USA > Colorado > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 24
USA > Nevada > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 24
USA > Wyoming > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 24
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In the spring of 1860 another advance was made in staging. Louis McLane having purchased the Pioneer line from Genoa to Placerville, sold it to Wells, Fargo & Co., who then had control of the entire route to Salt Lake. McLane, however, in 1862 purchased an opposition line to Placerville owned by A. J. Rhodes, who introduced six-horse coaches, and lowered the fare from forty to twenty dollars.
In 1861 a daily overland mail was established from the Missouri river to San Francisco, over the central route, in lieu of the southern daily overland mail through northern Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and southern California, established in 1858, which was discontinued July 1, 1861. To avoid the expense of transporting feed, etc., the company opened a farm at Ruby valley, and raised an abundance of barley, oats, potatoes, and vegetables, this being the first experi- ment at farming in eastern Nevada. Congress in making the change required the letter mail to be car- ried through in twenty days, with as much newspaper mail as would make one thousand pounds daily. Other matter was allowed thirty-five days, besides the privilege to the contractors of sending the excess bi-monthly by steamer. The contractors were also required during the continuance of their contract, or until July 1, 1864, to run a pony express semi-monthly, schedule time ten days, carrying five pounds of mail for the government, with the privilege of charging
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the public $1.50 per half ounce. The contract also required the performance of a tri-weekly mail service to Denver and Salt Lake City. The maximum price allowed for the overland service, including the pony express, was $1,000,000. The quickest time ever made across the continent was in 1861, when Presi- dent Lincoln's inaugural address was brought to Sac- ramento in five days and eighteen hours. The last pony to Denver was but twenty-one and a half min- utes in running ten miles and eighteen rods. These were the achievements of pioneer times.
In September 1861 the telegraph line from Denver to Sacramento, via the stage route, was completed, this being the first wire toward the east, although the Carson and Placerville division, built by F. A. Bee, had been in use since 1859. It was necessary to the proper protection of the road, as well as a con- venience to the public. There never was any stage service in the world more complete than that between Placerville and Virginia City. A sprinkled road, over which dashed six fine, sleek horses, before an elegant Concord coach, the lines in the hands of an expert driver, whose light hat, linen duster, and lemon-colored gloves betokened a good salary and an exacting company, and who timed his grooms and his passengers by a heavy gold chronometer watch, held carelessly, if conspicuously, on the tips of his fingers -these were some of its conspicuous features. This service continued until it was supplanted by the Cen- tral Pacific railroad from Sacramento.
On the 4th of July, 1858, the Placerville and Hum- boldt Telegraph company erected the first pole on the line of a transcontinental telegraph, and the wire was extended to Genoa that autumn, to Carson City in the following spring, and to Virginia City in 1860. Congress then passed an act directing that the secre- tary of the treasury advertise for sealed proposals for the construction of a line from the Missouri river to
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San Francisco, to be completed within two years from July 31, 1860, to be for the use of the government for ten years, the bids not to exceed $40,000 per year. This offer caused a concert of action between the California State Telegraph company and the Overland Telegraph company, which immediately organized with a capital of $1,250,000. The line was under the general superintendency of James Gamble, who completed its construction from Sacramento to Salt Lake City, where it connected with the eastern divi- sion, between the 27th of May and 22d of September, 1861. It was built along the central or overland stage route, and was in use until May 13, 1869, when the stage route was abandoned, and the railroad be- gan to carry the mail.
In June 1863 a telegraph line was completed from San Francisco to Aurora, via Genoa. In February 1864 a franchise was granted to John B. Watson to construct a line of telegraph from Unionville and Star City to San Francisco, via Austin, Virginia, Gold Hill, and Carson, in Nevada, and Nevada City, Marysville, and Sacramento in California, which was constructed and put in operation within the year. A. second overland telegraph line was erected in 1866 by the Atlantic and Pacific company of New York, which pushed its line westward nearly to Denver the first year, and from the western end to Virginia City in the same time. This line was carried from Vir- ginia to Austin along the former overland route. Telegraphic rates were held very high so long as there was but one line. The charge, from Aurora to San Francisco, for ten words was $2.50, and to the eastern cities as high as $7. To encourage competi- tion, the Nevada legislature enacted in 1866 that any persons or corporations might construct and maintain telegraph lines over public or private lands when they did not interfere with the use or value of the same.' With the construction of the Central Pacific railroad
$ Nevada Comp, Laws, ii, 310-12.
