UtahRails.net

UtahRails.net

The History Of Utah's Railroads, 1869-1883

By Clarence A. Reeder, Jr.

(Return to Reeder Manuscript Index Page)

Chapter 11

"Checkmate"

The Denver And Rio Grande Western Railroad

The final phase of railroad expansion that will be explored in this work and which ends in mid-1883, may be compared to a giant chess game. The competing players were the Union Pacific Railroad Company and the Denver and Rio Grande Railway Company. The chess board was the Territory of Utah and the action of the game centered around the iron, coal, and other valuable mineral deposits in the central, eastern and southern parts of the Territory. The stakes in the game were a monopoly of Utah's railroad system and the control of the transcontinental routes to the West Coast.

Our chess game begins with the chartering and construction of two railroads that were to play a major role in the Denver and Rio Grande's operations in Utah. These were the Utah and Pleasant Valley, and the Sevier Valley railroads.

The Utah and Pleasant Valley Railroad

In 1875, five years before the Union Pacific Railroad was challenged as Utah's only carrier from the East, rich coal deposits were discovered in Pleasant Valley, Utah. This valley is situated about twelve to fifteen miles east and slightly to the north of Thistle Valley and northern Sanpete Valley where Fairview and Mt. Pleasant are located, and is separated from those valleys by a range of mountains.[1]

The coal deposits, located in the south end of the valley almost directly east of Fairview, were developed by citizens of Springville, Utah. It was soon learned that the coal was excellent for coking, and furnaces were constructed to prepare tons of coke for use in the expanding mining industry of the Territory. The great problem the mine owners experienced as they developed the rich supplies in this high mountain valley was procuring a means of carrying their products to prospective consumers.[2]

The nearest junction with a railhead was along the Utah Southern route just west of Springville, and the owners of most of the Pleasant Valley mines joined together to build a narrow gauge railroad to that point. It was appropriately christened the Utah and Pleasant Valley Railroad.[3]

The railroad company was organized on December 10, 1875, with a capital stock of $750, 000 and a bond issue of first mortgage bonds at the rate of $15, 000 to the mile. The board of directors was composed of M. P. Crandall, Nephi Packard, and Milan Packard of Springville; J. Fewson Smith of Salt Lake City; and L. F. Pritchett of Fairview, Sanpete County. All these men, except Mr. Smith who was an engineer, had extensive holdings in the Pleasant Valley mines. The route selected was to begin at the town of Provo and pass through Springville, then east through Spanish Fork Canyon to the West Fork of the Price River and south into Pleasant Valley--a distance of about fifty miles.[4]

The directors of the newly formed railroad spent all of 1876 seeking the necessary capital to construct and stock the road. In the autumn of the year, by offering $500 of stock with each $1,000 bond purchased, they were able to sell sufficient bonds to C. W. Scofield of New York City to have the essential capital on hand to begin construction.[5] Scofield, as noted in Chapter V, was president of both the Bingham Canyon and Camp Floyd Railroad, and the Wasatch and Jordan Valley Railroad companies.

Grading began during the first week of April, 1877, on the section of line between Springville and Pleasant Valley. Warren G. Childs of Ogden was the principal contractor on the protect, and he kept 160 to 300 men and teams working through the summer and into the autumn and winter months. At the end of the year, J. Fewson Smith, the engineer for the road, reported that twenty-six miles of grading had been completed and the narrow gauge railroad was well on its way to the "black diamonds" of Pleasant Valley.[6]

The Salt Lake Herald reported on March 6, 1878, that the surveying crews were out "eyeing and measuring things" to extend the line from Springville to Provo and the citizens were in "high glee."[7] Track laying began at Springville on August 29, 1978. The first mile and a half of track was laid from a construction train pulled by horses and then a locomotive was put on the track to handle this construction chore.[8] Track was spiked until the winter snows halted work and then resumed in the spring of 1879. Some delays were experienced during that year due to lack of iron, but an adequate quantity was on hand by October 21 to complete the road and the work was crowded forward to lay the last rails before winter again arrived.[9] The last spike was driven on the section of road connecting the Pleasant Valley coal mines with Springville on November 5, 1879.[10]

