FREIGHT RATES AND MANUFACTURES IN 

 COLORADO 



Chapter I. Introduction 



The geographical situation of the city of Denver and its function as 

 the distributing centre of the Rocky Mountain region have made the 

 question of transportation of paramount importance. Denver is 1,000 

 miles from Chicago and 1,800 from San Francisco. It is also about 

 1,000 miles from the Gulf points and 1,700 from Seattle. From Missouri 

 River points the distance is 600 miles. It thus appears that the city 

 is the only largely populated centre within a vast territory. Further, 

 the entire region between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains 

 is not densely populated. Local traffic is therefore not important 

 and the feature that has appeared most decisive to the railroad companies 

 has always been the long haul. When the Pacific Railroad was opened 

 in 1867, it was supposed that Cheyenne would be the future metropolis 

 of the Rocky Mountain region and little attention was paid by the rail- 

 roads to the thought of building a road from the Union Pacific southward 

 to Denver, then a town of some 4,000 inhabitants. It must be remem- 

 bered that the gold craze which was so powerful a factor in filling Colo- 

 rado with population in the years immediately following 1859 had spent 

 its force and thousands of the disappointed gold hunters had returned 

 to their homes in the east. 



The men who had stayed in Colorado knew the value of the region 

 as a mining state and, with a thorough belief in the future, sought to 

 secure railroad connection with the outside world. They began at once 

 to raise the funds necessary for building a railroad from Cheyenne to 

 Denver, and after many disappointments and difficulties, the road was 

 opened for traffic on June 22, 1870. The road was built purely by local 

 enterprise. By September of the same year another railroad, the Kansas 

 Pacific, reached the city and thus Denver had satisfactory communica- 

 tion with the outside world and by two different routes. 



The history of no city shows more clearly the immense power of the 

 railroad managers over the growth and development not only of cities 



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