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came the erection of the Western Union transcon- tinental telegraph line, which followed the railroad route.
With the first contract to carry the mail over the Sierra in wagons, it became necessary to improve the old immigrant road, which, in 1856, was done by par- tially rebuilding it. The road to Salt Lake had also to be furnished with bridges, and made passable. Numerous toll-roads were chartered. John Reese and Israel Mott were the first grantees of toll privi- leges under the provisional government. The first territorial legislature granted six franchises for toll- roads, the second twenty-five, and the third twenty- nine. It would seem from this that the traveller could not proceed far in any direction without paying toll. From Gold Hill down Gold cañon to Dayton, a distance of seven miles, was a toll-road in 1859, owned by H. C. Howard, S. D. Bosworth, and G. D. Roberts. As most of the quartz extracted from the Comstock lode passed over it to the various mills, it was a paying property, and cost about $20,000.5
As early as 1860 an application was made for a railroad franchise from Carson City to Virginia City, the petitioner being Leonard L. Treadwell. Several projects were before the first legislature, which granted charters to four companies, namely, the Nevada Rail- road company, with the privilege of constructing a road from the western to the eastern boundary of the territory, to Leland Stanford, Charles Crocker, Collis P. Huntington, Lucius A. Booth, Mark Hopkins, Theodore D. Judah, James Bailey, and Samuel Silli- man; the Virginia City and Washoe company; Vir- ginia, Carson, and Truckee company; and the Esmeralda and Walker River company. Henry A. Cheever and associates received the franchise for the
5 Another, extending from Gold Hill half way to Carson, was built at a cost of $12,000 by Waters, Blanchet, and Carson in 1861. Kelly's Nev. Dir., 1872, 174.
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Virginia and Washoe road ; J. H. Todman, R. R. Moss, C. W. Newman, William Arrington, Hiram Bacon, Joseph Trench, John A. Hobart, Frank Drake, William Hayes, William Gregory, J. P. Foulks, and associates the grant for the Virginia, Carson and Truckee road ; and P. G. Vibbard, John P. Foulks, and John Nye the grant for the Esmer- alda and Walker River road. Only the first of these roads was built under these legislative grants. Even at that early period the people protested against too much power in the hands of a few.
So eager were men for cheap and rapid transit to and from the Pacific that in the first state constitu- tion, which was rejected, a clause was introduced which permitted the legislature to give $3,000,000 in bonds to the first company that should connect Nevada with navigable waters. Though the clause was stricken out, the first state legislature took measures to ascertain what was being done by rail- road companies, and whether any company was actually intending to construct a railroad to tide- water in California. The Central Pacific had at this time built only thirty miles on its selected route, while another company, the San Francisco and Washoe Railroad, had constructed thirty-eight miles from the head of navigation on the Sacramento river to Latrobe in California, which was on a nearly direct line with Carson City. It was therefore resolved by both houses that congress should be asked to enact a law giving $10,000,000 in United States bonds, at dates of thirty years or less, to the corporation which should first complete a railway line, in good running order, from navigable water on the Sacramento river to Carson valley. This proposition had no other effect than to stimulate the company in possession of the congressional subsidy to greater effort. Their road was completed to and beyond the Nevada line in December 1867, and to Reno in May 1868. On the 10th of May 1869, the Central and Union Pacific
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lines were united by driving a golden spike, with elaborate ceremonials, about fifty miles west of Ogden, in Utah.
Strange as it may appear, the legislature of Nevada, which of all the states and territories received perhaps the most benefit from the construc- tion of the railroad, failed to appreciate the patriotic and disinterested motives of the builders, and a vio- lent opposition early appeared. The average legisla- tive mind is unable to penetrate far beneath the surface of things. The resources of the directors, no less than their designs, were brought in question, and a leading engineer declared before the Nevada legislature that it could not be completed within twenty years though its promoters had at their com- mand all the gold in the bank of England.
