IT not infrequently is
the case in certain sections of this broad land of ours that potential happenings are
taking place from time to time of no small importance and of which the outside world knows
little, or perhaps nothing. Great industrial plants representing millions of dollars,
possibly are often times not even beard of until after years of successful manipulation
when, their products having proven meritorious, they become familiar to all classes and
the firm name becomes a household word. So it is in the railroad world.
For years, the little way station of Soldier Summit, Utah, located on the main line of the
Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad, about ninety-five miles southeast of Salt Lake
City, was unheard of outside of a very limited area. As passenger trains passed through
the little station the newsboy would cry out the altitude when there would be a craning of
necks to see nothing but bleak and barren mountain tops, and a boxcar depot. Today,
however, a different scene greets the eye and people all over the state of Utah are
talking about Soldier Summit; even Nevada, Wyoming and Colorado are beginning to prick up
their ears as a result of this free matter-of-fact advertising. At the present time,
Soldier Summit, clothed in the habiliments of a railroad division point in the making, is
not a thing of beauty, nor is it the most desirable place in which to live, because of the
lack of housing accommodations; but it does possess the pep and determination of young
blood. . . . and that spells achievement: The town is perched way up on top of the Wasatch
range of mountains in Wasatch county, at an altitude of approximately 7,500 feet above sea
level. The story goes that when General Albert Sidney Johnson's army was stationed in Utah
at a very early day, two of his soldiers were killed and were buried near the summit of
this peak -hence the name, Soldier Summit.
AND this is the spot that was selected
by former General Manager Russell of the D. & R. G. W. as terminal and division point
for the so-called heavy end division-about the most important one of the entire system.
Helper, a bustling little city some twenty-five miles further east, had been the division
point for a long time, but eminent engineers seem to have figured it out that operating
expenses could be greatly reduced by moving the terminal from Helper to the Summit and,
accordingly, the work of transfer and construction was pushed forward as rapidly as
possible. And so it is. Mobilization of cumulative forces continues on and on. When large
corporations determine on spending millions of dollars for constructive work of this
nature it is a foregone conclusion, if not an absolute certainty, that that particular
locality where this great outlay of capital is being made will make of itself a hustling
community of no small importance in the railroad world, if in nothing else. Much money and
labor was expended in stripping off the mountain, in filling in yawning chasms, grading,
etc., making the general topography not unlike that of a shallow basin with a canyon on
the east and a canyon on the west.
This affords a splendid site for extensive yardage which accommodates approximately fifty
miles of trackage, all of which is now laid. Across this yard a very substantial viaduct
has been built. Either a foot viaduct or a concrete subway as a safety measure is promised
for the future. Extensive coal chutes have been erected and thousands of tons of coal is
on the ground at all times ready for consumption. Adequate car sheds have been erected. A
new depot, two stories in height, about forty by ninety feet in dimensions and built of
stucco and shingles, would do credit to a place of three times our size. Close by is a two
engine heating plant that supplies both depot and hotel. The hotel is of the same
construction as the depot, and with the annex, will accommodate something like two hundred
guests. Between three and four hundred meals are served daily at this hostelry. At the
present time there are about one hundred and twenty company cottages, consisting of four
and six rooms each, all of which are of modern construction. Additional houses to the
number of about one hundred have been built by merchants and others not directly connected
with the road as employes. The piece-de-resistance, however, of this agglomeration of
buildings is the roundhouse and machine shop. The building is of concrete, steel and brick
construction, about 200x250 feet in dimensions, of generous height and, altogether, quite
imposing. It is a twenty-four stall roundhouse and machine shop combined, and is
considered one of the most complete and up-to-the-minute structures of this nature along
the entire system. The monthly payroll fluctuates between $50,000 and $75,000, which means
money for the boys that earned it, the merchant, the banker, the barber and baker. An
investment and real estate firm has been on the ground from the start, and is selling lots
from one to five hundred dollars, according to the location. Fine water is obtained from
White River, a distance of about three miles, and it is as clear and cold as the blue
skies and lofty mountains from whence it comes. Cold it is on this mountain top when
wintry winds blow from the mantle of snow that enshrouds these eternal hills, but,
paradoxical as it may seem, one does not mind it any more than do those who live in a
lower altitude in an atmosphere of greater humidity.
NATURE, as you may have observed, is
ever generous in harmonizing the elements of the air with those of the human anatomy, and
ordinary discretion here, as elsewhere, is all that is required to circumvent such minor
troubles as frost-bite. Mention should be made of the splendid concrete reservoir of
1,500,000 gallon capacity which the company has constructed and in connection therewith
has installed a chlorinization plant for purifying our drinking water. This bespeaks for
the company an advanced position in the matter of looking after the interests of their
employes in an effort to conserve health. Of the warm seasons one can only speak in the
superlative degree. From May to October is an almost unbroken series of delightfully warm
and invigorating days-followed by cool nights equally delightful for sound and refreshing
sleep. What more, I ask , could the good people of this railroad center wish for? Verily,
verily, the hand of progress is upon this little city resting above the clouds.
|
 Soldier
Summit housing.
W. J. DARNELL
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