The Provo-to-Springville section was still under construction, with the grading continuing toward Provo when the newspapers announced that the Utah and Pleasant Valley Railroad was selling every pound of coal it could haul at $5.50 a ton and there was still a big demand for more.[11] The track to Provo was not completed until October of 1880 at which time the company moved its headquarters to that town and began-construction of an engine house, offices, shops, and other necessary facilities.[12]

The Utah and Pleasant Valley Railroad was challenged temporarily while still in the early stages of construction by the organization of the Utah Coal, Coke and Railway Company on September 28, 1878. This company was organized by local businessmen to build a railroad from Provo to Huntington Creek in Sanpete County, located between Pleasant Valley and Castle Valley, a distance of seventy miles. Its purpose was to reach the rich coal fields of the two mentioned valleys, but it was never constructed.[13]

At the Utah and Pleasant Valley Railroad's October stockholders' meeting in 1878, C. W. Scofield was able to command a sufficient amount of stock to wrest control of the company from the Springville associates. He assumed the presidency which he held until the railroad was sold in June of 1882.[14]

The completion of this coal road to Provo late in 1880 might have been expected to break the Union Pacific coal monopoly, but this was not the case. The Utah and Pleasant Valley Railroad people found that one terminus of their line rested in an immense and productive coal field, but the other end terminated at Provo where the market for coal was inconsiderable. In order to reach a larger market, therefore, the facilities of the Utah Southern Railroad had to be used; and its officials laid down stiff terms for that privilege. The terms were to either sell the Utah and Pleasant Valley Railroad to them, or enter into an agreement to keep the price of coal high. The Utah and Pleasant Valley officials chose the latter alternative, and the high cost of coal continued.[15]

After the completion of the Utah and Pleasant Valley track to Provo in late 1880, its history became so intertwined with that of the Denver and Rio Grande Western that it can best be told as part of that railroad's story. Therefore, let us proceed to the story of the Sevier Valley Railroad in which the Rio Grande in Utah had its beginnings.

The Sevier Valley Railroad

The Sevier Valley Railroad was nothing more than a pawn used to carry out the widening plans of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. The "Rio Grande" was a Colorado corporation controlled by General William J. Palmer. Its original orientation was to the south of Colorado into New Mexico, Arkansas and Mexico, but its goals were on a collision course with those of the "Sante Fe" railroad; and after a bitter power struggle the Rio Grande, in 1880, was forced to change its orientation to the west and to Utah if it intended to expand.[16] Guardedly and carefully, General Palmer and his associate, William A. Bell, formulated a plan for the future of the railroad that was presented at a session of the meeting of the company stockholders on May 15, 1880. This far-reaching endeavor called for building their road west to challenge the Union Pacific's monopoly in Utah and then to channel the efforts of the company in two directions. The first would be a road through Utah's mining regions to the south and southwest and onto southern California. The second would be to extend a branch to Ogden where a link with the Central Pacific would capture part of the San Francisco and northern California trade.[17] The Central Pacific, it was reported, had already quietly agreed to make a traffic division with the Rio Grande on its eastbound freight and would carry the interloper's freight west to the coast.[18]

Palmer and Bell had done their job well and the stockholders ratified a contract to construct and equip a railway into Sevier Valley, Utah. They also voted to increase the stock of the Denver and Rio Grande to thirty million dollars which would permit the company to launch its western project.[19]

Once approval of the western project was obtained, General Palmer sent William Bell to Utah were he unobtrusively arranged for incorporation of the Sevier Valley Railway Company on December 6, 1880. Bell had secured the services of George A. Lowe to serve as agent for the Rio Grande in Utah and as president of the new Utah railroad. In addition to Lowe, Micajah T. Burgess, John T. Lynch, Adam S. Patterson and Charles W. Burnett served as directors. The proposed route of the Sevier Valley Railroad reflected the plan presented to the stockholders of the Rio Grande in May. It emerged from Ogden and proceeded south to Nephi, then through Salt Creek Canyon, Sanpete and Sevier valleys to Salina. From Salina one branch went south through the most suitable pass to the drainage of the Colorado River and then southwest along the river to the Arizona border. A second branch was to fork east from Salina through Salina Pass and into Castle Valley, then by the most practical route to the Green River near the 39th parallel and continuing east from there to the Grand River. The route then followed the Grand to the Colorado border. The total distance was estimated at six hundred miles.[20]

