USA > Colorado > History of the State of Colorado, Volume III > Part 9
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February 9th, 1888, Richardson's attorney, Theodore H. Thomas, ex-Attorney General, appeared before the board and in his behalf stated that he was willing to proceed with the work as soon as the board should pay what it owed him. The commissioners after duly considering the answer, promptly adopted a resolution declaring the contract abandoned, and then requested Attorney-General Marsh and his co-counsel Rogers, to prepare a legal opinion defining the proper course to be pursued in reletting the work.
Reviewing the case, these attorneys found that the board had acted wisely in annulling the contract; they could now go on and complete the building, holding Richardson and his bondsmen liable; suggested the propriety of readvertising for proposals, etc. The board accepting the opinion, acted upon its suggestions without delay, and to secure
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expedition, decided to call for two sets of proposals, one for the com- pletion of the substructure to the grade line, and another for the super- structure. Five bids were received for the foundation, and that of Messrs. Geddes and Seerie accepted for the sum of $59.750. The contract was executed March 27th, 1888.
May Ist following, the board assembled to consider proposals for the superstructure, took the same under advisement, and meanwhile asked an opinion from their counsel as to their legal right to award a contract at that time, if with the amount already expended, the bids should exceed the limit of $1,000,000. May 7th counsel made answer that while it had been ascertained that contracts could not be entered into for a completed building for any sum within the legislative limit, inasmuch as it was contemplated by our lawgivers that the work should be actively and continuously prosecuted, they might proceed under that construction of the statute. Whereupon the contract was awarded to Geddes & Seerie for the brick and stone work for the sum of $700,000.
It will be remembered that white sandstone from a quarry inspected in Gunnison County had been selected by the commissioners, but neither Richardson nor any one else had developed it. The decision to use it had been held in suspense without definite action, but the contractors being urgent to have the matter brought to a conclusion in order that they might proceed understandingly, Mr. D. W. Campbell, the engineer of the board, with a sub-committee made a final inves- tigation of this quarry, and finding some of the principal conditions unfavorable, so reported. Meanwhile objections to sandstone, and peti- tions strongly favoring the use of granite instead, poured in upon the commissioners from all parts of the State. The sentiment seemed to be universal that inasmuch as the capitol was to be a costly edifice, and as granite was even more abundant than sandstone, infinitely more substantial and on every account preferable to any other material, it should be employed, even though the cost were greater. The State was developing into great strength and prosperity, and with it the pride of
Geo. L. Sanborn.
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the people in having a structure that would be a joy forever; that could be pointed out with gratification to all strangers within our gates, as a product of our native resources and native skill. Therefore the commissioners being of like opinion, and as the contractors could carry on the work until the incoming of the next General Assembly without materially delaying the time of completion, or in any way impairing the strength of the structure or involving any change of plans, decided to report their best conclusions to the assembly and ask for an increase of appropriation to meet the enhanced cost of granite.
December 4th, 1887, W. W. Webster resigned from the board, and Mr. M. Spangler was elected to the vacancy. November 6th, 1888, the office of Secretary was vacated by the death of George T. Clark, when Donald W. Campbell was chosen. Campbell resigned September 1st, 1889, when Herman Leuders became his successor.
By an act approved April 8th, 1889, the commissioners were authorized and directed to lay out, ornament and beautify the capitol grounds in such manner as to present an attractive appearance in con- formity with the building to be erected thereon, and the sum of $20,000, was appropriated to this purpose. Simultaneously it was provided that a proposition be submitted to a vote of the people at the general election in November of that year, to create an additional bonded indebtedness to the amount of $250,000, the bonds to run fifteen years at 6 per cent. per annum. By an act approved April Ist, it was pro- vided that the board of managers should be reduced to five members, the Governor, chairman as before. John L. Routt, Otto Mears, Ben- jamin F. Crowell and Charles J. Hughes, Jr., were appointed by Governor Cooper, and confirmed by the Senate. They were authorized to contract for the completion of the building, using such material as in their judgment might be wise and proper, but the limit of cost was extended from $1,000,000 to $2,000,000. Section 8 of this act provides that it shall be constructed of granite, brick and iron, and as far as prac- ticable of Colorado productions; also that the interior finish shall be hard wood, the whole to be completed by January ist, 1893. To meet
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the new emergency a tax of one-half of one mill was levied. At the same time the entire sums then standing to the credit of the public building income fund, and the public building land permanent fund, together with such further sums of money as might during 1889 and 1890 be paid to the credit of said several funds, were transferred to the capitol building fund.
