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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 1883)
a4 THE WEST SHORE. November, 1883 ASPORTATION m n is t,ri"v Cheney, W. T., lo Medical Uke, a dittance of flgbl mile, it seriously considered. The esti mated eot it $J, t( mile. Train be;an tunning Ihrrmh the Mullan tunnel near llrlrna on the fourth of November, aaving nearly an hour of lime formerly comumed in climbing over the tterp tumtnil. Thi great tun nel it J.K50 long ami 5,548 feet above (lie level of the tea. The Itrllirigham Hay ft Hrilith Columbia K. K. Co, hn riti the way from Philadelphia a cargo of ttrel rails Ixomotiie ami construction cam, whiib mill arrive in April. It i the inieniion to have several mile of the road graded at thai time ami to then uh the work with vigor. The Summit Vallry H. K. Co. hat been incor porated in Montana, with a capital stock of $50,. ono. The object it lo build a narrow-gauge road ' from Jluile l.'ily lo Walkrrville, for the accom modation of the mines, milli and tmelicr. Much (railing hat leen done and the rails will toon I laid. The temporary injunction again! (he building of bridge aro.i I he river at Ihit city by (he Northern P lite hat licen di'mitted. The dc cition it lcd on the common ten ground that corigrett in granting the company a franrhiae certainly inlemled lo give them the (tower lo (ridge all alreamt encounter!. Al Port I billow the I'ugrt Mill Co. It con tracting the laignt harkentirte ever put on the ri'tckn on the Pacific coat. She will be utcd At lumberman and will have a carrying capacity of 700,0110 feel of board. The company will Imi construct a large lug boat, 146 feel long and th fed Iteam. The Washington Transportation Co. will twill al I'lutady an clrgant tide-wheel ttramcr, lo mil on the loulc between Seattle and Whatovm, On ki atcep mnantain gradet ihe Nttihein Pacific hat adopted a device (or (ireveniing tuch aocidentt at lite horrible one at TehaUhepl pan on Ihe Southern Pacific, iiravity twitchct are pnl on Ihe tide of Ihe Hack, king nothing but quite a hmg ttretch of level or tightly ruing mle track. When a train patM-i one of ihete on lit way up Ihe grade Ihe twitih it thrown open, and any ear that may break !ow and run down lite gw.le, or even ihe whole train if it thould 1. Come unmanagealtle. would be turned off niton Ihe tide track and njpcd by itt own gravity. On ihe thin! of Novemlrr an engine and teven flat ran were laker atioM the Columtiia at Ainorth and (ml 00 the track of the Caicade duiv ihrre ntilea of which have been laid. SIuw p4r,mt it ing made by the three hundred at woik. and but twenty five miU- art un.ln eotrfttcl. Whether, in riew of the polity of roi Ireochmettt reecntly inaugurated on ihcNotthera ! rarthV, ihit Jiviiixi win l rwrp!-:el speedily ! or no! it i imtoible to predict, but it it proba ble that it will not stop ihort of Yakima, as to do to would leave it without any business to pay the ctenw of "iterating it. The Oregon Short Line hat issued $4,500,000 tit per cent, bond on completed portions of the rtad. ami K.or.ooo of capital stock. The total of stock and liondt on a completed mileage of $24 miles is $12,500,000, or $23,855 per mile. Though the road it only operated to Caldwell, in ir.k'.c u!!.y, it U practical!)- completed to the first crossing of Snake river. Work on the three bridges spanning that stream is in progress, and at toon at they are completed the line will be finished to Huntington, the (mint of junction with the U. K. & N, Co. on Hurnt river. This the managers hote lo accomplish early in the spring. Still another transcontinental railroad company has been organized, in spite of the fact that the great "l'eoplc't" road of Indianapolis has com menced its active career by suing the Chicago Timn for liltel. The last corporation, which is called the United States Central Railroad Com pany, but might better be known as the "Patch work Route," has a capital stock of $75,000,000 and has been organized by Colonel I.yinan Itridgcs, a prominent civil engineer or Chicago, alio occupies the position of chief engineer. It a a consolidation of the San Francisco & Ocean Shore, California Central k Denver and the Hot Springs & Pacific companies. The route has been extensively surveyed for these various cor porations and has been located 800 miles east of San rrancwco and 200 miles west of Denver. The route cruises the San Joaquin valley, the Sierra Nevada near the Yosemite and hie tree groves, totithcrn Nevada, southern Utah and Colorado to Denver. We doubt if money can lie raised for another transcontinental road by any new company. All work on the Canadian Pacific on the east loe of the Rocky mountains has been discon tinued. Advices from Winnittcg state