The Union Pacific people in Utah were quick to recognize the threat of the intruder, and John Sharp made a hurried trip east to consult with Sidney Dillon and other U. P. officials. On his return, he countered the Rio Grande move by organizing the Utah Southern and Castle Valley Railroad Company (sic; Utah Southern & Castle Valley Railway). Its route was planned to parallel the Sevier Valley line by building from Juab on the Utah Southern Railroad southward along the Sevier River to Salina, then up Salina Canyon and into Castle Valley where rich coal deposits had recently been discovered. This part of the route would give the Union Pacific control of the coal fields in Castle Valley, but more important, block the Salina Canyon to the Sevier Valley Railroad so that its eastern branch could not be connected to its north-south branch at Salina. A second branch of the Sharp/Dillon road was to be built south from Salina to Marysvale where rich ore deposits were being unearthed. This part of the road would parallel the proposed Sevier Valley line to the south.[21]

The critical terrain in the opening round of the struggle between the Union Pacific and the Rio Grande was Salina Canyon. If the Utah Southern and Castle Valley was able to reach that canyon before the Sevier Valley road, the Rio Grande's entire plan would have to be drastically altered. Both railroads rushed men to the canyon; but the Sevier Valley men arrived in force first, occupied the canyon, and began grading.[22]

The Union Pacific had lost the opening round and conceded to its Colorado opponent the critical Salina Pass which opened the gateway to the rich mining areas of southwestern Utah. At this point Dillon and his associates were willing to sit back and watch for a tine, for no track had yet been laid in Utah by its narrow gauge competitor; and, in fact, its road had not even been built through western Colorado. Until hundreds of miles of rails were actually spiked, there was no real threat to their treasured transcontinental trade.[23]

The Rio Grande people, operating under the guise of the Sevier Valley Railroad Company, began extensive surveys during the first six months of 1881 through the vast country that their chartered routes embraced. They also commenced grading the road between the Colorado border and Castle Valley and between Provo and Salt Lake City. Rumors appeared in the local papers that the Sevier Valley officials had purchased or were about to purchase the Utah and Pleasant Valley Railroad to use as part of the line to Ogden,[24] and every action of the Sevier road raised speculation as to the plans of the Rio Grande company who kept everyone, including its employees, guessing. The road was dubbed the "Great Know Nothing Railroad Building Organization."[25]

The Denver and Rio Grande Western Railway

By July 21, 1881, the Rio Grande had completed its plans and incorporated the narrow gauge-Denver and Rio Grande Western Railway Company at 3:00 p.m.; it then consolidated that company with the Sevier Valley Railway and the Salt Lake and Park City Railway at 4:00 p.m. on the same day. The consolidated company proposed probably the most grandiose scheme in railroad history. Lines totaling 3,022 miles, all in the Territory of Utah, were described which would cost an estimated $48,3S2,000. Routes were as follows:

The Denver and Rio Grande Western, usually referred to as the "Western, " had proposed roads to every part of the territory from Ogden south and planned to parallel every existing railroad in that area. Palmer, however, knew that the key to the successful operations of his railroad was the transcontinental trade he would gain once the road was completed between Denver and Ogden, and it was on this portion of the road that he concentrated construction efforts. Grading was pushed earnestly forward from the Colorado border west to the Green River and along the Price River to Pleasant Valley Junction (Colton). Here the track of the Utah and Pleasant Valley Railroad would be used to reach Provo.[27] General Palmer had gained control of that road sometime prior to September 22, 1881,as evidenced when he wrote the Secretary of Interior announcing that he now held .controlling interest.[28]