At the general election of that year the proposition to create a further bonded debt of $250,000 was rejected by the people, but it did not materially affect the progress of the work, the funds on hand being sufficient to insure all but the interior finishing. The contract with Geddes & Seerie for building with granite, was $1,171,396.75 ; the con- tract for 122 cast iron columns being separate and awarded to W. J. Godfrey & Co. of Denver, for $13,450. The rolled steel beams and girders were awarded to the Lane Bridge & Iron Works of Chicago, for $32,878. The quarry from which the granite is obtained is situated on Beaver Creek, ten miles from the town of Gunnison, and named the Zugelder quarry.
At this writing the magnificent proportions of our granite capitol, in color a delicate shade of gray, are beginning to be seen. From pres- ent appearances, however, it will not be fully completed and ready for occupancy at the date specified in the contract. The State board are eminently well satisfied with the progress of the work, and with the in- tegrity and skill of Messrs. Geddes & Seerie, two young men who have won a distinguished place in general esteem. That the building will when finished be a credit to them and to the State at large, is a foregone conclusion.
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CHAPTER V.
THE DENYER & RIO GRANDE RAILROAD-GENERAL W. J. PALMER AND HIS ASSOCIATES -HISTORY OF THE ROAD COMPLETED-ITS INFLUENCE ON THE COUNTRY-LOVEJOY, JACKSON, MOFFAT, SMITH AND HUGHES-PRESENT STATUS OF THE ENTERPRISE.
The system of railways that has exerted greatest influence upon the internal economy of our State, especially the Southern and Western divisions, is that which was conceived, and for the most part executed by General William J. Palmer, seconded, and faithfully supported from first to last by a corps of young and able coadjutors, as D. C. Dodge, WV. S. Jackson, Wm. Wagner, R. F. Weitbrec, A. C. Hunt, Col. W. H. Greenwood and J. A. McMurtrie. The all pervading and controlling spirit of this stupendous enterprise, however, was its originator, who broadly comprehended, and laudably aspired to master, all the latitudes and longitudes of the intricate problems that were at the beginning and at every stage presented to his mind. As his purposes unfolded to public view, and as their beneficent influence upon the settlement and progress of the barren and uninviting country traversed came to be un- derstood, the people at large interestedly overlooking the scenes of his operations, and the procession of great consequences that followed in the wake of his engineers and tracklayers through deep cañons and gorges ; penetrating valleys and plains; surmounting what had been deemed impracticable grades; mounting to heights theretofore unat- tempted ; regenerating and fructifying the waste places; opening mines of coal and iron, great quarries of stone, lime, and other merchantable supplies ; building cities and towns, and revivifying those already estab- lished but perishing of inanition, began to see that a new and prodigious force had come among them for the universal good. They saw in hin .:
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a splendid epitome of progressive vitality, who raised millions abroad and expended them here in a time when markets were stagnant and con- fidence in the far West nearing its lowest stage, and winning success with an untried experiment which the orthodox builders of the time regarded with doubt and suspicion, because it was a radical innovation of established usage, having no part in their education and experience. He mapped out the foundation, and planned the construction of the most elaborate and useful system of its class in the known world, and at the same time created a precedent that excited the wonder and admi- ration of mankind. His original design was to construct a base line from Denver to El Paso, Texas, and from it to send out distributing lines to all parts of the Rocky Mountains, a bold and broad conception based upon his comprehension of the value of the region. Only the residents of the Territory at the period of its inception, can fully appre- ciate the magnitude of the undertaking, or realize the daring of the mind that met and mastered all the difficulties that lay in the path of his ambition. To comprehend even approximately, the surface conditions upon which he entered when the Denver & Rio Grande Railway was incorporated, we must advert to the original state of the country in 1871, and accept the fact that between Denver and Pueblo, and west and south of the latter point there was little beside open, uncultivated, unde- veloped plains and mountains ; no Colorado Springs, no Manitou; not a town nor hamlet save a few straggling cabins at Colorado City, and Fountain ; no evidence of remarkable resources; Pueblo, but a village of a few hundred inhabitants, without commercial importance ; no Bessemer, or El Moro; no coal or iron mines opened; Trinidad and Walsenburg, small Mexican settlements; Cañon City scarcely more than an aban- doned town site; the wonderful resources of Leadville undiscovered ; Durango, Buena Vista, Salida, Grand Junction, Montrose, Glenwood Springs and Aspen unoccupied ; the rich valleys beyond the Marshall Pass, a part of the Ute Indian Reservation; the San Juan region, though known, comparatively unsettled; the San Luis Valley with the exception of the Mexican towns of Conejos and Costilla in its primitive
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state ; Santa Fé as remote and unapproachable by our lines of commerce as the City of Mexico itself. Yet General Palmer's "doubtful experi- ment" in less than two decades of time produced the extraordinary, the almost bewildering contrast between the situation just defined and the ·present, a country now dotted with brisk, most of them beautiful and prosperous towns, the greater part presenting scenes of industry in man- ifold forms, creating commerce from the soil, and wealth for the people. Witness the thrift and beauty of Colorado Springs and its incomparable adjunct, Manitou ; compare the Pueblo of to-day with its rude condition in 1870; mark the development of El Moro, Trinidad, the San Luis valley, the numerous well built and progressive towns that have sprung up along the lines of this little narrow gauge road ; the rich and well opened mines of the Upper Arkansas; the Eagle and the San Juan ; the productiveness of Leadville and Aspen ; the immense bodies of coal, iron and precious ores brought to light on every side, to all of which, and to many others not enumerated, these lines of iron track led the way, and provided for their entree into the more populous resorts of the State and the nation.
Projects like this require indomitable perseverance, unfaltering courage ; great resources of brain and capital, for they involve battles against great odds, and we are prone to believe that few men of his time would have dared attempt them, or attempting, would have accomplished so much in so short a time.
Then came, as we have seen, paralyzing financial embarrassments, that even Palmer's versatile genius and exhaustless energy could not overcome ; the enforced surrender to the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé ; a prolonged struggle with that power ; the desperate strife for possession of the grand canon of the Arkansas, and at last, victory; the res- toration of the road, a new era of building and extension, a second sub- mission to the inevitable, and the final severance of his connection with the company.
Though beset by tremendous difficulties and sometimes checked, always however by the lack of funds to keep pace with his designs, he
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was never prostrated by defeat. He was constantly devising new pro- jects of a magnitude greater than his purse. Failure in one direction only energized his faculties for success in another. He aimed at the conquest, not of Colorado alone, but of Utah, Nevada and the republic of Mexico as well, and had all these undertakings in hand and under. prosecution at one time, involving in their cost sums of money that only boundless resources could supply. Given ample funds, with liberty to draw at pleasure, he would have ribbed Colorado, Utah, New and Old Mexico with steel and iron, and launched ventures of larger scope than have ever been accomplished by man.
General Palmer's career exhibits the activity of a creative mind, a genius capable of conceiving and executing vast schemes, wonderful fertility of resource, remarkable bravery, foresight, and administrative skill. He was one of the most renowned railway builders of his time, and a striking figure also in the money centers of the world, a man possessed of clear and intense imaginations of the ends to be attained.
