CHAPTER II. 
ROUTE NEAR THE FORTY-FIRST AND FORY-SECOND PARALLELS OF NORTH LATITUDE. 
That portion of this route from the Missouri river to Fort Bridger, on a tributary of Green 
river, has not been explored with a special reference to the practicability of constructing a 
railroad, and the reports do not contain all the details necessary to the elucidation of the subject. 
The information respecting it is to he found in the reports of Colonel Fremont and Captain 
Stansbury. 
From Fort Bridger to the Pacific, the route has been explored and reported upon by Lieu¬ 
tenant E. G. Beckwith. 
The accompanying report upon the route east of Fort Bridger, by Lieutenant Gr. K. Warren, 
is based upon the reports of Colonel Fremont and Captain Stansbury. 
The eastern terminus of the route may be either Council Bluffs or Fort Leavenworth. It 
ascends the Platte and passes through the eastern chain of the Rocky mountains, (the Black 
Hills,) either by the North fork and its tributary, the Sweet Water, or the South fork and 
a tributary called Lodge Pole creek. By the former it enters upon the great elevated table¬ 
land in which the headwaters of the Platte and the Colorado of the west are found, by the 
South Pass, the ascent having been gradual from the first mountain gorge in the Black Hills, 
30 miles above Fort Laramie, to the summit of the so-called pass, a distance of nearly 300 
miles, bounded, generally, on either side, by mountains. This table-land, including the 
Laramie plains, extends 300 miles from east to west, and 100 from north to south. Its soil 
is light and dry; its growth artemisia, with a little scattered grass, a border of the latter being 
found on the water-courses, and scattered cedars upon the mountains in the western half. 
By the second route, the same difference of elevation is overcome by the Cheyenne Pass, prob¬ 
ably in about the distance usual in the Rocky Mountain passes, the route thus entering the 
Laramie plains, which may be considered to form the eastern part of the Great Plateau first 
mentioned. 
From the Missouri river to the entrance of the Black Hills, the route resembles others from 
the Mississippi to the Rocky mountains, fully discussed elsewhere, and needs no special mention. 
It may be estimated to cost $35,000 per mile for construction and equipment, 25 per cent, 
having been added to cost at eastern prices for one-half the distance. 
Following the northern fork of the Platte, 30 miles above Fort Laramie, 520 from Council 
Bluffs, and 755 from Fort Leavenworth, this line enters the Black Hills through a gorge with 
vertical walls from 200 to 400 feet high; thence to the Red Buttes, 117 miles, the road must 
cross many streams coming from the Black Hills, that have cut deep ravines in the earth near 
their mouths. The construction will be costly. 
From the gorge of the Red Buttes to the Hot Spring gorge, 34 miles, the route lies through 
a valley. Above this point the Platte passes through exceedingly rugged ground, and is 
walled in by canons. 
The road should leave the river just below the Hot Spring Gate, turn to the north, and 
cross the hills, the peaks of which are 800 feet above the Platte, giving an average grade of 
133 feet to the mile for six miles, but which doubtless will be found steeper than the average 
near the summit, descend 10 miles, with an average grade of 56 feet to the mile, to the Sweet 
Water, a branch of the Platte. This stream occasionally cuts through spurs, making canons, 
that of the Devil’s Gate being through granite; but it is represented to be generally rather 
