WITH the completion of
the Arkansas branch to Canon City on July 6th, 1874, that town soon became a thriving
community. It was the outfitting point of all the territory south and west, which was
settling up rapidly. The mineral springs at the mouth of the canon of the Arkansas River
were attracting tourists and health-seekers. Several quarries of superior building stone
were operating industriously in the supply of rock for building purposes in Pueblo. The
coal mines nearby, which had been opened tip by the Central Colorado Improvement Company,
a subsidiary organization of The Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, were operating to
capacity. Coal from these properties was of a superior quality and was in ready demand in
Pueblo, Colorado Springs and Denver both for domestic and industrial use.
Some petroleum springs near where Florence now stands, which had been supplying oil for
local purposes for a number of years, attracted the attention of some of the fortune
hunters that had been brought into this raw country by the advent of rail transportation.
A company was formed and drilling was started to prove the field. This prospecting was
rewarded by a flow of oil in commercial quantities. A boom followed and Florence jumped
from the sagebrush and cactus stage to a hustling, prosperous town, gaining nation-wide
prominence in oil production by reason of the fact that its field was the first of any
consequence in the United States.
The irrigable lands in the Valley of the Arkansas River, between Pueblo and Canon City,
were being rapidly settled up by an influx of immigrants. Soon the scars of plowshares
dotted the mesas and plateaus along the line and later bounteous fields, orchards and
gardens were in evidence.
Earnings of the main line, 118 miles, for the year of 1873, were: Freight, $200,129.49;
passenger, $190,986.34; miscellaneous, $I,538.06. Total, $392,653.89. Yielding a profit
above operating expenses of $195,529.58, an increase of 88 1/2 per cent over 1872. The
tonnage of the main line, exclusive of construction material, increased from 36,272 tons
in 1872, to 59,229 tons in 1873; the number of paying passengers increased from 25,158 in
1872, to 34,696 in 1873. Fully 80 per cent of the traffic was purely local. In preceding
chapters some attention has been given to the sterile, bleak and inhospitable appearance
of the country at the beginning of 1871, when the daring progenitors of this narrow gauge
railroad resolved to strike out from Denver to El Paso, Texas. The average number of
passengers conveyed by stages between Denver and Pueblo did not exceed three daily. The
endeavor to maintain this line in competition with the railroad bankrupted its owners. Yet
two years later we find this little experimental narrow gauge railroad carrying nearly
thirty-five thousand people in the course of its second year o f operation. I t seems a I
m o s t incredible that such marvelous changes as those we have just enumerated should
have taken place in so short a time and under such unpromising conditions. It forms a
remarkable feature in historical annals, that the supplanting of stages and teams with
iron rails and steam power, should effect such sudden and mighty revolutions in the
progress of the territory that the first Rio Grande lines traversed as have here been
exhibited, yet this was only the beginning of the initial chapter of its progress. Still
more stupenduous transformations have marked each successive epoch. But the road had to
pass through some terrible convulsions, involving wars, bankruptcy and partial ruin before
these later triumphs were achieved.
AS said before, the years of 1870 to
1873 were years of prosperity in Colorado. The four counties through which the Rio Grande
had been built had increased their taxable wealth from a total of $6,689,000 in 1870, to
$18,602,217 in 1873. Mining was becoming more and more active, as were farming and other
industries. The receipts of the new line, mentioned previously, were entirely
satisfactory. But immediately following this hopeful outlook came the panic of 1873, which
did not seriously affect Colorado until 1874 and 1875. When it did reach the Rockies it
naturally caused a serious check to the Rio Grande enterprise, and it was not until 1876
that General Palmer pushed his railroad to the coal fields of El Moro and over Laveta Pass
to Alamosa.