When he came to us in 1870, he was young and virile, inspired by splendid aspirations, crowned with laurels nobly won in the fields of war and engineering. Uniting with Ex-Governor A. C. Hunt, then in the prime of his physical and mental powers, possessing equal energy with himself, and though lacking the wise discretion of a safe leader, was an admirable avant courier, pilot and guide, knowing every trail and practicable pass leading to the better resources of the region, they mapped out a system of lines which in its later perfection became the delight of all beholders, and the controlling factor in our affairs.
Palmer began his work with boundless faith in the extent and diversity of our native resources. He saw that they required but the quickening of rapid transit to bring forth measureless commerce, and consequent prosperity to the road and the people. He noted points where cities and towns might be advantageously erected, countless acres of arid lands put under tillage, hundreds of miles of irrigating canals constructed, innumerable sources of revenue opened, and his plans em- braced them all.
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In his career of arms he developed high qualities for command in the cavalry service. General George H. Thomas is said to have observed that Palmer had few superiors as a commander, uniting the qualities of daring, caution and skill that won victories and rarely met with defeat. One of his comrades spoke of him as a man possessing extraordinary knowledge of roads, trails and byways, a lexicon of useful information respecting the geography of the country, that was of inval- uable service in the movement of troops.
At the close of the war he threw off the trappings of a soldier and resumed his former position of confidential secretary to J. Edgar Thompson, president and the controlling power of the great Pennsyl- vania Railroad, under whose training and patronage he was disciplined and fitted for the great work of his life. Soon afterward he was made secretary of the Kansas Pacific Railway, through the influence of his patron, who held large interests in that enterprise, and later a director, then managing director in charge of its construction from Kit Carson to Denver. At the time he assumed the management, the company had neither ties nor iron for this division, nor had any grading been done, yet he accomplished the unprecedented feat of grading, bridging and tracking the one hundred and fifty mile interval between the two points mentioned in the brief space of one hundred and fifty working days.
His first visit to Denver occurred in 1867 after his return from completing, with Col. L. H. Eicholtz, his chief engineer, the survey of the thirty-second parallel route to the coast on which the Kansas Pacific first intended building. While constructing that road to this city, he and General R. E. Carr often came here, and in these visits he made the acquaintance of Ex-Governor A. C. Hunt who presented to him the advantages of building a road from Denver to El Paso, Texas, with a series of branches into the mountains of Colorado, practically as now constructed.
That General Palmer was one of the most brilliant men who has joined his fortunes with the builders of our State, will not be questioned by any of his contemporaries. We have the testimony of his more inti-
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mate associates, that his pre-eminent abilities were especially dis- played in financiering his railways, and in the rapidity of their construction. In the general direction of the financial affairs of his company, in planning main lines and extensions and in pushing them to speedy completion, he had no equal among those who have achieved enviable fame as railway managers. He had no patience for the exe- cution of the details. It was sufficient for him to draft the plans down to the minutest particulars; the execution was left to trusted subordinates while he wrestled with the money markets for funds to carry on the work. With such able and faithful coadjutors as Colonel Greenwood, W. S. Jackson, Dodge, McMurtrie and Weitbrec, and with the incom- parable Hunt to blaze the trails so to speak, in advance of the engineers, the combination was complete.