The heaviest concentration of construction was between Salt Lake and Provo, inasmuch as this section, combined with the Utah and Pleasant Valley Railroad, would permit the Western to initiate profitable operations carrying coal from Pleasant Valley. A considerable percentage of the rails and other iron for the road was sent from the East by ship to San Francisco and then carried on the allied Central Pacific Railroad to Ogden, where they were transferred to the Union Pacific-controlled Utah Central Railway for shipment south to Provo.[29]

While the Western men had been busy surveying routes, chartering their railroad and grading roadbed, the Union Pacific's loyal supporters had watched. It became evident to them in the early autumn of 1881 that the Western would be in Salt Lake City in less than a year and able to break their coal monopoly. The big road then made a counter move by chartering the Pleasant Valley Branch of the Utah Central Railway on October 10, 1881. Its purpose was to build a competing line from the Utah Central track at Spanish Fork City to the Pleasant Valley Coal and Coke Company and its 600 acres of coal lands that it had purchased from Phillip Pugsley in September.[30] Sidney Dillon and his companions reasoned that they could cut the cost of freight on coal and perhaps close the Western's coal supply by purchasing the other coal mines in Pleasant Valley, thereby forcing the Western out of the Utah business by eliminating their source of profit before they were able to complete their transcontinental line to Denver. If the Western did finish the Denver branch, then the Union Pacific, with its branch line and mines, would still be able to compete for the ever-growing coke market in the area.[31] John Sharp took charge of the project and had grading crews at work in Spanish Fork Canyon in November.[32]

At about the same time that the Pleasant Valley moves were being made, the Union Pacific took action to gain the advantage over its opponent in the rich mining regions of Iron and Beaver counties. Two non-Utah railroads, the Atlantic and Pacific, and the Texas and Pacific, with routes throughout the southwest were planning to build to Crystal Springs on the Utah-Nevada border, fifty miles northwest of Cedar City. There they would form a junction with the California Central Railroad, and the three roads would then create a huge network of track through California, Nevada and the Southwest. There were doubts about the ability of the Atlantic and Pacific, and the Texas and Pacific to complete their plans; but it appeared that the California Central had good prospects of succeeding.[33]

John Sharp, the Union Pacific's man in Utah, agreed with the California Central Railroad people to work with them in chartering a Utah branch of that road from Crystal Springs to the iron mines of Iron County and to a junction with the Utah Central Railway. On August 23, 1881, the plan was put into effect when incorporation papers were filed for the California Central Railway, Utah Division. The incorporators included all the major Utah stockholders in the Utah Central Railway and some of the directors of the California Central Railway from Nevada and California. The route of the new road was from a junction with the California Central Railway, Nevada Division, at Crystal Springs through Iron Springs and to Cedar City. Several branch lines to coal and iron beds made the total mileage of the road about 100 miles.[34]

Shortly after this the articles of incorporation of the Utah Central Railway were amended to permit that road to extend its line south from Milford to Iron Springs and to a junction with the California Central.[35] The Union Pacific people were then in a position to build the Utah Central south to a junction with a railroad to California and to Utah's southwestern iron and coal mines. From their vantage point, they could win any race with the Western if that company should actually start construction of the southern branches of its proposed railroad.

It was then the Western's turn to countermove; and in late October, 1881, Mr. M. T. Burgess, the company's engineer, announced that surveys had been completed and all passes and canyons between Salina and Iron Springs secured to prevent competition in that crucial area where the Western would make the junction with the California Central Railroad.[36]

The main thrust of the Denver and Rio Grande Western continued to be from Denver to Ogden, and grading and track laying progressed into the autumn and winter of 1881. On the adjoining line in Colorado, General Palmer had employed 1,600 to 1,800 men to conquer the deep chasms of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison in order to finish the road to the Utah boundary in as short a time as possible.[37] In November, a "bronzed and tired surveyor" in the Price River Canyon reported that grading in that vicinity was nearly completed and the telegraph line was through the canyon and connected with Salt Lake City via Clear Creek.[38]

The contracts for grading between Provo and Salt Lake City had been let and sub-let, as far as possible, to the parties owning the land through which the road passed. The Herald reported in November that the roadbed in Utah County was lined with men "crowding everything with vigor."[39]