Palmer had planned to extend the line to Trinidad in 1874 to intercept the tonnage that
was then moving out of New Mexico, by team to Las Animas, the terminus of the Santa Fe on
the Arkansas River, eighty miles east of Pueblo. New Mexico at that time had a population
of more than 110,000 people, more than double the population of Colorado, and the trade of
these people, particularly the residents of Santa Fe, its commercial capital, amounted to
considerable in tonnage, which was of a very remunerative nature. As said before, this
tonnage was moving by team over the New Mexican highway through Trinidad, a common point,
on to the Santa Fe Railroad at Las Animas. By building south to Trinidad, Palmer figured
that most of this traffic could be influenced to his line. In addition to the New Mexican
tonnage the extension would start and expedite the development of the great coal deposits
around Trinidad and Chucharas, which were then scarcely touched save by a few wagon mines
that were operated for local consumption. He also felt that the irrigable lands in the
valleys along the proposed line were capable of a similar development to what had been
induced between Denver and Pueblo, and on the Arkansas branch between Pueblo and Canon
City.
When he finally pushed the extension forward in 1876, arriving at Chucharas, February 1st,
El Mora, October 1st, the move engendered no little ill-feeling between Palmer and the
managers of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, out of which came, a few years later, the
greatest conflict of its kind in the annals of railroading. But Palmer, encouraged by the
tide of prosperity that his railroad was enjoying, was aggressive. Acting upon the theory
that, having entered and taken possession of the southern country, so to speak, and by the
force of the progressive influence of his line had redeemed the territory from a
semi-savage state, it was fairly entitled to such advantages as were to be gained. He
regarded the Santa Fe as an interloper, forced in from its headquarters in Boston, to
overawe his native railroad and usurp its rights. Of course the standard gauge magnates
resisted, and a battle of words ensued, but happily worse results were, for the time
being, averted. The officers of the Santa Fe met with General Palmer and his lieutenants
at Pueblo, talked over their difficulties and reached an amicable understanding.
After this controversy the Santa Fe pushed on up the Arkansas River to Pueblo and down to
Trinidad from Las Animas, depriving the Rio Grande of the coveted New Mexican trade. To
overcome this temporary loss Palmer decided to push his line over Veta Pass from Cucharas
and on southward to El Paso.
WHEN the little road reached Veta Pass
in 1876, it began to experience serious financial difficulties, owing to the rapidity of
its extensions and the stringency of the money market. It had failed to meet the interest
on its mortgage bonds. Palmer proposed the funding of the three interest coupons to May
1st, 1878, and it was accepted. The road, according to statements rendered at the time,
was doing a paying business, but was in danger of losing a considerable part of its
profitable traffic unless it could be extended still further south.
The completion of the Santa Fe to Pueblo had reduced the Rio Grande's tonnage
considerably, and there was a prospect that the Kansas Pacific or the Santa Fe would
strike forward toward New Mexico and gather in the trade of that territory by a line from
Trinidad, or toward the San Juan country, then coming into prominence. The narrow gauge
could not be safely allowed to rest at La Veta. It was of the utmost importance that it
push on over the pass to Fort Garland, in the San Luis Valley, where it would be
comparatively secure from exterior influences.
From the causes already mentioned, Palmer found much difficulty in procuring the aid of
new capital with which to push this construction. To increase the embarrassment, early in
August, 1877, a bill in equity was filed by some of the bond holders, in the United States
Circuit Court at Denver, for default of the 1877 interest, and a motion entered for the
appointment of a receiver. This action was denied by Judge Hallet, because the affairs of
the company were not shown to be in a condition to justify such interference. The same
application was made to Judge Dillon and by him also denied. The proposition made by
Palmer to fund the coupons to May 1st, 1878, into ten year certificate," and apply
the intermediate earnings to the payment of floating indebtedness, and to the extension of
the road to the Rio Grande River, had received assent of the majority of the bondholders,
and there was reason to believe that the company would soon be relieved from its Financial
difficulties. The road was completed to Garland July 1st, 1877, which gave it the trade of
the Southwest, and to Alamosa July 10th, 1878.
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La Veta Pass and Dump Mountain c1880 |