In devising the Rio Grande system his intrepidity and skill were newly manifested in the impetuosity of his attacks upon intricate and apparently impossible problems of engineering, which were made per- fectly feasible by the invention of strategic devices then for the first time employed in building legitimate commercial thoroughfares, over- coming thereby conditions which the existing school of surveyors and builders had pronounced impossible. At the head of his troopers he had long been accustomed to charging sword in hand, and winning by adroit direction of his forces, and the same spirit animated him in meet- ing by dash and daring the obstructions that lay between his starting point and the end he had determined to attain. Never before had there been such mad plunging through well nigh impenetrable cañons and gorges, or such marvelous scaling of mountain heights and their conversion into thoroughfares for the passage of traffic and the enjoy- ment of the people. Experienced men of the old school cautioned him that certain of his projected lines could not be operated if built, neverthe- less the impracticable places were carried, and the roads successfully maintained. As a consequence, there are many divisions of the Rio Grande Railway that are miracles of engineering. Although to other hands was left the work of perfecting his colossal designs in Colorado,
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the triumphs he achieved in Mexico, and the striking transformations he effectively aided in producing there, which within twenty years caused it to be uplifted from a power almost without recognition or standing among nations to one of the more progressive of the South American States, bear testimony to the brilliancy of his conceptions and the un- quenchable fire of his nature. What matters it if in the tide of his for- tunes he was sometimes wrecked and stranded, compelled to stand and deliver to overwhelming adversities, the people of Colorado, who have reaped an imposing harvest of benefits from his endeavors here, can richly afford to be generous and credit him with the honor that before giving way, he placed their State upon a plane of development that without him might not have been reached in our day and generation. Another and less forceful pioneer would have been crushed by the mighty agencies he had to contend against, and as we have seen by the events narrated in our second volume, but for his superior fighting qualities they would have changed the arteries of trade from their pres- ent base to the line of the Missouri River, and maintained them there for years, if not permanently. The grand canon of the Arkansas for whose possession he so stoutly contended, was the very throat of com- merce, the one great avenue to all that lay beyond, and in winning that fight he accomplished for himself and his successors and for all the people of the commonwealth, the contest that has shaped its destiny for all time. If he spent money lavishly in speeding his lines faster than the conditions of the country traversed would justify, and thus brought financial disaster, let us not forget that his locomotives as they passed through valleys and over the mountain tops, proclaimed to waiting thousands the opening of fields where lay some of the richest treasures of the mineral kingdom, and that millions of acres of fine agri- cultural lands were thereby rendered habitable, nor that they promptly accepted the invitation to enter in and occupy them, to the upbuilding of the State and the perpetuation of its legitimate industries.
There is no charge against General Palmer's name or fame than that his towering ambition outstripped his means. It has been said
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that some of his extensions in the Southwest, notably that from Anto- nito, in the San Luis Valley, to Durango, and thence to Silverton, were many years in advance of the need ; that they were unnecessarily long and expensive, and might have been avoided and better results attained -- admitting the necessity -- by taking more favorable routes, which is true. But on the other hand, it is maintained that in these cases, as also in the expediency of the branch to Westcliffe, his personal con- victions against those extensions were overborne by Governor Hunt, who strenuously urged their construction, predicting highly profitable returns from the mining regions, and insisting that these lines were as important and as practicable as any of the others. Palmer, in yielding to Hunt's enthusiastic prophecies, though against his better judgment, was no doubt responsible for the aftermath of unfortunate consequences to his company. While the Durango and Silverton branches were operated at a loss for years, and under ordinary circumstances could not be justified, it is only fair to assume that had the small and struggling communities then established in La Plata and San Juan Counties been left to work out their own salvation unaided by rapid transit, they could not have risen to the important positions they now occupy in our industrial economy during our time, owing to their remoteness from central markets.
The grand basis of Palmer's plans was to embrace and forever dominate the entire commerce of the Rocky Mountains in the West and Southwest-the Union Pacific having already appropriated the north- erly division- to build branches to every town whose neighboring mines or other resources gave promise of richness and permanency ; to build so rapidly as to deter ambitious rivals from invading this field, and to make the Rio Grande Railway the controlling factor, not in local affairs alone, but ultimately of transcontinental traffic and travel also. There was something sublime in the bold comprehensiveness, and the calm courage of this magnificent invasion of the solitudes of the wilderness at such a time, and but for the crash of 1873 and the unhappy dis- sensions in his company soon to be related, it is probable he would
John Atkinson-
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have accomplished the full measure of his purposes. The design, viewed in the more lustrous light of the present epoch, was a stu- pendous undertaking, transcending in its scope and importance any other that has been projected for the redemption of the West. But Palmer was then in the meridian of his manly strength and vigor. He was essentially the Rio Grande Company, directing, and, when neces- sary, imperiously controlling the entire organization.
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