On December 31, 1881, the Western added thirty-five miles to its completed trackage by purchasing the Wasatch and Jordan Valley Railroad Company which ran from Bingham Canyon to Alta.[40] A short time later the junction, and the resultant business, of the two branches of this line was relocated from the Utah Central Depot at Sandy to West Jordan on the main line of the Western.[41]

Narrow gauge rails were laid inside the Salt Lake City limits on June 13, 1882, by the Western. The first train to enter the city on the new track carried George A. Lowe and other Rio Grande officials from Provo where they had just purchased the Utah and Pleasant Valley Railroad which had been ordered sold by the courts; it legally became a part of the Western the next day.[42]

It was not until March 30, 1883, that the final rail was laid at the Colorado-Utah boundary to join Denver with Salt Lake City.[43] Now only the short distance to Ogden remained to be completed before the Denver and Rio Grande Western could lay claim to being part of a transcontinental railway system. As the Western reached Ogden in early May of 1883, the Union Pacific released a final burst of resentment for the narrow gauge interloper by delaying its junction with the Central Pacific Railroad. The Ogden Union Depot was jointly owned by the Union Pacific and Central Pacific, and approval from both companies was required before another railroad could enter the grounds. The Union Pacific refused to allow the Western to enter and secured a temporary injunction barring it. The Rio Grande men ignored both the refusal and the injunction; in a driving rainstorm on the night of May 12,they hurriedly began crowding their rails across the depot grounds and were several hundred feet on the way to the depot before they were discovered. The Union Pacific people rushed a locomotive to the scene where the wet night air was soon filled with curses, oaths and threats. In the midst of the melee, chains were hooked to the newly laid track and the steaming engine pulled them from their unlawful place. When the sun rose above cloudy skies on the morning of May 13. the Western was still outside the depot grounds. Undaunted, they found a new approach and entered the grounds legally on the Central Pacific rails by laying a third rail inside the standard gauge tracks, thus providing for both standard and narrow gauge equipment usage of one line. On May 19, a Western locomotive steamed up to the Ogden depot. The Rio Grande was now a transcontinental line.[44]

It is somewhat ironic that Brigham Young, Jr., the son of the Mormon leader who had spearheaded the development of Utah's early railroads and then watched as they fell into Union Pacific control, was, by chance and only by chance, a passenger on the first through Rio Grande train from Denver to Ogden.[45]

The Denver and Rio Grande Western operated under a lease from the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad whereby the Utah road received 40 percent of the gross receipts.[46] Its operations, however, fall into the period beyond the scope of this study.

The Western had far-reaching effects on the Beehive State. Most significant was the opening of the vast areas in Emery and Carbon counties to settlement. This not only led to numerous discoveries of coal in the area, but with a main line railroad running through the heart of this coal country, branch railroads could be built to the mines to aid in their full development.

There were threats of rate wars between the two roads, an example of which occurred shortly after the Western was completed to Ogden. On that occasion, when the narrow gauge finally reached the point of offering free passenger service between Ogden and Salt Lake City, it was rumored that the Union Pacific was offering a premium to those riding on the Utah Central.[47] Generally speaking, however, competition did not bring prices down. Both lines operated on the premise that they would charge all the market would bear, and both discriminated between users in fixing freight rates. As Professor Athearn aptly summarized the situation: "The Mormons discovered, that so far as railroads were concerned there were no chosen people."[48]

Footnotes

[1] Deseret News (SLC), September 5, 1877; this article relates the history and geographically locates the valley.

[2] Deseret News (SLC), September 5, 1877.

[3] Deseret News (SLC), September 5, 1877.

[4] Utah and Pleasant Valley Railroad Company, Articles of Incorporation, December 10, 1875, Utah State Archives.

[5] Spackman v. Utah and Pleasant Valley Railroad Company, case 4804, Utah 3rd Dist. (1881).

[6] Deseret News (SLC), March 28, May 30, December 26, 1877; Salt Lake Tribune, June 10, 1877; Salt Lake Herald, December 21, 1877.

[7] Salt Lake Herald, March 6, 1878.

[8] Salt Lake Tribune, August 29, September 17, 1878.

