The Ronan pioneer. [volume] (Ronan, Mont.) 1910-1970, 1917-03-09
NEW RAILROAD
TO COAST LIKELY
BUTTE, BOISE & SAN FRANCISCO
TO BE BUILT WHEN WAR
ENDS, SAYS RUNOR.

TO BE BUILT WHEN WAR
ENDS, SAYS RUMOR.
Line Would Open Vast Wheat Coun.
try and Divert to Pacific Much
Freight That Now Is Routed to
Chicago and st. Paul; Rich Terri
tory to Be Served.
Among the many western enter
prises that have been contemplated
in the past few years upon which a
considerable amount of work has
been done and of which little has
been said, is the proposed Butte.
Boise & San Francisco railway.
The Butte, Boise & San Francis
co railway was incorporated in Idaho
several years ago with the object
of building line of road from Butte
to San Francisco, 1921 miles. That
part of the line between Butte and
Boise has been talked of for nearly
twenty years. A number of the rich
est mineral districts in the west, en-
tirely undeveloped merely from a lack
of transportation facilities, are To-
Gated in southern Montana, along the
Salmon river in Idaho and in the
Sheep Mountain district, also in Ida
no, and would furnish an enor-
nous tonnage for this line. There
are also billions of feet of timber
over this same territory that would
add largely to the revenue of the
line. 1t has been estimated that
there is enough timber in the district
to load $50 cars day for 25 years.
There are also along this line great
possibilities of traffic from the extern
sive agricultural sections and stock
ranges, the distance between Butte
and Boise being 366 miles.
New District Traversed.
From Boise to San Francisco the
route and the country is known less
than the first part of the line. The
general course is southwest and it
traverses an entirely new district,
not now served by any railway line,
until we'll into California. The
alignment of the line the entire dis
lance from Butte to San Francisco
is so laid that there is nowhere a
stretch of five miles that is not traf-
reproducing territory. In fact it
has been proposed lately that the line
be divided and built in three sections
and the statement is made that the
local business is so great along each
of these sections that it's purely To-
cal business will care for the fixed
charges.
The examining engineers in look
ing over the proposed route found
that there were no great physical
obstacles encountered. Nowhere did
the gradient exceed 2 per cent and
the curvature was not excessive at
any point. 1t was also demonstrated
beyond any reasonable doubt that
there was business already in sight
to return a very good per cent upon
the investment, which would in
crease as the years go by.
Great Saving In Distance
The line will effect very great
saving in the distance between the
two terminals over the present rail-
way routes. The shortest line now
being via Ogden and the Southern
Pacific. This saving via the Butte,
Boise e San Francisco will be more
than 800 miles.
AS compared with the route Was
the Great Northern and Portland to
San Francisco the saving in distance
would be TT miles. In other words
it is only about 100 miles further
to San Francisco over the proposed
line than it is to Portland, from
Butte.
But there is another feature that
is of still more Importance. There
are at Butte four transcontinental
lines not one of which has direct
rail connection with the greatest sea-
port on the Pacific coast and one Of
the greatest deep-water ports in the
world. This line will furnish all
these transcontinentals with an en-
trance to San Francisco. The in
terchange of this business alone
would maintain any line of this
length even though there were not
a pound of local business that entire
distance.
Competition Opened Up.
Another thing: The territory
about Butte is 100 miles nearer San
Francisco than St. Paul. Chicago.
the great jobbing center, is 400 miles
beyond st. Paul This would make
it clear to most of the people of Mon
tana, as far as the east line of the
state, that they can go to San Fran
cisco to do their jobbing. They will
have the advantage of the competi-
ton of the two greatest jobbing CEN
tiers of the country.
But there is still better outlook
for the farmers of northern and east
ern Montana. 1t has been demon
stated the past two years that this
state is the granary of the entire
west. It will not be more than two
years before Montana will be rails
ing at least 80 900 900 bushels of