Rogue River courier. (Grants Pass, Or.) 1886-1927, 1913-06-27
MAYOR SMITH TELLS
OF CRESCENT CITY TRIP.
To the People OF GRAMS Pass:

his associates, l made the trip to
| Crescent City and returned with most
of the party. Because of the interest
of the public, desire to make this
statement concerning the present
railroad situation.
Although a resident of this county
for thirty years, had never been to
] Crescent City prior to this trip.
was greatly surprised at what | saw.
had often been told by DR., Reddy
that it was the best railroad PROPOSE
tion on the coast. Being. familiar
with the coast and having inyestigat-
ed several enterprises before, did
not give full credence to his state
ments, but after | made this journey,
l am satisfied that his Judgment is
correct.
The railroad from here to Crescent
City would be patronized by people
all over the world in time, because Of
the scenic attractions along the route
from Waldo to Crescent City. know
of no piece of railroad on the coast
that affords as much scenic grandeur
as this road has for that distance.
People would come thousands of
miles simply to make the trip through
the redwoods and up Smith river If
they once understood its beauties.
The greater asset of the road in the
way Of traffic would be in the way of
lumber and the copper ore. At Ia
kilma there are eight mines from
which shipments would begin. This
does not include the mines on Indian
creek which are being developed by
New York people, one of which has
one million tons of ore blocked out,
nor the Preston Peak mines in that
vicinity.
In Del Norte county find coun-
try of great agricultural possibilities,
better adapted to dairying and truck
farming than any part of the Oregon
and California coast country. There
is an area of two hundred thousand
acres of land which, when developed,
will be the best dairy land This will
support a large population who must
draw their supplies of fruit from the
interior country.
The amount of redwood in Del
Norte county is $4,000, 700 feet.
In addition the forest contains 49,
600, 100000 feet of spruce with about
900, 100000 feet of pine, fir and
other timber. With the railroad that
lumber would all be handled through
this place for the reason that it can
not be cured and treated on the
coast in three times the same period
of time that it would take here. One
of the largest lumber companies on
the coast, G. A. Smith Lumber COM
pany, Marshfield, now ships its lum-
Der to San Francisco and hauls it
thirty miles inland in order to sea-
son and cure the lumber. The talk
about the logs from the forests in
this county being shipped to the coast
to be manufactured is nonsensical.
Instead of that we would see con-
stant stream of cars from the coast
this way carrying logs to be manu-
featured here.
The fact that thousands of people
having business with the copper coun-
| try will pass through here would be
one of the best means of making our
country known, and probably lead to
investment and development on the
II part of many. On the other hand a
little branch road from here to Kerby
would mean that all the business we
will get from the development of
that country would pass by another
road on the other side of a range of
mountains and no part of it would
come near us. | am more than ever
convinced that the greatest mistake
we could make would be to permit or
encourage the construction of
branch from the Southern Pacific
which would operate as a cork to
keep us from going out to the coast.
The harbor question at Crescent
City is an easy one. A breakwater
built from the shore to Round Rock
would offer an open protected road
stead which vessels could enter at
any time On the Oregon coast there
is no such opportunity to make
harbor. The estimated cost of this is
100000 and with a railroad to
Crescent City there is no doubt but
what the government would grant the
appropriation. Lake Earle, two miles
north OF Crescent City forms a mag
Inificant mort for a fresh water chan