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About Morning Oregonian. (Portland, Or.) 1861-1937 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 1, 1910)
Track Laying Is Under Way to Central Oregon, Where Unlimited Acreage Awaits Development lit wOr;r 'ivr, ' II f&tM If -crO - .Hi lil : -r it I .-xi - if' III . . -v. - tr. mmmwmkw f - : - : IVt - -V Xy5-, .V'r"; lilt rwv . v , ' .t.; . - . . y STRITNO alonK the IeBchutes Tliver Canyon from the month to Madras, with the exception of 12 miles on which there Is a conflict of location with the Oregon Trunk Uno, are the construction and engineering camps of the Deschutes Railroad Company, still known as the Harnman road. In spite of the death of the railwuy wizard. The llarrlman road preceded its rival In the field several -weeks and, having chosen the side of the canyon as the more easy of access for railway con struction, equipment and supplies. Its construction work Is somewhat In the lead of that of the Oregon Trunk Line tn the lower reaches of the canyon. Whether or not this lead will he overtaken bv the Oregron Trunk Line is a matter of speculation anions those who are watchlnp the contest and ap parently one of considerable concern to both railway companies. There is undoubtedly room for two railways in tho Deschutes Canyon, but also, undoubtedly, one railway could build throuRh It. more quickly and more cheaply, too, were it free to swln from side to eide of the stream as lie canyon ncend. . Two railroads nlon uch a narrow stream, where construc tion is in any event slow and difficult, complicates the situation. "Work has now progressed so far that neither road can hope to block tho other, so the struggle ofVach railroad now ap parently is to press its own work and aelze the best locations, thereby ham pering its rival, and be the first rail road to operate trains to Interior Ore gon. As incident to this effort the Harri Tnan contractors have scoured the coun try for workmen, until 2600 or more are drilling, grading, excavating and laying rails. They are assisted by a track-laying machine. three steam hovels and scores of teams. The of ficials of the road declare they will .be running trains Into Madras before the end of 1910. The reschute railroad follows the east bank of the river, crossing over only once, a few miles below Sherar's r-rldge. and then for but five miles in the effort to avoid costly tunnel and rock work on the east side of the can yon. The road leaves the main line of the O. U. & N. about one and a half miles east of the main line bridge across the mouth of the lleschutes River. The new road swings back westward for this one and one-half miles, paralleling the main line, but gradually rising up the sides of the bluffs and rounding into tho Deschutes Canyon still on an up-grade In a climb of 150 feet to get over the Moody power-dam site, three miles up. Rails are now laid from the Junction several miles into the De schutes Canyon, and a track-laying ma chine is emploj'ed whenever a stretch of'coronleted grade is added. Material yards have been established at De schutes Station, where 33 miles of steel rails, thousands of ties, bridge timbers, angle bars, corrugated iron culverts and other materials necessary to rail way construction are piled over several acres of ground. These .are the main material-yards for the construction work, although other material depots have been established at Grass Valley and Shaniko. Tii three steam shovels now used in 1. , tm- of Horsirshoe Bend. From Shmiko tv. fr Knrii.r ,.Invnn r "ma n f r - t - ' S S ? , "J T- ' . ftfi? construction work were taken bv rail to points on the Columbia South ern, the O. R. & N. branch which paral lels the Deschutes on the highlands for TO miles, and from there hauled in sec tions over steep wagon roads into the canyon. From three different towns along the Columbia Southern the camps of the Deschutes Railroad Com pany may be reached. One is Moro, where the old wool trail down Rattle snake grade to Free bridge has been Improved so that heavy loads of sup plies and materials may be taken in. From Grass Valley another road has been built down Mack's canyon, reach ing the work by a haul of seven miles from the town. Down Mack's canyon two of the steam shovels were ccr'rled in sections on wagons drawn by ten horse teams. Six or eight miles above Mack's can yon the wagon -oad built to the Horseshoe Bend by the Harriman con tractors last Summer and blockaded for a time by the Oregon Trunk line contractors, is still in use. This road was built on a 20 per cent grade for a distance of two miles to reach the bot tom of the canyon, the right of way being on Government