[9] Salt Lake Tribune, August 29, November 9, 1878; Deseret News (SLC), November 2, 1878; Salt Lake Herald, June 5, October 21, 1879.

[10] "Spanish Fork," Railway World, November 15, 1879, p. 1094.

[11] Salt Lake Herald, November 14, 23, 1879.

[12] Salt Lake Herald, October 23, December 10, 1880.

[13] Utah Coal, Coke and Railway Company, Articles of Incorporation, September 28, 1878, Utah State Archives.

[14] Poor, Manual of Railroads, 1879 (1879), p. 923.

[15] Salt Lake Herald, January 21, 1880. At this time the Utah Southern was controlled by the Union Pacific Railroad.

[16] Wilson, "Denver and Rio Grande Project," pp. 124-125.

[17] Wilson, "Denver and Rio Grande Project," p. 136. The D&RGRR had rail connections to the east via four railroads that entered Denver.

[18] Robert G. Athearn, "Utah and the Coming of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad," Utah Historical Quarterly, vol 27, (1959) p. 137.

[19] Wilson, "Denver and Rio Grande Project, " p. 136.

[20] Sevier Valley Railroad, Articles of Incorporation, December 6, 1880, Utah State Archives; Athearn, "Utah and the Coming of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, " p. 133.

[21] Utah Southern and Castle Valley Railroad (sic; Utah Southern & Castle Valley Railway), Articles of Incorporation, December 18, 1880, Utah State Archives; Salt Lake Herald, December 18, 1880.

[22] Salt Lake Herald, December 24, 1880; Wilson, "Denver and Rio Grande Project, " p. 145

[23] Salt Lake Herald, March 27, 1881.

[24] Salt Lake Herald, March 25, April 8, 24, 1881; May 5, 27, 1881

[25] Salt Lake Herald, June 5, 1881.

[26] Denver and Rio Grande Western Railway Company, Articles of Incorporation, 3:00 p.m. July 21, 1881, Consolidated Articles of Incorporation, 4:00 p.m. July 21, 1881, Utah State Archives.

[27] Salt Lake Herald, August 9, 21, 1881.

[28] Letter, William J. Palmer to Secretary of Interior, September 22, 1881, National Archives, Social and Economic Records Division, Records of the General Land Office, Records Group 49, Division F, Box 12.

[29] Salt Lake Herald, October 6, 1881.

[30] Pleasant Valley Branch of the Utah Central Railway, Articles of Incorporation, October 10, 1881, Utah State Archives.

[31] Salt Lake Herald, September 17, October 12, 1881. The Union Pacific owned Wyoming and the Coalville coal mines were both unsuited for making coke. On Mach 26, 1882, the Salt Lake Herald carried the announcement that work on this branch had been suspended indefinitely.

[32] Salt Lake Herald, November 16, 1881.

[33] Salt Lake Herald, September 17, 22, 1881.

[34] California Central Railway, Utah Division, Articles of Incorporation, August 23, 1881, Utah State Archives.

[35] Utah Central Railway, Amendment, Articles of Incorporation, February 11, 1882, Utah State Archives.

[36] Salt Lake Herald, October 22, 1881.

[37] Salt Lake Herald, October 21, December 3, 1881

[38] Salt Lake Herald, November 4, 1881.

[39] Salt Lake Herald, November 2, 11, 1881.

[40] Wilson, "Denver and Rio Grande Project," pp. 148-192.

[41] Salt Lake Herald, June 10, 1882.

[42] Salt Lake Herald, June 13, 16, 1882;-Spackman v. Utah Pleasant Valley Railroad.

[43] Athearn, "Utah and the Coming of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, " pp. 136-137.

[44] Salt Lake Tribune, May 15, 18, 20, 1883.

[45] Official Program for presentation of Rio Grande Engine #223 to Salt Lake City, July 24, 1941, in possession of the writer. Heber J. Grant, a future Mormon Church President was Mr. Young's companion on that ride.

[46] Athearn, "Utah and the Coming of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad," pp. 133-134.

[47] Athearn, "Utah and the Coming of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad,", p. 138

[48] Athearn, "Utah and the Coming of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad,", pp. 141-142

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