In a letter written by this engineer in February 1865, in answer to the request of a joint committee on railroads of the Nevada legislature, he says : "The celebrated engineering work built for the Austrian government-a railway crossing the Alps from Vienna to Trieste-is a bagatelle as compared with the pro- jected line to Dutch Flat. Comparing the estimated cost of the Central Pacific with the actual cost of such eastern lines as the Baltimore and Ohio and the Boston and Worcester, and allowing for the difference in the price of labor and materials, and for the greater physical obstacles to be overcome, " It is my firm con- viction," he writes, "that the Central Pacific will cost $250,000 to $300,000 per mile before it is completed to the Truckee, stocked and equipped as a first-class railroad." Now while a few miles passing through the heart of the Sierra may have cost perhaps $300,- 000 per mile, the average cost to that point was less than half this amount, while the average cost of the entire road was little more than $100,000 per mile.
Not least among the opposing elements was the hostility of the owners of toll-roads and stage lines across the Sierra, all of whom were arrayed against
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a project which would absorb their profits on the rich traffic of the Nevada mines. To supply them vast quantities of provisions and machinery were for- warded from San Francisco and other distributing centres. In 1862 no less than 3,000 teams were employed on the wagon-road across the mountains in El Dorado county, the tolls for that year amounting to $693,000. Connected with it was a railway, by which the competition of the Central Pacific must be keenly felt. From Sacramento to Virginia City freight in the same year was $120 per ton, and the total freight money amounted to nearly $5,000,000. Many other enterprises, individual as well as cor- porate, were also threatened by the transcontinental line, on which all of them joined in making war, with a persistency worthy of a better cause.
When the Central Pacific was at length completed and in running order, it was complained by the people of Nevada that while the tariff's were low enough to discourage former methods of transportation, they were still so high as to prohibit a free use of the road, and that discrimination was also exercised to the disadvantage of her business community. Thus the company charged more for a carload of goods forwarded from New York to eastern Nevada than for carrying them six hundred miles farther to San Francisco. In answer to this the railroad company claimed that the line with its equipments and land- grants was the property of the stockholders, and not of the state or nation ; that it belonged to them as fully and completely as if it had been built entirely at their own expense. The subsidies were granted on condition that they should build a road to be owned by themselves. They were granted at a time when the railroad was a national necessity, and one that could not be supplied without offering such inducements as would secure the services of able and responsible men. It is from this standpoint they claimed that the charges of discrimination and of
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what might seem to be excessive rates of fare and freight should be considered. The railroad man, they said, like the merchant, is compelled by the very nature of his business to discriminate between his several classes of customers. Just as the mer- chant demands less for his wares when sold by the ton than by the pound, demands more when he knows that he alone can supply the article required, so does the railroad man charge a lower freight for large than for small quantities, and less for points where there is competition-as by steamer and sailing vessel-than for those where none exists. For one carload of goods shipped from New York to the towns of eastern Nevada probably a hundred are forwarded to San Francisco, and no one will dispute that goods can be conveyed at cheaper rates in large quantities than in small, and handled more readily at terminal points than at intermediate stations.
Then as to local traffic it should be remembered that the portion of the line which crosses the Sierra was by far the most expensive section to construct, and is perhaps the most expensive to operate of any in the United States. Between Sacramento and Rocklin, where the grades are moderate, forty-five loaded freight cars can be drawn by a single engine, while from Rocklin to Truckee, a distance of ninety- seven miles, only nine can be hauled by the most powerful locomotive.6 If we take into consideration also the extra wear and tear occasioned by heavy grades and curves, it will be found that the cost of maintenance and operation on this division is probably seven or eight times as much as for the same distance on level ground.
The first, second, third, and fourth franchises granted for the construction of a railroad from Vir- ginia City to the Truckee river failed of their purpose.
6 From Rocklin to the summit of the Sierra the rise is 6,768 feet, and the work to be overcome equal to 420 miles of a level road-bed.