land, and it cost nearly $10,000. It was no more than completed when the Trunk line con tractors bought.'a ranch near the head of the road and blocked the private road leading across the ranch, and which formed the only means of access to the new canyon road. The Hill con tractors utilized the road - themselves, but shut their rivals out. On one occasion large bodies of workmen brought up from the two camps in the canyon were apparently about to come to blows over the locked gate across the road, when instructions came to lift the blockade. Three lead ers were arrested, charged with incit ing riot, but all troubles have'apparent ly been adjusted, and large quantities of tunnel timbers are now going down the grade to the Harriman camps for us in the tunnel through th tongue THE MORNING OKEGOXIAX, SATURDAY, JANUARY 1, 1910. U iii ililllliMT'1"'' " n ft T pTO3"Wa-11l1MM J54ci.'-vF anz-jsyr tf-wzx. zzsyv 4cx ownw rom eral points on the work are reached, and the forces are now well distrib uted over the line. In' the 107 miles to Madras the Des chutes Railroad Company will con struct six' tunnels, the longest of which will be 1100 feet, and the short est about 300 feet. The tunnel at Horseshoe Bend, 1000 feet long, is in several hundred' feet. Another. 68 miles from the mouth of the river, is practically completed. Work is in progress on all the others. The Harriman road turns out of the SUA RRIM A LIJiE VP DESCHUTES trnder construction contract 130 miles, Deschutes to Redmond. I Probable terminus Odell, con- necting there vith Xatron cutorf J' of Southern Pacific to Klamath Falls: will probably extend east- ward through Christmas Lake I country to connection with Ore J gon Short Line at Vale. j Estimated cost Deschutes to Redmond $5,000,00. Number of men at work About 2C00. Maximum working grade Eight-tenths of one per cent. Maximum curvatures One of 12 degrees; others 10 degrees or less. Character of construction Rock and gravel ballast; 75 - pound steel: standard O. F & X. con struction. Estimated time for completion to Madras August, 1910. Deschutes canyon about S5 miles from the mouth, by way of Trout Creek. Before reaching the mouth of Trout Creek, the grade gradually rises. Trout Creek is crossed by a steel via duct 550 feet long and 100 feet above the stream about a mile from Its mouth, and the road then turns up Sage Springs canyon and then up Por- A ZG003 , it yjr 1 the Agency Plains about ten miles north of Madras. Although the road passes within a half mile of the very center of Madras, it is at a height of 260 feet above the town. Willow Creek canyon, up which the Oregon Trunk line is building, will be bridged by a steel viaduct 700 feet long, the Harriman road passing 260 feet over Its rival.! Redmond. 26 miles south of Madras, is the terminus of the Harriman road so far as it is now located, and graders are now busy for several miles south of Madras, working toward Redmond. The Harriman and Hill roads reach the same level again on a shoiilder of Juniper Butte, a few miles gfarh of Madras, and from there to Redmond it Is said their surveys coll around each other like snakes. The Harri man road has so far made no effort to contest the rights of the Oregon Trunk line at Crooked River crossing. The Oregon Trunk line selected the narrow est point in the chasm several weeks ago, and rushed men to the spot to begin work that would hold the bridge" site. The Harriman forces are not yet that far south, 1)ut will bridge Crooked River about 100 feet west of the Ore gon Trunk line. Concerning the canyon of the Des chutes, magazine articles written by alarmists have appeared, in which the fear was expressed that water-power sites had been sacrificed to railway construction. A trip through the can yon shows these fears to be ground less. Both railroads clear the Moody and Government dam sites by ten feet, and have been compelled to - sacrifice easier grades to do it. Only at rare intervals along the work is either rail road near the water's level, but as a rule is 50 to 100 feet above it- If. there "is any material difference, the Harriman road, generally, is higher up the canyon, than its rival. About $5,000,000 is being expended by the Harriman system in construct ing a railroad, into Central Oregon. It is not believed that it will stop at Red EM AT "WOm Deschutes Project Will Probably Connect With Extension of Oregon Short Line Across State mond, after expending this sum and reaching only the outskirts of the in terior empire. Judge Lovett, now the head of the system, when in Portland in November, promised that interior Oregon would receive its full share of It Is the generally accepted belief