon Short Line
within the past twenty years. 1t is
not reekoned by acres, nor bv thous.
auds of acres, but by hundreds OF
thousands of acres and in fact by
millions of acres, the creates part OF
which is under water and producing
enormous crops of grain, hay, vege'
tables and fruit. Thousands of eat
tie, sheep, horses and swine, to say
nothing of thousands and thousands OF
acres of producing orchards, such as
apples, prunes, pears, peaches, eher'
ries and other fruits.
! wish to make the broad statement
that the Snake and its tributary val
leys, being the Boise, Payette, Welser,
Malheur, Owyhee nd Bruneau valleys
all of which are included in the Snake
river valley, will in ten years from
today be the most productive irrigat-
ed section on the globe, with the most
diversified farming.
Wn dnxa u haxro 10 dnnnnd unOn or