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Yet it was of'vital importance to connect the towns on the Comstock lode and Carson and Washoe valleys with the Central Pacific railroad. At length a com- pany was formed which would build the road as desired, provided the counties of Washoe and Ormsby . would take $200,000 worth of stock each. At the head of this scheme was William Sharon, and between him and Thomas Sunderland, and the commissioners of the two counties in question, an agreement to this effect was made, which, however, was not carried out. The Virginia and Truckee Railroad company filed articles of incorporation March 5, 1868, the survey was completed with estimate of costs, and in Decem- ber it was announced that Sharon would build the road from Virginia to Carson if the people of Ormsby county would donate $200,000 and the people of Storey county $300,000. As an inducement to make this present to the company, it was shown that the property of a single county, Ormsby, would be bene- fited $1,000,000. The people caught at the gilded fly, and asked the legislature to permit them to give their bonds for the amount, with interest at seven per cent, permission being granted at the following ses- sion. With this Sharon constructed a portion of the road, and by mortgaging the whole raised money to complete it.1
The cost of the Virginia and Truckee railroad for the first twenty-one miles to Carson was set down at $83,333 per mile ; but the total cost of the whole to Reno, and equipment, was more fairly stated after- wards at $52,107 per mile. In 1880 the company in its report to the state made its cost per mile, to Reno, 52 20-100 miles, $93,027. It had received in gifts from Ormsby and Storey counties and the Comstock mining companies $887,383.53, equal to $17,065 per mile. Instead of increasing the taxable property of the county of Ormsby $1,000,000, the property of the
7 Nev. Laws, 1869, 43, 49; Carson Appeal, Sept. 25, 1873; Wright's Big Bonanza, 228.
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MATERIAL RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT.
company in that county was given to the assessor at $130,350. In order to induce the people to give their bond for $200,000 the company had promised to permit themselves to be taxed on $40,000 per mile. So far from growing any richer through the posses- sion of a railroad, which was making $12,000 a day, the total tax paid to the county by the company in twelve years was very little more than the interest the county had to pay to the company on its bonds presented to the company. I have already spoken of the struggle of Storey county with the Virginia and Truckee railroad, or in other words the bank of Cali- fornia. That Nevada assessors, sheriffs, legislators, and shareholders have assisted these railroads to oppress the commonwealth cannot be gainsaid. The example to other railroad corporations, which are in a manner compelled by the larger companies to adopt similar tactics, has been and is extremely injurious to the best interests of the state, by defeating the true purpose of railroads, which is cheap as well as rapid transportation.
The Nevada Central, narrow gauge, railroad was projected in 1874 by M. J. Farrell of Austin, and after five years of unceasing effort was completed in 1880. The surveying engineer was Lyman Bridges of Chicago; president, W. S. Gage of San Francisco ; vice-president, R. L. S. Hall of New York ; treas- urer, A. A. Curtis of Austin ; secretary, J. D. Negus of Battle Mountain ; directors, D. B. Hatch of New York, James H. Ledlie of Utica, M. J. Farrell, M. E. Angel, and A. Nichols; assistant superintendent, F. W. Dunn. Governor Bradley vetoed the franchise bill in 1875 on account of a subsidy from Lander county of $200,000 granted by the legislature, but the bill was passed over the veto.
The road extended from Battle Mountain south along Reese river to Ledlie, two miles from Austin.
8Nev. Jour. Sen., 1875, app, no. ], 18-20; Id. Jour., 15, 121.
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RAILROADS.
From Ledlie to Austin and the Manhattan company's mines, a distance of three miles, was another narrow gauge, owned by the Austin City company. Another branch was the Battle mountain, called the Battle mountain and Lewis railroad, running from Galena through Lewis and Bullion to Quartz mountain, a distance of eleven miles.'
The Eureka and Palisade, narrow gauge, company was organized in November 1873 to construct ninety miles of road between these two places. The incor- porators were Erastus Woodruff, William H. Ennor, Monroe Salisbury, John T. Gilmer, C. H. Hempstead, and J. R. Withington. In 1874 the franchise passed to a company of Californians, who also purchased the Eureka and Ruby Hill railroad, five miles long, simi- lar to the Austin City road, and operated both with profit.
The Pioche and Bullionville narrow gauge, was in- corporated in February 1872. It was twenty-one miles long, and completed in 1873, its use being to transport the ores of that region to the mills at Bul lionville. When the mines were exhausted it was no longer operated. Another short road was eight and three-fourths miles, constructed to carry lumber and cord wood from Glenbrook on Lake Tahoe to the eastern summit of the Sierra, whence it was conveyed in a flume to Carson City. It was built by H. M. Yerrington and D. L. Bliss. There are points on it remarkable for scenic effect.
