Year: 1868




Union Pacific Railroad is looked upon
as the great artery which is to infuse
new life into our Territory, as the chan
mel which is, to great extent, to bring
to US the civilization, the comforts and
the luxuries of the East. 1t was some
time since announced that this great
national thoroughfare would be ccmplet-
ed to Salt Lake by Christmas, but all
ideas of that character have now been
abandoned. The promised feat might
have been accomplished had it not been
for a lack of rolling stock, which all the
shops of the East have not been able to
supply with sufficient rapidity, and the
consequent inability of the contractors
to get the iron through fast enough for
the laying of the rails. The immense
quantity of iron which was piled up at
/ Cheyenne last winter, in order that il
might be ready for use this summer, is
nearly all exhausted. and the company
are now hauling their rails from Omaha.
Lack of iron and the means by which to
transport it is, then, the great drawback
to a more rapid construction of the
road at present, and although the track
| layers are kept at work night and day,
sometimes laying over six miles in
twenty-four hours. and although it is
announced that the grading will be COM
Salt Lake, on the Montana road, within
FIVE weeks, and that the ties will be de-
livered within that time, still it is
doubtful if the road is in running order
beyond Green River City during the
present year. BY some it is thought
that it will be carried to the eastern
crossing of Bear River, one hundred
miles further west, and less than a hun
dred miles east of Salt Lake by the road
at present travelled, and in such an
event some fifty miles of travel could
be saved to parties going to the States
by leaving the Montana road in the
rectly east to the railroad. Whether
Wells, Fargo & Co. would so change
their route as to make this saving, thus
reducing the entire amount of stage
travel on an Eastern journey to six hun
dred miles, we are not informed, but
certainly such modification would be
desirable.


But even although the railroad should
stop at Green river for the winter, it has
still approached sufficiently near for us to

commence our calculations as TO what
effect it will have upon Montana. 1t is
promised us that the iron track shall be
laid to the point referred to by three
weeks from Monday next. The time
then required for journey from here to
Omaha will be but seven days, and the
fare will be probably reduced to about
two hundred and fifty dollars in curren-
cy. II will thus be seen that a person
could make the trip from here to New
York in ten days, at an expense of only
three hundred and fifty dollars in greens
backs, meals and all included. The adj
vantage which the U. p. r. r. is to be
to us is thus strikingly shown. Distances
are not at this day measured by miles,
but by hours, and we are near to the |
eastern centres of civilization in pro-
portion as the facilities for rapid COM
munication are increased. Montana is |
not to-day one-half so far from New |
York as she was three years ago when |
il required three weeks to reach the |
great metropolis, and she is attracting
more attention in the States in proper
ton as she is brought nearer. Eastern |
capital is shy, especially so with regard
TO mining matters, since oft repeated |
experiments have taught it caution.
Hardly anything less than a mountain
of gold would tempt it to invest any
thing in Alaska, and yet that new Terri
tory is hardly less known than Montana |
was four years since. But we are now
comparatively neighbors of the Western
States. Eastern capital can easily |
send its representatives here to make
proper examinations before il comes it.
self Investments once made can be
constantly watched by those at home,
and quickly attended to in case anything /
goes wrong. Under such circumstances |
placing of funds in Montana stock"
ceases to be a "hyer'-a gambling ope-
ration-and becomes a Legitimate bust
ness investment. Hence it is that the /
railroad will bring us an increased
amount of Eastern capital and ali the
benefits which will pertain TO its distri-
button in the Territory. But perhaps a
far greater consideration than this is the |
fact that the L. p r. II. will bring us
not only money. but muscle. Up to the
present time a trip to Montana has, in
many portions of the States been consid.