that this action has been taken because of the discovery that Kicking Horse pass is not as desirable a route as has Itccn suprtosed, and that on account ol the disagreement among itt engineers Ihe com pany hat called a halt until the best possible pass through Ihe Sclkirks hat been ascertained. It it asserted thai this action will postpone the com pletion 01 the line until 18S7. These statements have been contradicted by (k-ncral Manager Van Horn, who tayt that work has only Iteen sus pended until spring for the reason that it could not be prosecuted lo advantage in the Selkirk range riming the winter teason, that there is no diagreement among the engineer about Kicking Morse past, and that ihe whole line will be com pleled in 1885 as before announced. Time onlv will reveal the actual situation. If it should be Hue that ihe road is lo be delayed till 1887, it win ttc a Wow to the developing industries of Itriti.h Columbia, thmgh thai prmince it already finding in ihe Northern Pacific an outlet ouiie convenient and valuable. The Itlack llillt k Montana R. R. Co. has been incorporated in Dakota to build a mad from Cheyenne into the cattle regiont of Dakota, svyummg ami .Montana. The question of pattencer and freight truffle. over which the Pacific railroads have held so many c.Wutions, has len trilled and the threatened war of rates averted. The Northern Pacific has agreed not to compete for San Fru Cisco business and the Central and Southern affl keep out of Oregon. The same rates will he made by the Northern Pacific from eastern rxiau to Portland, Astoria and Puget sound ports at aie made by the other roads from the same poinu lo San Francisco, while the local rat ;n t. charged on all through freight passing between I'oniann and San francisco. Freight and pis. tenders for Portland romin vii San Fr- ' will be charged the ocean local rate from Sm r-ranciscoto Portland in addition to the regular rate from Chicago to Portland by the Northern Pacific. I5y this compromise a ruinous railroad war is avoided and business placed on a leeitimue basis. Everywhere throughout the great west railroads are ringing the death knell of the stage line. The Deer Ixlge Nrto Northwtst thus speaks of the history of staging in Montana: "Hut what unique chapter of history the stage coaching dan of Montana would furnish 1 Don't you old-timers recollect how Jno. Oliver, F1. House and Ed. Conover, who were carrying express from Fort Iindger, Salt Lake and IJannack, in 1863, soon after the Alder diggings were struck in June, rigged up a broncho stage line between Bannwk and Alder j how they had rope harness and dead axe springs ; how it took a half dozen men to hold the bronchos till the last tug was hitched, and whf-n they were turned loose they struck a dead run and kept it up to the next station ? The drivers didn't know there were any "sleeping places " on the road those days. And then when Last Chance was struck in November, Oliver k Co. put on the Virginia and Helena line, making the run through, 120 miles, by daylight. In 1865 lien Holladay came in with the mail con tract, and Wells, Fargo k Co bought the impor tant stage line, from Salt Lake north. Then came Wm. II. Taylor, a superintendent, with Pullman palace ideas of staging, giving Moo- tanians the ideal line, but making it cost W. F. k Co. so much money that in 1S69 Gilmorei , Salisbury boucht their lines for a song and started them again as a money-making enterprise. We didn't always or often have good accommodations or rapid transit, except when Huntley 4 Co.,Taylor 1 McCormick, Alex. Rallston, Joe Daddon or L M. Black put on opposition, but rain or shine, mod to the axle or snow to the blinders, the mail and passengers were generally landed al the home stations about schedule lime ; and although thought the fares extortionate, it didn't cost as much or any more for local travel then thin N does now by car or 'bus. With 0. J. SalibrT Wm. C. Child and Captain H. S. Howell superintendents the past ten years, the G. S. Co. lines in Montana were expanded lo a great enteqtise, having had as high as 1,165 miles 01 mail and passenger coach lines, Ihe mod of the" with service daily each way. A year and a wlj ai;o the company had 800 head of horses w $120,000 worth of property in semce. s months ago, with the encroachments of ihe rail roads, Ihe lines had been shortened up, bol nf7 still had 500 horses and $85,000 worth of "T erty on hamL Now their total stage line Montana aggregate only 175 miles being O Helena andDillon line, with branches to and Virginia Cily. They have yet on k"" sides the horses, thirty four and six hone fifteen jerkies, twenty sleight, four road bogg twelve deadaxe wagons, and harnert eoo"s w equip a thousand miles of maul.''