railroad development from the Des chutes line. that the road will be constructed to Odell. a point on the Natron-Klamath ORCHARDS MAY DOT LAND Experiments Indicate Central Oregon Will Become Celebrated THE new visitor to California in variably writes home the wonder ful tale of -orange trees on which may be seen the. blossoms, green fruit and ripe fruit, all at the same time. The Deschutes Canyon can duplicate the wonder almost any October day with its apple trees. Along the Deschutes and Crooked River canyons are numerous small flats of rich sediment, and so hemmed in by towering walls and high hills that the sun's heat during the day is stored up for the cooler nights that invariably-prevail in that locality. Situated at""an altitude from 1000 to 000 feet below the j surrounding country, the temperature is uniformly 10 to 15 de grees warmer. In addition to apples, . peaches, cherries, pears and the small fruits are grown successfully. There are but a few of these flats now given over to the growing of fruit. Because of the newness of the country and the long absence of rail way transportation not many commer cial orchards have been set out in Cen tral Oregon One orchard tract, known as Cove Orchard, however, is famed throughout Central Oregon. It is situated in Crooked River Canyon -near the con fluence of the Crooked and Deschutes ' Rivers. This orchard, 1000 feet below cut-off of the Southern Pacific, and that an east and west line will be con structed from Odell over surveys and rights or way heretofore secured, through the Fort Rock and Christinas Lake countries, striking either through or south of Burns and gaining the MaJ hetir River canyon near Malheur Lake, and thence 150 miles down Malheur canyon to Vale, which is now the ter minus of an Oregon Short Line branch the surrounding country, markets its products principally in Madras,13 miles away, and. in Prineville, 35 mfles dis tant. , . The rchard was not planted with re gard to scientific methods. The trees were too close together and no one knew ex actly what varieties there were. William Boegli, the owner, .set to work, how ever, thinned out the weaker trees, classified the fruit, put the orchard on a paying basts and in four years has cleared off his indebtedness for the purchase price. There are three 40 acre tracts at The Cove, but only 13 acre are set out to orchard. There are grown apples, pears, peaches, cher ries, plums, prunes and, other fruits. On other tracts strawberries raspber ries tomatoes, melons and other prod ucts are successful. A few miles farther north in the Deschutes Canyon and near the mouth of Trout Creek is the Ed Campbell Ranch and orchard and of this place it is told that In October the apple trees may be seen bearing blossoms, green fruit and ripened fruit on the same day. Apples, peaches, prunes and cherries are also grown at Tetherow Bridge, eight miles northwest of Red mond. Commercial orchards are now being set out on the high table lands. Ed ward White has a thrifty young growth of hardy apple trees doing well on a from Ontario. This road is likely to be built as an Oregon Short Line exten sion, at least in part. The construction of these lines will give the timber of Central Oregon out lets, north, south and east, and will serve extensive areas of irrigated farm ing, grain-growing and stock-producing countries. NOW BARREN for Its Apples and Other Fruit. 2-acre. non-irrigated tract near Madras, but the trees have not yet reached the bearing stage. Near Prine ville many farmers have home orchards that are demonstrating the adaptabil ity of the country to fruitgrowing. In the irrigated districts surrounding Redmond practically every settler is setting out a home orchard, while a few are devoting their attention to commercial orchards. On a 'tract of 45 acres W. A. Stevens has a promising young orchard six miles north of Red mond.' and Kirk Whited. who has had experience in the Yakima Country, has another thttffty orchard near town. Joseph Buckholtz, near Redmond has an orcharcLof 505 trees planted in 1908. and w-hicsY includes apples, cherries, pears, prunes and plums. Apple varieties most commonly used are the.- Duchess of Oldenburg. Yellow Transparent, Arkansas Black. Winter Banana, Wlnesap, Spitzenberg. Snow, South Carolina Red and Wealthy. Cherry varieties used are Monticello. King. Special. Early Richmond. Royal Anne and Bing. In small fruits in the irrigated dis trict raspberries generally produce the first year. L. D. Weist, whose prop erty adjoins Bend. ,has produced 7200 pounds to the acre of Gregg raspberries and 9000 pouads to the acre of Cum berlands. Strawberries bear for six months in the year