, 1923-01-19

world; magnificent mountain ranges clothed with valuable mercha
for stock grazing; expansive valleys unexcened for farming; with c
to supply irrigation, with practically the entire state a vast store
house of valuable natural resources in coal. oil, gas. iron. gold silver,
copper asbestos, building stone. phosphate. sulphur, soda and
numerous lesser ores and chemicals; with all these and more not
enumerated. no wonder the people of Wyoming are impatient that
their state has not grown beyond 100000 people in S. years of
her organization and the 80 years of statehood.
With the great assets at command; with a national playground
the size OF the state of Connecticut; with a state of untold riches,
the eighth largest in the union and seventy-eight times larger than
the smallest in the ssterhood, why should development be tardy 4?
That is exactly the inquiry made by everybody. resident and visitor
alike.
railroad construction the whole state of Wyoming save the extreme
southern tier of counties was beyond the line Of projection. The
Union Pacific built into Cheyenne in 1867 and in the succeeding
years on to & Ogden and the western coast This portion Of the state
and the southern coal .6elds vsfre developed. The remainder of
the state remained an unknown country.
From 1887 to 1892 there was more activity in railroad build
ing In Wyoming. The Northwestern came to Casper in 1888 and
several years later was extended to Lander which has since re-
NAMED the terminus. The Colorado & Southern. now the Buring-
ton. came the previous year and reached Grin Junction in 1891
In 1888 the Laramie road was built from Laramie to Coalmont,
Colo. III miles. In the years that followed the Burlington pushed
the line up through the Big Horn Basin. completing in 1894, to
connect with their Billings line which was extended from Alliance.
.Nebr., in 1912 through the northeast corner of the state to a
terminus at Huntey, Mont, near Billings and later became a part
of the Great Northern system under the operation of James J. Hill.
About 1913 the Burlington built from Ihermopolis through Casper
to Wendover.
With this construction railroad building in Wyoming practically
ceased and further development was arrested. although important
sections Of the state with populations with products of importance
have cried IN vain for means OF transportation.
In those sections of Wyoming reached by railroads the country
has grown and developed. cities have appeared and industries have
come into being to use the resources at hand.
But very few points in the state have more than one railroad
and this has been detrimental to general development. Southern
Wyoming, eastern Wyoming and the Basin country are supplied
with transportation facilities, but central Wyoming north and south,
a tremendously rich section remains clear Of railway lines.
For many years the people of this stretch Of country. partcu-
larly north from Casper through Johnson and Sheridan counties,
north through Tongue river valley to Miles City or Forsyth. Mont,
connecting with the Milwaukee or Northern Pacific railroad, have
had visions Of a railroad connecting this great section Of undo
veloped country. with its coal, oil. agriculture. stock raising and
by way of the two great tanscontinentaI systems through southern
Montana.
Dreams have been dreamed, rights of way have been secured,
prohles have been made by the engineers. and the preliminary work
several times done. Heretofore it has ended in smoke. Will it
always end in smoke?
One fault always present in the past. The people along the
proposed route deemed they had done their part when they had
signed the right Of way and those elsewhere when they had secured
terminal facilities as an inducement. 1t requires more than these
things to build a railroad through what at first blush looks ike a
raw country. People from one end of the proposed line to the
other must get enthusiastically behind the enterprise. They must
put forth a successful effort to get everything required to induce
the builders to begin shovelng dirt. They must take a personal
interest, a financial interest and an unqucnchabe boosting interest.
II must be made the FIRST order of business and kept the FIRST order
of business until the smoke wagon is gliding along the rails.
No one will be foolish enough to contend that railroads do not
build the country. Wyoming would still be an open range country
devoted altogether to stockrabing and quarels between sheep and
cattle interests if it were not for the few railroads she has to give
her connection with the outside world and bring civilization to our
people.
Never before in all the wishing. hoping, praying and dreaming Of
there been such a golden opportunity for success presented as that
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