RESOURCES OF THE FAR WEST 223 



of streams, the waters of which, if carefully stored, would 

 irrigate thousands of acres; insuring the production of cotton, 

 grapes, prunes, peaches, apples, pears, and other fruits, as 

 well as grains such as are now grown in Utah and Colorado. 

 All these products would find ready market in the mines, 

 and at high prices. 



It will doubtless appear incredible to most readers that 

 a belt of country averaging one hundred miles in width exists 

 in Colorado, Utah, and Nevada, where more of the bounties 

 of nature could be enjoyed, if the country were properly 

 cultivated, than perhaps in any like area on the face of the 

 earth. Yet such is the fact. 



Thirty five years ago sterile mesas and plains covered 

 southern California. Railroad transportation and irrigation 

 transformed the sage brush plains and valleys of California 

 from barren wastes into Ijeautiful and fruitful gardens. The 

 same agencies can produce the same results in Colorado, Utah, 

 and Nevada. 



As thirty seven years ago the Pacific railways reclaimed the 

 boundless wastes west of Omaha and Kansas City from the 

 buffalo and the Indians, so to-day there are regions in Colo- 

 rado, Utah, and Nevada, as well as in other of our far western 

 states, where railroads would cause almost as startling changes 

 in the advancement of civilization. The truth of this would 

 be apparent, should a railroad be built through southern 

 Nevada; furnishing coal for mining and other purposes at 

 a cost of from $5 to S6 per ton, as against present expendi- 

 tures for fuel practically equalling $50 to $75 per ton. Such a 

 railroad would reduce the cost of transacting all business 

 throughout that territory to an extent utterly impossible for 

 eastern people to comprehend. 



I shall briefly show where one such railroad could be built, 

 insuring the results named. There are two railroads in oper- 

 ation through Colorado from Denver and Colorado Springs, 

 passing through Cripple Creek and Leadville to Grand Junc- 

 tion. The western divisions of these railroads have been 

 completed only a few years; but in that time wonders have 

 been accomplished in the cultivation of the soil, and in open- 

 ing and working mineral deposits in that section. An ex- 