The Carson and Colorado narrow gauge railroad was incorporated in May 1880, to run from Mound
' Farrell, the projector of the road, was a native of Mount Hope, Morris co., N. J., born March 29, 1832, of Irish parentage. He came to San Fran- cisco in May 1853, going to the mines in Nevada co., Cal. In 1863, after a varied experience, he went to Reese river, Nev., locating himself at Austin, in Lander co. He was at one time part owner in the Eureka Consolidated and Richmond mines, but sold out before they were developed. In 1867 he became secretary to the Manhattan Mining co., and in 1872 was elected clerk of Lander co. He was elected to the state senate in 1878 and reelected in 1880. In all relations to society he was a public spirited and liigh minded citizen. His wife was Miss L. C. Peterson of Austin.
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MATERIAL RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT.
house, on the Virginia and Truckee railroad, along the Carson river, through Mason valley, to Walker river and lake ; thence through the mineral region of Esmeralda county, the borax and salt fields of Rhodes Marsh, to Belleville and Candalaria; and thence over the White mountains into Owens river valley, in Colorada, to the sink of Owens river, and event- ually to the Colorado river.1º
The Nevada and Oregon Narrow Gauge company was organized in June 1880, to construct a road from Aurora, via Bodie, north to Carson City, and Reno ; thence to Honey Lake valley, Madeline plains, Pit river, and Goose lake ; and thence to the Oregon line, whence it was expected it would proceed to the Columbia river. The directors were A. J. Hatch, George L. Woods, James McMechan, C. A. Bragg, John Sunderland, R. L. Fulton, and C. P. Soule. Hatch was president, Woods vice-president, Sunder- land treasurer, T. S. Coffin secretary, H. G. Mc- Clellan chief engineer of construction, and Thomas Moore of New Jersey contractor. Ground was broken at Reno in December, but owing to mismanagement, no material progress was made, and in April 1881 the franchise was transferred to a New York company. Besides the railroads actually completed and in prog- ress there were several incorporated companies mak- ing surveys in different parts of the state, and per- haps no better proof could be given of the resources of Nevada than this investment of capital in railroads where the population is still much below 100,000.
Transportation by water is impracticable in Nevada, except upon the lakes of the western portion, where small steamers may be employed with some little
10 Surveyor-General's Rept, 1884, 27-8; Candalaria True Fissure, Sept. 25, 1880; Reno State Jour., May 6, 1880; Carson Times, June 7, 1880; Silver City Times, Aug. 28, 1880; Sutro Independent, Sept. 13, 1880; Eureka Leader, Oct. 13, and Dec. 29, 1880; White Pine News, Jan. 21, 1881; Esmeralda Herald, May 28, 1881; Tuscarora Times Review March 7, 1881; Reno Gazette, April 4, 1883.
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benefit to commerce. Efforts have been made to navigate the Colorado, which bounds the state on the south-east, but without much success. The rivers of Nevada are useful for irrigation, and future genera- tions may possibly see their powers utilized in manu- factures, and other branches of industry.
In January and April 1879 the California fish com- mission placed 500,000 young trout and 75,000 young salmon in the Truckee river, which is partly in that state, and in May 1880 several thousand more trout. In March 100,000 white fish was placed by the same commission in Lake Tahoe, and the waters of Washoe lake, Humboldt river, Walker river, Eureka pond, Reese river, and other waters in different parts of the state stocked with catfish and salmon. In 1880, 70,- 000 pounds of trout were taken from Lake Tahoe in October. This result was encouraging. Further experiments followed in 1881, and in 1882 a hatchery for eastern brook-trout was established, with fish- spawn from Maine and Vermont. These were planted in presumably the best locations, and with flattering results. In 1881 Truckee trout were shipped to New York. The following year salmon weighing seven pounds were caught in the Truckee, and it is said that a trout taken in Lake Tahoe weighed thirty pounds. Considerable shipments of trout were made from this lake, and canneries were established at Wadsworth, thus opening a new source of revenue as well as food supply.
I have already spoken of the mountains rich in metals, and the plains abounding in those minerals which have been deposited in water-salt, soda, sul- phur, soap, mica, arsenic, and manganese.
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